Instant Fundas

History Viewer: All Browser and Windows History at One Place

2012-01-26T12:37:00.001+05:30

Windows keeps record of most activities users performs on their computer including which files were opened, which directories viewed, which documents accessed, what commands were ran, what was searched and so on. Browsers keep history of websites visited, cookies saved, and files download. All these records are kept at different places, and often there is no clear way to view them. History Viewer is a handy tool that lets you easily view the history of all that has been done on your computer on a single interface.

History Viewer lets you see Windows-specific traces, such as the recent documents, the search history and run history, the open/save history, the last visited history and, especially for Windows 7, history of connected USB drives and the ‘First Folder’ and typed paths histories.

Additionally, History Viewer lets you view the entire web history of Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. The included histories are URL history, Cookies, form history and inputs, downloads, most visited sites etc. You can also open and view the stored links directly from this program, just by double clicking on them.

If you want History Viewer can generate HTML based report of the information collected. These reports can be saved and accessed later for them to analysis.

History Viewer is free and compatible with all versions of Windows.

Winners of Business Cards Giveaway from Next Day Flyers

2012-01-26T11:33:00.001+05:30

Early this month we had organized a giveaway for business cards sponsored by Next Day Flyers. The winners of this giveaway are entitled to receive a set of 250 business cards printed in their name and shipped to any destination within the U.S. free of charge. We picked three names from among those who participated, and they are:

Sricharan
Pedro
W. K. Prusaczyk

Congratulations to Sricharan, Pedro and W. K. Prusaczyk. You have been already contacted via the email address you supplied and Next Day Flyers is awaiting your answer. You have 30 days to claim your prize. If you fail to respond within the stipulated period, another name will be announced in your place. So please check you email inbox.

Keyword Based Notification for Important Email in Outlook

2012-01-26T09:52:00.001+05:30

Microsoft Outlook provides desktop alerts for new emails but there is no way to filter these notifications such as to highlight important emails or suppress less important ones. It’s either all or none. Important Mail Alert for Microsoft Outlook solves this problem by bringing rule based alerts to the email program. Using this free add-in you can configure Microsoft Outlook to immediately notify you when you receive emails that contain specific keywords or phrases or mails from persons you actually care about.

Important Mail Alert blends perfectly into Microsoft Outlook 2007 and 2010’s interface. It sits quietly at the bottom of the inbox pane waiting for new emails to parse. The box is collapsible so there is no worries about wasting screen space. When you need to create a new rule or edit/delete existing ones, just expand the box and select an action. Adding rules is quick an simple: type the phrase you wish to be alerted for in the box and hit the Enter key. No jumping through hoops and no clicking multiple ‘Next’ buttons.

Important Mail Alert accepts only keyword based rules, but these keywords can occur anywhere in the email – it can be the sender’s name or email address, message subject or some text from the message body. Unfortunately, it won't find your alarm text in RSS feeds, tasks or meeting invitations.

When the e-mail you are waiting for arrives, the add-in shows an Important Mail Alert box on the desktop on top of all applications you are working with. A history of all alerts received is available under the ‘Alerts’ tab on the add-in window.

Features:

Important Mail Alert is independent of your standard Outlook rules. Whatever your standard Outlook rules do to the message, wherever they move it, Important Mail Alert will fish it out.
It works in Outlook with Exchange Server.
If you got more than one Inbox, the add-in lets you select the accounts you want to scan.
You can open the message straight from the add-in pane.
Works on Microsoft Outlook 2010 (32-bit and 64-bit), Outlook 2007, Outlook 2003.

Grab the Free Beta of Adobe Lightroom 4

2012-01-23T22:46:00.001+05:30

Adobe released a free beta version of Lightroom 4 or Photoshop Lightroom 4, as it is officially known, early this month. This is the first beta of the image management software which is eventually going to replace the current Lightroom version 3, maybe later this year. Lightroom 4.0 drops support for Windows XP, but introduces several new features including a completely new book-creation module, expanded support for video, soft proofing capability, and geo-tagging of still and video images via a Google Maps-powered module. Image editing tools have also been significantly updated, with a new process version that includes a reworking of the Basic panel controls and new localized editing options.

Brief list of new features and improvements in Adobe Lightroom 4 beta.

Location-based organization lets you find and group images by location, assign locations to images, and display data from GPS-enabled cameras.
Extended video support for organizing, viewing, and making adjustments and edits to video clips. You can now trim video clips and extract individual frames as JPEGs.
Image adjustments settings can now be applied to videos as well, which is perhaps one of the most best thing to have.
Easy video publishing lets you publish and share video clips on Facebook and Flickr.
There are also new local adjustment controls, which let users to edit specific regions of an image for items like white balance or noise reduction.
White balance brush to refine and adjust white balance in specific areas of your images.
Better highlight and shadow recovery brings out all the detail that your camera captures in dark shadows and bright highlights.
A soft-proofing feature allows you to preview an image as it will appear when printed on a particular printer/press and paper
Adobe has teamed up with self-publishing service Blurb by which you can build books using the print service's templates and send them off for printing directly from within the application. You can also output PDFs for other print services.
Email pictures directly from Lightroom using your preferred email program.

You can download the beta from labs.adobe.com and use it until the product expires on March 31, 2012.

[via DPreview]

Comodo Mobile Security For Android is More Than an Anti-Virus

2012-01-23T15:42:00.001+05:30

Security software publisher Comodo recently released their first anti-virus application for Android, Comodo Mobile Security, that provides real-time protection from viruses, unsafe applications, spam messages and more. Comodo Mobile Security offers more than malware protection - in addition to core antivirus protection, Comodo Mobile Security includes SMS and Call Blocking, Software and Process Manager, and Private Space with Apps locking.

Comodo Mobile Security features an ‘always on’ anti-virus module and an on-demand scanner that help keep your device clear of viruses and unsafe apps. One touch scans and scheduled scans are provided as well as a system “Health Check” feature that quickly identifies viruses, unsafe apps and potentially risky settings. A simple task scheduler lets you automate the process of running antivirus scans as well as toggling flight mode setting.

The Process Manager gives the user control over running processes. You can see how many are running, how much memory each uses and can quickly close down the ones you don’t want. Likewise, the Software Manager lets you view installed apps and uninstalled selected apps with one touch.

If you are using a dedicated SMS and call filtering app, you can uninstall it as Comodo Mobile Security comes with one. You can filter calls and messages by configuring black and white contact lists. Alternatively, block text messages that contain certain keywords.

The Private Space is where you store contacts, phone numbers and text messages that you don’t want others to see or access. The Private Space is password locked and only you will be able to view those communications. In addition to contacts and messages, App Protector enables you to lock your apps from being accessed by unauthorized users.

Comodo Mobile Security is an all-round good product, and light on system resources.

Download: Market link.

Firefox to Get Reset Feature for Easy Profile Repair

2012-01-23T13:36:00.001+05:30

Mozilla is planning to add a reset feature to Firefox that will enable users to repair their Firefox install or revert to a default state, while also retaining bookmarks, history and other data. The proposed feature will allow users to solve problems such as startup crashes and corrupted user profile without resorting to drastic measures like complete reinstall.

The Reset Firefox feature will provide a way for users to automatically fix Firefox by creating a new profile and migrating their data including bookmarks, history, passwords, and so on to the new one. There are a number of serious Firefox issues - not starting, crashing, unexpected behavior, lost toolbars and more - that can be solved by creating a new profile. The problem is, creating a new profile is not enough. A user will almost always want to also migrate their data to the new profile which is an incredibly strenuous task. As such, many users end up preforming a clean reinstall and lose all their profile data in the process.

The goal of the Reset feature is to take a difficult and confusing repair process that most people never discover and turn it into an easy and discoverable operation that can be done by most users without guidance.

Mozilla plans to provide three ways by which the Reset Firefox feature can be accessed:

During installation the user will tell the installer that this is a repair attempt. That information will then be passed on to Firefox which will start the Reset Firefox process.
A third consecutive startup crash will trigger Firefox to offer to start in safe mode or to reset Firefox.
A user can start this process by clicking a "Reset Firefox" button on the Troubleshooting Information page.

The Reset Firefox feature is still under development and no clear Firefox version target has been set, so it may be a while before you see it.

Below are some mockups showing how the Reset Firefox feature might look when implemented.

[via Softpedia]

One Year Ago: Attack Surface Analyzer, Nokia Ovi Store and Microsoft Mathematics

2012-01-22T11:48:00.001+05:30

A selection of articles published between January 15 and January 21 of previous years.

1 Year Ago

Attack Surface Analyzer: A free security application from Microsoft for developers and users alike, designed to catalog changes introduced to the Windows platform after installation of new software.

How to Download Nokia Ovi Store Applications to Computer: For users who don’t have a data connection on their cell phone.
Microsoft Mathematics: A free educational program that allows users to solve problems in math, algebra, trigonometry, calculus and different branches of science such as physics and chemistry.

2 Years Ago

Create your own Google Reader like web based feed reader: You will need a web host that supports PHP and MySQL
Sleep Moon Xpress: A remote control application for Windows that lets you control a computer shutdown via a Bluetooth equipped device, a WAP enabled phone, an Infrared remote control or a simple clap of the hands!
SuperTabMode: A Firefox add-on that enhances the default tab behavior and includes options to block page content, auto lock tabs, hide Firefox from the screen (boss key) and cache management features.
Clupper: A free tool that lets you upload the contents of Windows clipboard – be it images, text, files or folders - to one or more FTP servers. Clupper can also capture screenshots.

3 Years Ago

Xenu's Link Sleuth: Find and remove broken links from your website.
5 free portable application suites: Complete suite of essential applications to carry around in your USB drive.

CyanogenMod to Develop App Store for Banned Android Apps

2012-01-22T10:29:00.001+05:30

CyanogenMod developer Koushik Dutta revealed, through a Google+ post, the possibility of an Android app store that will house apps banned from the official Android Market for various reasons. These will include custom ROMs, classic gaming emulators pulled due to copyright complaints, unofficial tethering apps, Voicemail apps, one-click rooting apps and other apps.

Google’s official app store isn’t as restrictive as Apple’s, but apps still get pulled from the Android Market for violating Google’s rules or at the behest of wireless carriers. CyanogenMod App Store will provide a home for such apps. Developers will be able to upload their apps to the proprietary store and the CyanogenMod Team will take a cut from the revenue earned by the developers by selling apps. Although the app store is tentatively named after the popular CyanogenMod open-source ROM, it would be available for users as well as developers of any custom ROM.

CyanogenMod is one of the most popular and successful Android ROM in existence, with an impressive 1 million active users. Custom ROMs offers customized version of the Android OS, free from carriers’ control and often with tweaks, customization and optimization applied for better performance. Users who ditch the stock ROM that came with their phone and install custom ROMs often notice faster response, longer-lasting battery and overall performance improvement of their Android devices.

Dutta first proposed an open app store as an alternative to the Android Market after his own ClockworkMod Tether app was booted out of the Market at AT&T command. In a later update shared through Google+, Dutta showed a screenshot of a very basic page for app submissions indicating the project is underway.

[via TechCrunch]

5 Alternative Add-on Managers For Firefox

2012-01-21T17:23:00.001+05:30

Sometime around last year, with the release of Firefox 4, Mozilla completely revamped the add-on manager windows of the browser. The current add-on manager features bigger fonts and thicker add-on details panel with generous amount of padding thrown all around (just like the new Google). Also, other utilities like themes, plug-ins, userscripts etc. are grouped along with add-ons but separated by tabs. Overall, a nice change and functionally better than the old add-on manager but uses too much vertical space. Here are some add-ons that fixes the various flaws in the new add-on manager.

Cleanest Addon Manager

This tiny restartless addon will free up wasted space on the Add-on Manager window by reducing the height and the font size. It can be very useful if you have a long list of addons and you need scroll every time you want to access an addon.

Classicish Add-on Manager

This add-on returns the add-on manager window to its classic roots. Among the handful of changes effected by this add-on are:

Buttons and other elements take their colors and appearance from your system's settings.
The status line (that shows e.g. "will be enabled after you restart Firefox" and "is incompatible with this version of Firefox") is moved to the bottom of the extension entry. The incompatible warning is hidden if you have extensions.checkCompatibility set to false.
The Discover pane is hidden, since you probably don't need help discovering add-ons if you're reading this.
The "Remove" button is hidden, and the "Disable" button is hidden for window widths under 800px. You can still access these from the context menu, or the details page.

Addon Manager Firefox 4

This add-on features a crazy color scheme – the developer has sure got eccentric tastes. Other than adding mucky colors, it reduces the height of the add-on details pane, shows add-on count (total/disabled), adds ‘Enable All’ and ‘Disable All’ buttons accessible from Tools for all add-ons drop down menu, inserts ‘Last Updated’ date and sorter buttons and a few other cosmetic changes.

Addon Manager Fix

Addon Manager Fix is another add-on from the same developer with yet another unfortunate color scheme. It has the same functions as Addon Manager Firefox 4

Add-ons Manager Dialog Returns

This restartless add-on does not replaces the add-on manager, just makes the current one open in a separate window, instead of in a tab. Aside from that, it also brings several ‘non-intrusive improvements’ like:

Keyboard shortcuts for easier navigation.
Can collapse Add-ons Manager tab names
Can set Add-ons Manager homepage as default web site to Get Add-ons
Focusing on the addon search field reveals the Search Tab unless it's not empty.
Can use a Restrained Visual Style for the dialog

Most of these I couldn’t see because the add-on is not completely compatible with Firefox 9. The good thing is, you can use it together with other add-ons such as Cleanest Add-on Manager.

Genius DX-ECO: Battery-free Wireless Mouse That Charges in 3 Minutes

2012-01-21T15:36:00.001+05:30

Chinese computer peripherals manufacturer Genius has developed a new wireless mouse that doesn’t use traditional batteries. Instead, it uses a gold capacitor to hold charge. Rather than deriving power from chemical reaction as in standard batteries, the DX-ECO mouse draws power from a gold capacitor. The capacitor holds enough charge to last for 24 hours, but replenishes the lost charge in only three minutes. All you need to do is plug in the mouse in the morning for three minutes and you are good to go for a full day. Being battery-less means that it’s also environmentally friendly.

Regarding hardware, the DX-Eco features 4-way scrolling, two DPI settings (800 and 1600), next/previous hot keys, and a sensor that allows the mouse to be used on a variety of surfaces such as dusted glass, marble, or thick carpet. The mouse uses a bi-directional 2.4GHz USB pico receiver for connectivity up to 15 meters away. The gold capacitor is also said to last 100,000 discharge cycles.

The mouse cost $40, and is currently available at a few online stores.

[via MaximumPC]

Surfon Moves Browser Tabs Between Different Browsers and Computers

2012-01-20T17:27:00.003+05:30

If you shuffle between multiple computers and browsers while having dozens of tabs open, you may have faced this problem: you want to switch computer but you also want to take with you the unfinished browsing session that you have open before you. You could use tab-syncing solutions that are available for Chrome and Firefox, but only if you plan to move your browser tabs from Chrome to Chrome or Firefox to Firefox. What if you want to move the tabs from Chrome to Firefox or vice-versa?

That’s where Surfon comes in. It’s a new tool that lets you save tabs in a browser and open them on another browser or on another machine. Surfon is the first of its kind to offers cross-browser compatibility.

Currently, Surfon is available for Chrome, Firefox and Safari for swift and seamless transfer of saved tabs, but it’s also possible to use Surfon – for one-way transfers – from the three aforementioned browsers to any other browser like Opera or Internet Explorer.

First, head on to GetSurfon.com and install the extension for the appropriate browsers. Do this for all browsers you intend to use and on all machines. While you are at the site, signup for an account – you will need it for syncing the tabs.

On your browser, click on the Surfon icon in the toolbar and choose one of the 3 options offered. If you want to save a collection of tabs, click on ‘Save tabs’. If you want to save a single page, you can either click on ‘Save tabs’ or ‘Save page’. The Surfon icon will immediately display, in small red figures, the number of tabs saved.

On the second browser where you wish to open the tabs, click on the Surfon icon in the toolbar and choose the option ‘Load Tabs’. At this point, all saved tabs should open promptly in your browser. But here is a catch – a big catch – the tabs transfer is a one-time only process, meaning, you can’t move the saved tabs twice on two machines or on two browsers on the same machine. When you load the tabs on the second browser, you essentially empty the cache.

Before you load the tabs into the second browser/machine, here is what you can do: don’t load the tabs using the ‘load tab’ option in the Surfon icon. Instead, open http://www.getsurfon.com/ in your browser and login to your account. You will see the list of tabs and their URLs saved. From the list you can selectively open tabs in your browser. As long as you don’t use the ‘Load tabs’ button, this list will remain saved in your account which you can reuse any number of times on any number of machines and browsers.

[via Blogsolute]

Damaged CPU by Overclocking? Intel Offers Replacement For $20-$35

2012-01-20T13:58:00.001+05:30

Although it has hardly deterred enthusiasts, overclocking is a serious and risky business. Typically if your processor dies because you pushed too hard while overclocking, you are left with an expensive piece of silicon that Intel won’t take back even if you wave the 3-year warranty contract before their face. But now you have reasons to cheer. Intel has announced a new Performance Tuning Protection Plan under which it will replace selected processors damaged by overclocking as long as the processor is covered by the original 3-year warranty. So if you have held yourself back from overclocking your new Sandy Bridge out of fear of burning your processor and cooking your motherboard, it’s time to open your toolbox.

Under the new scheme, for a small fee consumers will be able to purchase one-time protection for their processor from damage when they experiment with overclocking features. The plan doesn't extend the standard three year warranty, but merely provides additional protection to those users that like to push their hardware. Intel will only provide a one-time replacement as long as the user meets the criteria of the plan.

The Performance Tuning Protection Plan covers the following CPUs:

Core i5-2500K - $20
Core i7-2600K - $25
Core i7-2700K - $25
Core i7-3930K - $35
Core i7-3960X - $35

The program starts as of January 18, 2012, at 12:01AM PST and will last for six months. Evidently, it’s an experimental pilot program and Intel wants to run it as trial for six months.

These plans are only available on retail, boxed CPUs and not on OEM equipment. Interestingly, the plans can be transferred between owners if you sell your CPU and you're allowed to own multiple plans, just not on the same CPU. Finally, you can't request a replacement CPU in the first 30 days of purchasing the plan.

Consumers who already own the CPUs can also access the plan by signing up at the Intel website.

[via Tom’s Hardware]

“Do Not Delete Windows Installer Cache Files”- Microsoft

2012-01-20T12:45:00.001+05:30

Windows Installer Cache is located at C:\Windows\Installer and the folder is hidden by default to protect it against tampering or deletion. The Installer Cache can take significant amount of space on your hard drive, particularly if you have installed large software or large number of updates, and it might be tempting to delete the contents of the folder - considering they are just backup copies of installers. But Microsoft advises users against it.

The Installer Cache is used to store important files for applications installed using the MSI Windows Installer technology and should not be deleted manually.

When an application is installed using Windows Installer Technology, a stripped version of the original .MSI data file is stored in the Windows Installer Cache. Every subsequent update installation for the installed products like hotfixes, cumulative updates or service packs also stores the relevant .MSP or .MSI file in the Windows Installer Cache.

Any future update to the product relies on the information present in the Windows Installer Cache. Without this information, the new patch cannot perform the required installation. If the Windows Installer Cache is altered, it will cause serious problems that may require you to clean-up and reinstall the application and in some instances reinstalling the operating system.

Deleting the installer cache files doesn’t harm the installed applications which will continue to work as normal but the application cannot updated or repaired should the need arise.

Previously, Microsoft had offered a Windows Installer Cleanup Utility to fix problems arising from broken or partially installed Windows Installer (MSI) packages if the regular measures like uninstalling from Add/Remove Programs control panel have failed. Last year, Microsoft removed the tool from its Download Center as the program was found to damage other components of the Windows operating system. Instead, Microsoft now offers a safer command line utility Msizap.exe that removes either all Windows Installer information for a product or all products installed on a computer.

So as it stands, unless you have no intention to repair or update or reinstall applications installed using the MSI technology, do not delete Windows Installer Cache files.

3 Best Free Alarm Clock Apps for Android Compared

2012-01-18T21:40:00.001+05:30

There are plenty of alarm clock apps on the Android Market available either as free, free and ad-supported or as paid apps. Among the crowd of alarm clock apps, you will find three apps that stand out by virtue of the number of votes received and the number of successful downloads and install. They are Alarm Clock Extreme, Alarm Clock Plus and Alarm Droid. The purpose of this article is to compare these three apps and determine which serves the best for the purpose of waking you up in the morning.

Like all basic alarm clock apps, Alarm Clock Extreme, Alarm Clock Plus and Alarm Droid allows you set multiple alarms configured to ring at different times of the day or days of the week. All 3 apps support snooze feature, multiple choice of ringtones, timers, auto snooze, and even employ sadistic methods like forcing you to solve math problems before you can stop the alarm.

Below is a feature-by-feature comparison of the three alarm clock apps.

	Alarm Clock Extreme	Alarm Clock Plus	Alarm Droid
Alarm Type	- Play built-in ringtones - Play music - Play random song by artist - Play random song from the playlist - Launch application of your choice - Vibration - Gradually increase volume	- Play built-in ringtones - Play music - Launch application - Flash LED light - Speak time - Speak weather - Vibration - Gradually increase volume	- Play built-in ringtones - Play music - Play playlist - Play internet stream - Speak time - Speak weather - Vibration - Gradually increase volume
Alarm Repeat	- Selected days of week - Disable alarm during vacation mode	- Selected days of week	- Selected days of week - Odd or even weeks
Snooze/Dismiss Method	Snooze using - screen button - volume button - shake phone - solve math problem (5 levels of difficulty) - solve captcha (dismiss only)	Snooze using - screen button - volume button - shake phone - solve math problem (5 levels of difficulty)	Snooze using - screen button - volume button - power button - shake phone - flip phone - solve math problem
Snooze Protection	- Disable snooze - Decrease snooze duration automatically after each snooze - Set maximum number of snooze allowed	- Disable snooze - Set maximum number of snooze allowed	- Disable snooze - Require long presses to snooze or dismiss - Set maximum number of snooze allowed
Hourly alarm	- No	- Yes. Sound ringtone, speak time or weather	- Yes. Speak time every 5 minutes up to 1 hour
Others	- Homescreen widgets - Backup alarms and settings - Short nap alarm or countdown timer - Customize appearance - 1.11 MB install size - Cannot be moved to SDcard	- Homescreen widgets - Backup alarms and settings - Short nap alarm or countdown timer - Customize appearance - 3.28 MB install size - Cannot be moved to SDcard	- Homescreen widgets - Backup alarms and settings - Short nap alarm or countdown timer - Customize appearance - 2.73 MB install size - Cannot be moved to SDcard

Decision Maker

Need random ringtones everyday? Pick Alarm Clock Extreme or Alarm Droid
Need speaking alarm clock? Pick Alarm Clock Plus or Alarm Droid
Hard to getup type? Pick Alarm Clock Plus or Alarm Clock Extreme and set math difficulty to hard or very hard
Low in phone memory? Pick Alarm Clock Extreme

Screenshots

Alarm Clock Plus

Alarm Clock Extreme

Alarm Droid

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto

BusDog: Windows USB Port Traffic Sniffer

2012-01-18T18:42:00.001+05:30

Busdog is a filter driver for Microsoft Windows XP and higher that logs data as it transfers between the computer and an external device connected to the computer’s USB port. In short, Busdog is a traffic sniffer for the USB port.

When you run the Busdog executable, you will be prompted to install the Busdog filter driver. The filter driver sits on top of all USB and HID devices on your system and captures data as it transfers between the machine and the USB device. After installation, the program window will provide a list of connected USB devices and USB controllers. Check the box next to the device which you want to monitor, move to the Trace tab and click on the Start/Play button. Immediately, you will see USB events as they happen.

But wait. If your entertaining an idea of using Busdog to capture complete files and folders as they pass through the port, you are in for a big disappointment. Busdog is a low-level traffic sniffer, meaning, it captures raw data – zeros and ones – that are displayed in the Hex format. It will require more than a casual effort to make any sense out of the captured data stream.

Busdog is intended for developers and experienced users to troubleshoot USB related problems.

A note of warning: Installing Busdog drivers could disable any other USB devices that are connected including your keyboard and mouse. It is advised to save all your work and close all running applications before installing Busdog. A restart maybe required for Busdog to start functioning. Same precautions should be taken when uninstalling Busdog. Create a system restore point before proceeding, just to be safe.

Mozilla to Release Firefox for Enterprise With Less Rapid Updates

2012-01-18T15:58:00.001+05:30

Mozilla announced on Tuesday that they are working on a new Extended Support Release (ESR) version of Firefox that will be updated less frequently to keep pace with corporations whose technology doesn’t move at the speed at which the web does. The ESR version of Firefox is targeted towards enterprises, public institutions, universities and other organizations that centrally manage their Firefox deployments. Releases of the ESR will occur once a year, unlike the standard version of the browser that takes place every six weeks, providing these organizations with a version of Firefox that receives security updates but does not make changes to the Web or Firefox Add-ons platform.

Mozilla’s rapid update schedule has drawn flak from corporations and business organization which aren't equipped to handle the changes at that pace. Deploying a new version of a browser throughout an entire organization that consist of hundreds to thousands of networked computers require time. And it doesn’t end at deployment. The browser needs to be tested in many thousands of internal business web applications and in-house Web sites that uses it. Add-on compatibility adds another burden for administrators.

In order to accommodate the slower-moving customers the company has decided to branch out Firefox development into two separate forks – one for web users, which will be updated every 6 weeks as before, and another for enterprises that will be updated only once a year.

Mozilla is committed to providing the best Web experience for people everywhere, and our goal for the Firefox ESR is to make it simpler for companies, public institutions, organizations, and institutions that manage their desktops to deploy Firefox in those environments. Over the last few months we received great feedback on the initial proposal from the Mozilla community and strongly believe that the ESR meets that goal.

Specifics about the new version are posted as Mozilla Wiki.

Google+ Adds Image Meme Generator

2012-01-18T13:34:00.001+05:30

To make image sharing more fun on Google+, the newest social network has added the ability to create image memes using photos that are uploaded to Google+. The feature was announced by Google Senior Software Engineer Colin McMillen on his Google+ account.

After the user drops a photo into the sharebox on the Google+ feed page, they can click the ”Add text” button that’s located underneath the uploaded photo. This launches a new window that allows the user to type words on the photo at the top, middle or bottom of the picture. The font will automatically change in size based on the amount of text included on the photo and users can also choose left, right or center justification for each line of text.

Unlike other meme generators on the web, Google doesn’t provide any photo templates to get the user started, but instead chooses to rely on the creativity of the Google+ user to find and share interesting photos. Evidently, with the new meme feature, Google is looking to increase the number of comments and photo sharing activity and the general popularity of Google+.

The new meme creation tool is expected to roll out to all Google+ accounts over the next few days.

[via Yahoo]

Quick Tip: How to Access Wikipedia During SOPA Blackout

2012-01-18T12:49:00.002+05:30

A few hours ago, Wikipedia, along with a large number of prominent sites went black to protest against the SOPA/PIPA bills. Different website have employed different methods to show their protest – Google has a message at their homepage (some are even seeing a black Google logo), Arstechnica turned their website black, BoingBoing went completely offline and so has Wikipedia. But not quite.

Torrent Freak has discovered that the Wikipedia blackout is really a Javascript-implemented block (just like the NYT paywall) that is easy to override by simply disabling Javascript.

Another option is to visit the mobile Wikipedia site, as it’s unaffected by the blackout. And yet another option is to use Google cache to access the blocked page. Just search for the page you want and load it via Google cache instead of accessing the Wikipedia site directly. And of course, you can download Wikipedia to your hard drive for offline access.

Apparently, the entire point of the blackout is to raise awareness and not cause bulletproof blockade. Since most users usually have Javascript enabled by default, it will serve the purpose. Educated people can get around it.

As one commenter observes: “The blackout is a complete simulation of SOPA. Only the educated people can get around it, while everyone else has to suffer. The censorship will not work on those who are educated. It also does, sort of, deprive innocent people. You see?”

Download and Read Wikipedia Offline in Chrome

2012-01-17T13:20:00.001+05:30

Wikipedia is going to shut down the English Wikipedia for an entire day tomorrow to protest against the draconian bills - the ‘Stop Online Piracy Act’ (SOPA) and the ‘PROTECTIP Act’ (PIPA) proposed in the United States. For 24 hours Wikipedia will be unavailable for millions of visitors who use the site everyday. If Wikipedia is indispensible for you, have you prepared yourself to deal with tomorrow’s blackout?

You know you can download the entire content of Wikipedia to your computer, isn’t it? Previously, we wrote about Okawix, an open source program to download Wikipedia for offline reading, and Zipedia that integrates with Firefox. There are also other tools like WikiTaxi. But perhaps the easiest among them is the Chrome extension Offline Wiki.

Offline Wiki saves and downloads a copy of nearly all of the textual content of the English Wikipedia locally so that it can be accessed without internet connectivity. It downloads and saves a compressed dump file and an index, 14MB for the small version and 1GB for the larger one.

After you install and run this Chrome app, it begins to download content from Wikipedia without prompting. By default, the app is configured to download the smaller version but you can select the larger one from the setting. When the download is complete, it will build an index of all available articles. You can now search and browse articles without an active Internet connection, or even when Wikipedia is unavailable.

Don’t expect to find the entire Wikipedia at your fingertips though, because the actual download size of the English Wikipedia is more than 7GB without images. 1GB represents a small fraction of the content.

The 14MB download includes a selection of around 1500 articles, while the 1GB download includes in excess of 400,000 articles. It’s not clear on what criteria the articles were chosen; possibly it’s just one of the many download versions offered by Wikipedia.

[via ChromeStory]

Google Sesame: Securely Login Using Your Phone and QR Code

2012-01-17T11:35:00.001+05:30

Google has recently introduced a new way to securely login to your Google account without typing your password, which will find useful application in situations when you need to login from unsafe places such as a public computer. Using a public computer is always risky as you never know what malicious programs are running on it to steal your passwords. With the new login process you can use your smartphone instead and a QR code to login to a public computer.

Go to http://accounts.google.com/sesame using the public computer browser, and a single, big QR code will appear on the screen. Use your phone’s QR code scanner to scan the code, doing which you will be taken to the Google login page or to a page asking you for authorization if you're already logged into your Google account in your phone's mobile browser.

If you decide to authorize the access, you can choose between opening Gmail or iGoogle. Upon granting authorization, the browser on the public computer will automatically refresh and log you into your Google account without needing to type any login information at the computer.

The QR code link expires after a few minutes, so you might have to refresh the page if there is a delay between generation of the QR code and scanning of the said code with your smartphone camera. Besides, you don’t necessarily need a smartphone: any Java phone equipped with a camera and with a QR code scanner will work.

[via Google Operating System]

Samsung’s Smart Window Brings Minority Report to Life

2012-01-16T23:42:00.001+05:30

Samsung unveiled a futuristic transparent LCD TV at the International Consumer Electronics Show 2012 (CES) this week that looks like a scene right out of Minority Report. The see-through screen could be installed in your kitchen and used to access recipes, or placed in your in your bedroom wall to watch movies or check Twitter. Samsung showed off a few widgets running on the Smart Window like Twitter, a calendar, a clock and even Microsoft Office. You can even use it as a window with virtual blinds that you can close to shut out light. Despite being completely transparent, the device acts as single side mirror: whatever you are viewing on the screen is completely private from those outside.

This fully transparent screen provides a resolution up to 1680 x 1080 pixels and is also said to be 20-22 percent more transparent than old LCD’s. Because the Samsung Smart Window doesn’t need backlight units (it uses natural light for that), it uses about 1/10th of the electricity that a standard LCD display its size would use. And in the dark, it has transparent backlight units you can use at the cost of a little more power.

There’s no word on when these will become available yet or how much they’ll cost, but according to TheNextWeb, it may go into production within the next month.

One Year Ago: Website Time Tracker, Google Reader Feed Count and Quick Config

2012-01-14T20:47:00.001+05:30

A selection of articles published between January 8 and January 14 of previous years

1 Year Ago

Monitor Time Spent On Different Websites in Chrome, Firefox and Opera: Improve your productivity and cut time spent on time-wasting sites by monitoring how you spend time on the Internet.

Show the Actual Unread Message Count in Google Reader: Google Reader can count only up to 1000, after which it just adds a plus (+) sign after the unread message count. Here is how to make Google Reader show the actual count.
Quickly Switch Between Home and Work Settings with Quick Config: Quick Config is a free program that allows people to quickly change their computer’s settings from one profile to another depending on which computing environment they are working in.

2 Years Ago

LMMS – Open source music production studio: LMMS (Linux MultiMedia Studio) is an open source, cross platform, complete music sequencer, synthesizer and composer. LMMS includes synthesizers, audio sample playback, drum machine and piano roll composition, automation tools and is compatible with VST plug-ins, making it an exceedingly powerful music production software.
What are BitTorrent magnet links and how to create them?: Yesterday, The Pirate Bay announced that it would move to magnet links only. Currently both magnet and torrent files are offered but eventually torrent files will be get ridden off altogether. This article will help you understand what magnet links are.

3 Years Ago

How to stop Google Analytics from tracking your own visits: A small tutorial that describes how to eliminate yourself from the count using a cookie.
How to change Windows Picture Viewer slideshow interval: The default slideshow duration on Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, is 5 seconds. This registry hack lets you set a custom timer.
How good are your geometric intuition?: Can you tell whether a photo frame hanging on a wall is straight? Can you point the center of your plate? Test your intuition.

4 Android Apps to Discover New and Useful Android Apps

2012-01-12T22:19:00.001+05:30

Although Google is the market leader in web search, it fails miserably when it comes to integrating search in their own products. Example: Chrome webstore and Android Market. With limited options for filtering and sorting, it’s hard to find what you want unless you know exactly what it is.

The Official Android Market recently crossed 400,000 apps, and hundreds, if not thousands, of apps are being added each week. 68% of these apps are free and even a greater number of them are junk. Not to mention, there are several marketplace from where you can buy or install Android apps. The Internet can help, but the more you search the less helpful it becomes.

Recently, a new search engine called Appgravity was launched that allows for a more refined search of Android apps using keywords, publisher, category or app name. But Appgravity is browser-based that’s difficult to use from the phone, although I’m pretty sure the developers are working on a fix. Meanwhile, here are 4 apps that serves as search and/or recommendation engine that you can use from your phone to discover great Android apps.

AppBrain

AppBrain provides an alternative way to search and browse apps on the Android Market. You can sort apps by hot apps for today or this week, highest rated apps, latest apps, popular by country, etc. and filter apps by free or paid, price reduced apps, app2sd enabled apps, and more.

AppBrain has a free membership feature wherein you can make lists of apps, install apps with a single click, and sync their AppBrain account to their mobile devices.

Best Apps Market

Best Apps Market is a great way to discover useful apps. There is a ‘Top apps’ and ‘Top games’ category that’s grouped further into sections titled ‘Critical Apps’, ‘Fun at a Party Apps’, ‘Organize Your Life Apps’, ‘Save Money Apps’ and so on. You can filter by categories, paid/free, ratings and number of installs/downloads. You can also combine several filters to further drill down the list.

Best Apps Market has its own community who rates and reviews apps. A cool feature is the ability to see Pros and Cons of any apps and the number of users who voted for or against it.

Chomp

Chomp is a pretty good search engine for Android apps that uses a proprietary algorithm that “learns the functions and topics of apps, so you can search based on what apps do, not just what they’re called.” For instance, you can try searching for "puzzle games", "kids games", "expense trackers", "tip calculators" or "chat" and start finding relevant apps.

Chomp’s layout looks very much like the official Market app for Android: big colorful tiles highlighting random apps or different categories. You can filter apps by price, sort by relevancy or price, find trending apps, get suggestions, etc.

Appreciate: Find Apps & Games

With Appreciate: Find Apps & Games, you can connect to your Facebook account and see what apps your friends discover. You can send applications directly to your friends’ device to install. You also get personal application recommendations based on what you like.

You can also use the app without connecting with your Facebook account. Appreciate’s recommendation is quite decent but the interface is too cluttered.

Simple Mail: POP/IMAP Email Client for Firefox

2012-01-12T12:24:00.001+05:30

Browsers usually consider web surfing and email reading as separate activities, except Opera and Seamonkey which have integrated email clients for out-of-the-box experience. But email is a necessary part of your online life, and if you don’t like running a separate email program you can bring one into Firefox just like in the aforementioned browsers.

Simple Mail is an extension for Firefox that adds a full fledged email client into your favorite browser. It supports both POP3 and IMAP protocols for mail retrieval and SMTP for replies. It features most of the functions you would expect from an email program – multiple email accounts, address book, filters, WYSIWYG editor, custom folders etc.

Below is a full list of features:

Accounts

Multiple email accounts
POP3/IMAP/SMTP protocols
Automatic checking on specified timeout
Download full email or headers

Address Book

Autocomplete box suggests recipient names/addresses as you start typing them
Groups of contacts
Display Address book in main Simple Mail window

Folders

Create custom folders
Drag-n-drop folders and messages into folders
Use filters to automatically sort incoming messages into folders

New message composition

WYSIWYG editor. Customize font/color of your message
Smiles. Use predefined smiles or easily add your own
URLs are automatically converted to hyperlinks as you type them
Insert image into email body

Appearance

Right-click on toolbar to choose "icons/text/icons and text" mode
Additional columns for folders can be turned on (unread/total/size)
Switch window layout by clicking on an icon in the top-right corner

Filters

Use filters to automatically dispose incoming messages. Each filter consists of a set of rules and a set of actions. Rules are matched against incoming message properties and on success actions are executed. You can use filters to:

Move messages of different accounts into different folders
Turn on "Download headers only" mode and create a filter to fully download messages only from contacts in your address book
Mark important messages with red color
Play different sounds for messages from different senders

Other

Store your mailbox on a Flash drive
Sort messages by clicking on column headers
New email notification
Export emails to Thunderbird. You can archive all your mails (associated with a account) or only mails in a specified folder or mails before a date.

How Gadgets are Going Solar

2012-01-11T19:58:00.001+05:30

The energy crisis is more than gasoline and heating costs, it hits us at a basic level in our everyday lives, from using our computers to making our morning coffee. It costs us a small fortune every year to power our offices and gadgets, and leaves a carbon footprint in dire need of reduction. With technology at the core of our lives, what can we do?

Thankfully, innovators and manufacturers are becoming more aware of the benefits of solar energy and releasing an increasing number of solar solutions to get our high-tech lives off the grid and headed in a more environmentally-friendly direction. As solar gets even more mainstream, you can expect to see more and more solar-powered technology in the very near future. Here are a few examples of how gadgets are going solar.

SolarKindle

Designed by Solarfocus, the SolarKindle is the first-ever solar-powered cover for the Kindle tablets and e-readers. The stylish cover protects your kindle while the built-in solar panel powers the LED reading light and backup battery while boosting your Kindle's battery life. If you happen to be travelling and forget your power adapter, the Kindle can be recharged using the cover. According to Solarfocus, a fully charged reserve battery requires only eight hours of direct sunlight and provides up to 80% of backup power to the Kindle. That’s nearly three days of use per one hour of charging. Gadget-giant LG also plans to release a solar panel for powering e-readers and tablets later this year.

The SolarKindle sells for $79.99.

Logitech Solar Keyboard & Mouse

You would need a well-lit or sunny office to get much out of a solar keyboard or mouse, but if you are the type that loves working outdoors, this is a perfect solution. The Logitech Solar Keyboard and Mice feature 2.4GHz wireless and can store power from both outdoor and indoor light. Both gadgets adhere to Logitech's fine design and thin form factor, and the Mac version even comes in six different colors.

The Logitech Solar Keyboard for PC sells for $79.99, with the Mac version at $59.99 and bundles starting at $110.

LG Pop

There have been a few other attempts at eco-friendly mobiles, like the Samsung Blue Earth and Nokia's wood phone, but the LG Pop has sustained more than a small carbon footprint. The phone features a petite resistive touchscreen, 3-way homescreen, full web browsing and several more bells and whistles you would expect from a Smartphone. The Solar cell-powered battery cover charges the phone on the go and is made from non-toxic components. The phone is also sold in packaging made from recycled paper using soy ink printing.

Look for the LG Pop from your mobile service provider, or get an unlocked phone from Amazon. Prices range from $79 to $150.

Solar Mio Pro

Another fantastic invention from Solarfocus, the Mio Pro is a portable Solar-powered USB charger that can be used with a huge variety of gadgets, from your camera to your coffee maker. Just one hour of bright light will provide enough energy to power an iPhone for 6 hours talking or 14 hours multi-media time.

Due to its amazing storage capacity, the Mio Pro's price is a little steeper than the SolarKindle, at $159. Considering the diversity of USB, it is probably a worthy investment.

Solar Sinter

If you aren't convinced of Solar energy's power or application, this incredible innovation should get you thinking. Markus Kayser's contraption, previously on display at the Royal College of Art in England, concentrates the sun's rays to transform sand into any 3d form, allowing Markus to create sculptures, bowls and tools. The device is designed to track the movement of the sun for optimal power and efficiency.

According to Kayser, his experiments with the Solar Sinter "represent the initial significant steps towards what I envisage as a new solar-powered production tool of great potential." Indeed, we are likely to see smaller, refined versions of this technology as early as this year. See it in action here.

This is a guest article by Vail Joy who is a long-time writer, designer and copy editor with 15 years of experience in corporate business writing, music journalism and internet media design. When she is not hard at work designing something, she loves writing for Wix.com, the free website builder.