irnovo - Latest Personal Technology around you!

How to extract RGB and HTML code of any color from your PC screen.

2012-12-16T12:17:00.001+09:00

You stumbled upon a beautiful color in your PC screen and you want to get HTML and RGB values of that color.Yes, you can get it in 20-30 seconds.

I just need EXACTLY the same color. At times, you may find yourself in a situation where no other alternatives seem to work. You have seen a color, be it in a Photograph, Be it in a webpage, be it in a presentation, and you want to use exactly the same color for your project.

This is HTML color Code Picker. Pick color from Justin Bieber face :)

As a blogger, sometimes I stumble upon a color and I also want to incorporate that color in my blog, so how can I pick the HTML code of EXACTLY the same color?

There are various resources available on the internet that lets you have html code of every color. But, in this case you have to choose the color from their list. There is no way to put your favorite color and get HTML code or RGB value of that color.

I want to tell you that there exists an unknown but excellent free Quick HTML Color Picker (tiny utility with 212kb of size) from allgraphicstools that lets you extract HTML code and RGB values of any color from anywhere in your PC screen within 30 seconds. You just stumbled upon any excellent color online or in a picture and want to get HTML code of that color, just open the Quick color Picker and your mouse pointer turns into an HTML code picker tool. Move this pointer to the color you stumbled upon, and press enter, it will automatically pick the HTML color code and RGB values of that color.

What are the possibilities of applications?

You can use Quick color Picker to help you in building a blog with beautiful and accurate-to-the-point color combination. You can use these HTML color codes in any of your project that needs good color combinations and where margin of error is very less.

Keep in mind, if you want to use a color in your PowerPoint presentation, there is no way to use HTML Code. You can only use RGB values to select color in PowerPoint. This Color Picker also gives you RGB values that you may use in PowerPoint software.

Download HTML color Picker for this link. There is no need to install. This is MFC application. This tiny tool becomes usable right after download.

How to Find a Perfect Domain Name in No-Time with Domainhole

2012-12-16T12:16:00.006+09:00

Finding a perfect domain name is the first and most important step in blogging. Now as a matter of fact , we all know that .com, domain are the best but it is really difficult to find a good domain name at the regular ($8-$10) price. Because, people have already occupied good domain names in .com sector. After com domains you can also try .net which is the second most popular extensions. how do you normally find a domain name? The most obvious answer will be like this: “I go to godaddy or namecheap etc., enter a name that I need. In most cases, the name is already occupied so I play with the website to get alternatives and suggestions or I try another name and so on……………” But this kind of methodology lakes planning. its just hit and trial method that requires luck. Domainhole.com, a new service that does wonders when it comes finding a good domain name. How? Let me explain. domainhole.com offers various service free of cost that includes. Expired Domain Search This options allows you to search domain names that are about to expire. At times, folks have really good domain , but they don’t have any plans. so the domain just get expired. IF you use this tool. you can keep check on these domain and once it expires, just go to any service and get it registered. When using this option, you can narrow down your search results by choosing from a lot of options available. Just take a look at the screen shot below. For example, I need a domain name with the word “cloud” in it, And I managed to get really good names by using this functions that were about to expire in next 24 hours. Name Spinner One other handy option in domainhole.com that makes it easy to find a good domain name. Sometimes a great domain can come out of adding another word onto your keyword. We enter one word of our choice and name spinner adds another English keyword that is available to get a perfect domain name for us. Instant Availability Check This option can be used if you are interested in getting the real time results as you start typing your desired domain name,. For example, I started typing typing FACEBOOKGEEK and while I was typing, name checker was showing me the availability at every stage for every many top level domains. Take a look below. Name generator If you are interested in name branding instead of using a keyword in it, How about these domain names? iack.net, hirl.net, vegy.org, druz.org, weeck.com, vlabi.com You can find these and thousand other names that are excellent for name branding by using Name generator tool. Al you have to do is to choose how many letter you want in the domain name and what TLD you need, and name generator will create domain names for you that are available. Yo0u can regenerate names again to fin other combinations also. Finally let me know did you like this tool? have you ever used it? and if you fin a good domain that is not for you but that may be of interest for others, let others know in the comments and they will love you!

Gigaomized: Adsense ready blogger template with 5 different color skins

2012-12-16T12:16:00.004+09:00

GigaOMized template series is designed by keeping in my mind the famous blog in the world that is gigaom.com.

GigaOMized template series is completely adsense ready professional theme that gives your blog a highly professional lool. Even better, it give you flexibilty in term of skin colors. I am releasing this blog with 5 color skins you will surly going to love them. At least one of them!

GigaOMized Green

Demo :: Download

GigaOMized Girly

Demo :: Download

GigaOMized Blue

DEMO :: DOWNLOAD

GigaOMized Grey

Demo :: Download

GigaOMized Orange

Demo :: Download

Here are some of the features of this template.

1. Magazine style template.
2. Auto read more links on homepage with summary and thumbnail.
4. Social book marking icons at the top and end of the post.
5. Multi-optional feed subscription widget in the sidebar.(Rare!)
6. Adsense ready. ad in the middle of the post is also included. (Rare!)
7. Featured Post slider on Homepage. Without Slider template is also available.
8. Related posts hack already installed under the post.
9. In the comment section, Blogger author comments are always highlighted to make it unique from others.
10. Author bio box at the end of the post.

Here is how to install this template.

1. Upload the template (Do not forget to backup your previous template. In case something goes wrong, you may revert back easily.)

2. First of all, expand the template and Find LINK-ONE, LINK-TWO etc (by using Ctrl+F to use browser search function) and replace it with your links. Also, replace # with your corresponding URL.

3. Now again by using browser search function, find FACEBOOK_PAGE_URL and replace it with your Facebook fan page actual URL. Also, search for TWITTER_USER_NAME and AUTHOR_INFO_URL and replace it with your twitter user name and your information page etc.. You may find these terms in more than one places. Replace all of them.

4. For modification of Author bio, find this URL

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_fpfGknlVKcc/TYiQKP15vNI/AAAAAAAABsA/foVznETpZNE/IMG_1859.jpg

and replace it with your image URL.

Then find these lines in the template by using any of the words from these lines as your text in browser search.

I am as real as anyone else! The only difference is that I love Google and Googling the technology quite vividly.

and replace it with your own short bio.

How to modify Feed subscription widget.

Find FEEDBURNER_FEED_ADDRESS by using browser search function and replace it with your actually feed burner feed address. You will find this term in more than one places. Replace all of them.

Also make sure that you only replace it with the username part of the feed address. For example, my main blog's Feed burner URL is http://feeds.feedburner.com/irnovo. In this URL, only the last word irnovo is my Username part of the URL. SO, in my case, I will replace FEEDBURNER_FEED_ADDRESS with irnovo only. You will also follow this.

How to customize adsense ads in the template.

For top 728*15 link ads, get the code of this ad from Google adsense and parse it. parsing is very important to avoid errors. Its very simple if haven't done it already. Go to http://www.blogcrowds.com/resources/parse_html.php to parse this code.

In the template find this line:

And replace this whole line with your adsense code.

Similarly, find the lines

and replace them with your adsense ad codes.

Modify featured content slider.

First of all, find this line by search function:
Features slider content starts
Then take a look at the slider dummy content and replace it with you image URL, post URL, Post title and brief description.

Keep in mind, the dimensions of the image should be 400x250 for best appearance.

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Finally, if you have any problem in installation of this template, please comment here and I'll follow up shortly.

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How to organize recent posts of your blog by category/Label

2012-12-16T12:16:00.002+09:00

How to Organize or filter recent posts of your blog by category/Label?

You do not need to be an HTML prodigy to separate posts on the homage or side bar according to category/label.

I always like the blogs or website that are magazine like and have separated their posts into different categories on the homepage instead of just showing all the recent posts in single category. In fact, it gives a very clean look to the homepage of your blog if you have several categories.

So, how to do it with minimum knowledge of HTML?

In fact, I have found 3 different methods that do the trick without touching the template code of Blogger.

So, even dummies are able to do this by just following the steps I am going to write down here.

METHOD 1: Through Feed Burner.

If you are blogging, I can safely assume that you are aware of RSS feeds and the role of feed burner.

You probable have burned your blog feed through feed burner but you may not be aware of the fact that you can have several feed for a single blog based on each label .For example, I have a feed account for my main blog but I also have feed account for each of my label e.g, “Browser” or “Blog/website Development”.

First step is to burn your feed for each specific label.

Go to Feedburner.com ad login to your account.

Create new feed by entering original atom feed address as http://yourblogaddress/feeds/posts/default/-/labelname

Replace “yourblogaddress” with your actual Blog address and “Labelname” with your label. If your label consist of more than one word, write %20 between them (%20 is equal to space).

After burning feed, skip towards feed management and go to Publicize option.

In Publicize window, go to Buzz boost and customize all the options as per your liking.

Copy the Script.

Go to you blog and add new HTML/Java Script gadget. Place the code into that gadget and you are done.

Feed burner will automatically show recent posts in that category.

Method 2: Using Yahoo Pipes

Go to http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=a12ea06cb64f2e32b3456cf426a0eec6

Enter your Blog address and label name for which you want to show recent posts.

Or alternatively I have written the yahoo pipes script here for your convenience .

<script src="http://l.yimg.com/a/i/us/pps/listbadge_1.4.js">{"pipe_id":"a12ea06cb64f2e32b3456cf426a0eec6","_btype":"list","pipe_params":{"urlinput1":"http:\/\/YOURBLOGADDRESS","textinput1":"WIDGETS","numberinput1":""}}</script>

Replace YOURBLOGADDRESS with your actual blog address. Replace WIDGET with your label name and paste this code into HTML/JavaScript widget.

Reposition the widget to any place where you want to show up recent posts for that specific category.

Method 3[Simplest]

This is by far the most favourite method for me and most simple for you.

Just copy the code below.

<script type="text/javascript">

function recentpostslist(json) {

document.write('<ul>');

for (var i = 0; i < json.feed.entry.length; i++)

{

    for (var j = 0; j < json.feed.entry[i].link.length; j++) {

      if (json.feed.entry[i].link[j].rel == 'alternate') {

        break;

      }

    }

var entryUrl = "'" + json.feed.entry[i].link[j].href + "'";//bs

var entryTitle = json.feed.entry[i].title.$t;

var item = "<li>" + "<a href="+ entryUrl + '" target="_blank">' + entryTitle + "</a> </li>";

document.write(item);

}

document.write('</ul>');

}

</script>

<script src="YOUR-BLOG-URL/feeds/posts/summary/-/LABEL?max-results=ADDNUMBER&alt=json-in-script&callback=recentpostslist"></script>

<span style="font-size: 60%; float:right;"><a href="http://www.irnovo.com"><i>i</i></a></span>

Now replace YOUR-BLOG-URL with your website or blog URL and replace LABEL with the name of the label for which you want to show recent posts and replace ADDNUMBER with any numnber like 5.

Add HTML/Javascript widget in blogger template and paste this code in that widget. it automatically pull recent posts in in that specific category.

You can repeat the same mehtod for next label also by adding one more widget.

If you have any problem in implementing this method to your blog, please mention in the comments and I’ll follow you ASAP.

How to upload and call javascript files from Google Servers.

2012-12-16T12:15:00.001+09:00

When you download a template for your blog, it always contains some type of JavaScript files to trigger specific operations on demand. That operation could be a JQuery based navigation menu or Tabbed sidebar or Featured posts slider or any other effect that are based on Java script. However, you never notice these things and you just copy the template code and upload it to blogger (Excluding some curious bloggers who always take notice of what they are uploading and what kind of Java scripts are there in the template code.)

Now what’s the Problem?

Problem is simple that I also have experienced a few times in my early days of blogging. Sometimes, these java scripts are delayed or even don’t work at all distorting the look and functionality of your blog. These JavaScript files simply don’t work as these were intended to be.

Why this happens?

These JavaScript are files are uploaded to a particular server, usually the same server from where you are getting template. If there are too many users for the same template, everyone is calling their JavaScript from the same server, and servers are not good enough to provide all the bandwidth then you face this kind of problem.

2nd Problem is the up-time of the server, If that server is doing some maintenance and down for a good time, your JavaScript will also not work.

What is the solution?

How about uploading the JavaScript files to a place of your own choice, So that you are not depending on others ‘servers to make your blog fully functional all the time?

How about using Google’s server to host JavaScript where you can upload it for free? You know that Google Servers are more efficient than any other server is and up time is almost more than 99.99%.

So how to do it?

First of all, you need to find the URL of your JavaScript code.

You can find all the JavaScript files in your template.

1. Expand the template code.

2. Find “.js” through browser’s search function. Normally, all the JavaScript url ends at .js.

3. After finding the url, copy it, and paste this url in browser bar.

4. Script will be opened in the browser window or alternatively browser will prompt you to save the file. You can save it ad open it in Notepad.

I am taking a particular example here to elaborate the process. This example uses already a Google hosted JavaScript.

Say this is the JavaScript code.

<script src='http://blogergadgets.googlecode.com/files/related-posts-with-thumbnails-for-blogger-pro.js' type='text/javascript'/>

If I paste http://blogergadgets.googlecode.com/files/related-posts-with-thumbnails-for-blogger-pro.js in browser then see below the screenshot with Snipping tool.

5. Save it, then open it and copy the code and make a .txt file and save it again.

6. Now, in case if you don’t have it already, create a Google site from this link. (Its free!)

7. After creating this website, create a new page in this website and search for “attachment” link. Upload your txt file here.

8. This file will have a specific URL. Copy the URL by using right click of mouse and copy URL option.

9. Paste this URL in browser bar

Remove the highlighted part as in below screenshot.

Copy the remaining part of URL and replace it with the original URL in the JavaScript code.

And you are done!

IF you have any problem in implementing this method or you have anyother question please leave a comment below.

Also check how to categorize posts by label name on homepage or sidebar.

Is your Blog's Sidebar painfully slow loading? Here is the solution

2012-12-16T12:14:00.002+09:00

Do you own a blog?

Is the sidebar of your blog is painfully slow loading. I mean it takes ages to load?

I have figured out why this happens and what is the solution of this problem. After implementing this techniques you will see drastic improvement in your page loading and main content as well as sidebar will load almost simultaneously.

First of all you should understand what the page loading sequence is. In most of the case, the first thing that loads is the header of the page. After header, main content area is loaded. Then comes the sidebar and finally the footer loads.

IF the header is stuck, no other sections of the page will be loaded until the header is loaded completely. Same is the case with sidebar. Sidebar will only load once the main section of the page is fully loaded.

What cause the sidebar to load slowly?

Slow loading javascript in the main section of your blog is the main reason.

If you have some gadgets installed above or below the main section of your webpage in Blogger and these widgets contain code that is quite unresponsive and takes ages to load, it will stop the sidebar loading until that code is fully loaded.

Let’s take my own blog’s example. I was using a commenting system that was similar to DISQUS but it was extremely slow loading. Because the javascript of that commenting system required to be placed after main post section, so it was stopping the sidebar to be loaded. It was really annoying for me but it took me only a few minutes to figure out the reason.

What is the solution?

There is no solution expect to find work-around or alternatives. Sometimes we have flexibility and we can move the java scripts from main sections to the footer section or sidebar. Like share, widgets can be moved from main sections to another place, but some widgets are bound to be rested above or below the main section. In that case, you should try to make the javascript fast loading or if this is not possible, you should remove the javascript to make your sidebar fast loading.

In Summary.

1: If possible, move all the slow loading widgets from main section to footer or sidebar.

2: If this is not possible, remove these java scripts and find alternatives.

ALTERNATIVELY, your can also change the Javascript servers to Google servers through a simple method and you know that Google is always the best option.

Read my post on how to host javascripts on Google sites for free to make it fast loading.

Tooinspired: A Magazine Style Professional Blogger Template

2012-12-16T12:13:00.001+09:00

Tooinspired is a professional blogger template loaded with many features. I have not included features posts sliders and too many java scripts in it because I want to make it fast loading.

Here are some of the features of this template.

1. Magazine style fast loading template.
2. Auto read more links on homepage with summary and thumbnail.
3. Author bio box at the end of the post.
4. Social book marking icons at the top and end of the post.
5. Beautiful subscription widget in the sidebar.
6. Beautiful fluid width header and footer that adapts the screen resolution automatically.
7. Two navigation bars (Top and bottom of the header)
8. Related posts have already installed under the post.
9. In the comment section, Blogger author comments are always highlighted to make it unique from others.
10. Author bio box at the end of the post.

And many more…

Download ::: Live Demo

How to install this template.

Download the file.

1. Upload the template (Do not forget to backup your previous template. In case something goes wrong, you may revert back easily.)

2. First of all, expand the template and Find URL-ONE, URL-TWO etc (by using Ctrl+F to use browser search function) and replace it with your links. Also, replace # with your corresponding URL.

3. Now again by using browser search function, find these words: TWITTER-USER-NAME
and replace it with your twitter user name.

4. For modification of Author bio, find this URL

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_fpfGknlVKcc/TYiQKP15vNI/AAAAAAAABsA/foVznETpZNE/IMG_1859.jpg

and replace it with your image URL.

Then find these lines in the template by using any of the words from these lines as your text in browser search.

I am as real as anyone else! The only difference is that I love Google and Googling the technology quite vividly.

and replace it with your own short bio and "YOUR-BIODATA-URL" with your about page url

That’s it.

One more thing, Pages widget is used as a navigation bar. After installing the template, remove the title of pages widget otherwise it will miss align the widget.

If you want to have that features in your blog, I may help you.These features are.

Multi-optional Feed subscription widget.
Modified Email subscrtion widget.
Ads placement under the title of the post and bottom of the post.
Ad sense link unit with Google search as the main navigation bar.
Finally yet importantly, Posts filter widgets that categories the posts based on their label. (See screenshot below).

Click on the image for enlarged view

If you want to add these features in Tooinspired blogger template, please comment below and I’ll help you.

Some of the Funniest Responses by Siri, The Virtual Assistant

2011-10-17T15:05:00.002+09:00

A blog at NYT says that Siri is one funny lady. And it sure is.

Don't go on the face value. It is not as mature as shown by this video. No doubt that, once it get matured, it will change the way we interact with iPhone in specific and all the gadgets in general. But for the time being, Siri really amuses us when we throw some awkward questions.

Here are a few examples.

Question: “What is the meaning of life?

Siri's funniest responses:

“I don’t know. But I think there’s an app for that.”

“To think about questions like this.”

“I can’t answer that now, but give me some time to write a very long play in which nothing happens.”

“All evidence to date suggests it’s chocolate.” :)

Another conversation with Siri went like this:

You: “I need to hide a body.” Siri: “What kind of place are you looking for?” — and she offers you a tappable list of choices like Reservoirs, Metal Foundries, Mines, Dumps and Swamps.

You: “Who’s your daddy?” Siri: “You are. Can we get back to work now?”

You: “Open the pod bay doors.” Siri: “I’m sorry, Joshua. I’m afraid I can’t do that.” Then: “Are you happy now?”

You: “Knock knock.” Siri: “Knock knock. Who’s there? Joshua. Joshua who? Joshua, I don’t do knock-knock jokes.”

It does not end here:

You: “What are you wearing?” Siri: “Aluminosilicate glass and stainless steel. Nice, huh?”

You: “Do you know HAL 9000?” Siri: “Everyone knows what happened to HAL. I’d rather not talk about it.”

You: “How much wood would a woodchuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?” Siri: “42 cords of wood, to be exact. Everyone knows that.”

And by the way, who is responsible for such hilarious responses? Is it fed by Apple engineers? I don't think so. Do they hire a bunch of comedians? Well, It could be?
Or it is the pure wisdom of the Siri itself and these humorous response are based on the self learning of the Siri itself? If it some, it is the harbinger of good times o come!

Here are some of the questions to ask from Siri

“I love you, Siri,”
“I’m drunk,”
“I need drugs,”
“What’s the best phone?”
and “What’s going to happen?”

So what is the response of Siri to these questions? Comment.

How to sync Google Docs, Dropbox, Box.net accounts at one place.

2011-05-22T19:19:00.001+09:00

I can’t pay for paid accounts of cloud-based storage services like Dropbox(I am lovin’ it), Box.net, Google docs and the likes but at the same time I need more space also!
So what I do is to have accounts on multiple services and use them together to store my files online.Okay, that’s fine but there is a problem. At times, it becomes difficult for me to manage files on multiple accounts.
Is there a way to synch all Dropbox, Google Docs, and box.net storage space together through desktop tool?
Yes. And that’s the reason I am writing this post. Joukuu, a new Desktop tool allows you to manage your files that are spread on different services through a centralized approach.

What you can do with Joukuu?

You can combine Google Docs, Dropbox and Box.net in one place.(More service will be supported in future, says company.)
You can transfer files between them by drag and drop right from your desktop.
You can create new folders and manage your files for each account and also delete files if you want.
Want to add new files? Just drag and drop the file on the service where you want to upload it.
sync what you want. you can choose which file or folder sync between your computer and the online account.
It reads all the files from all accounts and separate it based on the file type also that includes Music, Pictures and Videos, Documents and others. It lets you easily find what you need form a pool of files.
In short, You don’t need to got to Google Docs, Box,net and Dropbox to add delete or manage files. You can do it right form Joukuu.

Update: Sorry, I forgot to mention that when you install Joukuu, it creates new option in your right click menu so you can send any folder or file to any of account that is linked to joukuu by a right click. No need to drag and drop or copy and paste!

Joukuu Interface

What It misses?

I didn’t feel it intuitive enough. It should add support for right click so that we can manage files through a right click.
No built-in search feature to search files.
You cannot rename or share files.
Only supports windows at this time. Although, Developers are getting ready to release for Mac also.

How to install.
First of all you need to have .NET Framework in Windows to make this applications work. Currently this application is in beta mode and you have to sign up to get a download link. Once you sign up, you will get an email containing the download link. Download the file open it and click on it. If you already have .NET framework installed in your PC, that’s fine. If not, Joukuu will prompt you to get the Framwork. Once the the installation is complete, you can open the application and add accounts. After that it takes a while to get files from your respective storage accounts and then you can start manage you files from all accounts at once place.

Drop a comment below if you need some more info. You can also visit Jaikuu forum to know what folks are saying about this.

GO to this link to to get download for Joukuu.
Recommended Reading: Dropbox Tips Series.

5 Free Online pdf Editors Worth Checking.

2011-05-22T15:57:00.001+09:00

Although pdf files can be edited offline by using pdf editors like pdf nitro, pdf exchange, Adobe pdf reader etc. but in some situations it is always required to know that “how can a pdf file be edited on the internet without using any software.”

There are various free useful services that can be used to edit pdf files on the internet. off course, these files are not as robust as offline pdf editors but these are quite handy when you are not at home PC and you don’t have time to install a software for this purpose.

Take a look at this list of online pdf editor. I have also added some pros and cons of every service to let you decide quickly about every service.

1.pdfescape.com

One of the most useful tools available on internet for this purpose, pdfescape lets you edit and annotate pdf documents without any hassle. Even better, you can also use this tool without creating an account although registered users can enjoy more feature such as file security, online file storage etc. You can login by using your existing Facebook or Google account also. If you have a free bucks, go premium and you will work with pdf files in ad-free environment.

This screenshot shows how the interface woks once you upload pdf file and taken into editing page.

Features of pdfescape:

You can insert text, images, links etc. in the document.
You can annotate the pages with highlighting, and by adding sticky notes.
Rotate & zoom PDF pages to preferred viewing style
Select text and copy PDF content to your clipboard.
Search PDF text for terms & keywords with ease
Save, download, email, & print PDF documents.
The free PDF software works with Firefox, Google Chrome, IE and Safari
You can wash text by using whiteout tool.
Last but not lest, you can add password to your pdf file to make it secure!

What I disliked?

You can not edit a file with more than 100 pages or 10mb of size. Although this limit is not met in 90% of the cases but what about other 10% cases? Other than this small drawback, it is really a nice service to work with.

2. Fillanypdf

Fillanypdf is also a worth checking pdf editor that is especially suitable if you want to fill pdf forms or if you are interested in creating new form and share it with friends and colleagues. But, it does not mean that you can only use this service for form. You can also use editing tools to edit any pdf file by uploading it to their website. Once you choose the file and upload it to fillanypdf, you are ready to edit it. Take a loo at the screenshot above to have an insight of editing features. IF you create an account, you can get additional features also.

Features.

You can use variable font sizes and colors.
White-out and Redaction tools available.
You can write text on pdf document.
Add clickable web links in pdf.
You can zoom in and zoom out the document while editing.
Start blank document and create pdf online.
Download the file after editing without creating account.

Downside?

More focused on form filling and sharing than every kind of documents. Although its not a drawback really!
Slightly slow-loading.

3. PDFfiller

pdffiller is an excellent service especially for form fillingg. If you want to fill pdf forms online I will surely document this service as well as pdf escape for this purpose. PDFfiller includes all the basic tools for text input and text editing. You can fill fillable as well as non-fillable pdf forms on by using this service. To enter information on this form simply click anywhere on the form and begin typing.

PDFfiller Features.

Modify text by changing colors and font size.
You can cut, copy or paste to the PDF.
You can move the text on the PDF form. Just select the text and use the arrows icon to drag the text to a new position.
You can add a Signature to the PDF form.
Use the signature button in the toolbar to add a hand-written signature.
Secure to use as security it uses https connection.

Drawbacks?

After editing the document, you can not download it unless you create an account.
No password protection option.

4. pdf Hammer

Do you know nitro pdf software? pdf hammer is a free online service of nitro pdf that also allows you to edit pdf files without even downloading a software. It gives some features that are missing in the aforementioned service (and exclude some features that were there in pdfescape!)

Features of pdf Hammer:

Other than the standard features of pdf editing and annotating, it has some extra features that include:

By merging multiple files, you can make a single pdf file.
Quickly rearrange, reorder, and delete the pages from existing PDF files.
like pdfescape, Add password to you document.
Also you can add meta data to pdf file.

What I disliked?

Misses pdf annotation and text writing feature in pdf.

Not as sleek and easy to use as that of pdfescape (But, its personal thing. you may like it more than me). In short, you cannot do much when it comes to real editing but if you are interested in features mentioned above, its definitely the place to go.

5. Touchpdf

Touchpdf is another free service you can use to manipulate pdf documents. It’s a relatively new service and doesn't provide too many options but it is quite handy.

T0uchpdf features.

No Registration needed to use this service.
No watermark/logo anytime.
Support PDF Form Field generation.
Add Image/Line/Rectangle/Oval/FreeDraw(Signature) in document.
Free for NON-PRINTABLE target PDF file(s).
Can also be used as a Free Pdf It! FireFox Addon.

What I disliked?

Lacks many standard editing options as compared to pdf escape.
No option to lock pdf files with a password.

So what the conclusion?

Well it depends on how do you want to edit your pdf file online and what is the size of pdf file. I would recommend pdfescape as I really stands out among all these 5 services. If you are interested in form filling, go with Fillanypdf as it is really great for online pdf form filler.

Have you ever used these services?

Recommended Reading: 8 Best pdf viewers for android devices.

Technorati Tags: pdf

10 Things I like Most About Minus [File Sharing Tool]

2011-05-17T22:35:00.001+09:00

File sharing with friends or anyone else can be done using various ways that includes Dropbox, screen sharing programs, chatting tools like skype etc, cloud sharing and by uploading it to websites like megaupload, Rapidshare, mediafire etc. But, all these methods are relatively time consuming when compared to min.us.

uTorrent 3 is not the only way to share files with other by using simple drag and drop methods. Minus, a relatively new but powerful service also allows you to share files with other and the best thing about this service is that it is dead simple to use and take no time at all.

If you are a less-tech savvy kind of person and want to share any types files in no time, minus is the way to go.

How to use this service.

Minus’ drag-and-drop simplicity should make it very easy to use as it is very intuitive. When you go to min.us website you see a simple interface asking you to either drag and drop your files at the homepage or to browse the files that you want to upload.

After dropping the file onto the homepage, minus starts uploading the file in the cloud and then when you click on the “share”you are shown various links to this file based on the type of file that include gallery link, forum link, HTML link, thumbnail link (if the file is an image) etc. You can use these links to share the file quickly.

10 things that I like most about min.us

1.

It is dead simple to use an completely ads free. if you are in a hurry, minus is perfect for you to share files quickly.Interface and browsing of files that you uploaded is also simple.

2.

You can upload any types of files for sharing. Literally any type including .exe files which most of the other services don't allow you because of their suspicious nature.

3.

Each file is represented by a large image (images, text files and PDFs get thumbnail previews).While audio and video files can be played within the app itself making making the things easier.

4.

No sign-in is required to share or download files. Although registered users can get extra benefits like they can view other people’s public files. Also they get upload size of 50 MB per file as compared to meager 25 MB for guest users

5.

You can decide whether to make your file or files private as well as public. Public files can be viewed by other people also.

6.

min.us is completely free and doesn't prompt you to get paid account like some other services.

7.

Also, mobile apps for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone 7 and browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox makes it widely available.

8.

After uploading image files, it gives us ready-made links for forum posting as well as HTML link thus saving a bit of time if you want to share image file in a forum etc.

9.

Even guest users are allowed to track how many times their file has been downloaded. This is handy especially when you want to track the activity with the file.

10.

You can download single file as well as the whole gallery as a zip file. Also you can follow friends on min.us to know that what they are sharing publically.

Not every thing is good and nothing is without drawbacks in this worlds. Let’s take a look at what I don't like about min.us.

1.Even to registered users, it does not provide the facility to lock your files with a password. Although the files that are kept private by you are only visible to the one whom you send the link but, still, I'll not share confidential files with this service.

2.Unregistered users cannot view files that are shared publically on min.us.

File size limit is small. Guests are allowed to upload a maximum file size of 25 mb while limit is raised to 50mb for registered members.

What’s your opinion on this? Have you tried file sharing with minus?

Let me know in the comments as they are always knowledgeable to me.

Technorati Tags: File Sharing

Use Dropbox as a Free CDN for Wordpress Blog.

2011-05-09T10:48:00.000+09:00

For best site performance, it is always of great importance if we use CDN (Content Delivery Network) to host our website’s static content – like images, CSS and JavaScript files – since it effectively reduces the physical distance between the user’s browser and your content.

According to Yahoo!, A CDN is a collection of web servers distributed across multiple locations to deliver content more efficiently to users. The server selected for delivering content to a specific user is the one with the fewest network hops.

Several services provide Content delivery for websites. These services include Amazon S3 and MaxCDN etc but you can use Dropbox as your CDN service thus avoiding any other paid options for this purpose.

Although, Amazon S3 is among the most cost-effective CDN for hosting Wordpress files but if you are not on S3 yet, Dropbox service as a CDN to serve the static files of your Wordpress blog would be a suitable option to start with.

How?

Dropbox CDN is a Wordpress plug-in that helps you do the task easily. It Allows you to upload your themes CSS, JavaScript, and Images into your Dropbox 'Public' folder and server these files from the Dropbox network, thus reducing the bandwidth the server and making your site fast loading for a better user experience.

It works something like this.

You create a sub-folder in your Dropbox Public folder and replicate your Wordpress theme folder structure here.

Next grab the URL of this public folder, pass it to the Dropbox CDN plugin and it takes care* of everything else.

How much effective is this?

Will this really help to boost the performance? Amit Agarwal did a comparison of several CDN services like Amazon S3, Dropbox, Google CDN and Dreamhost to compare the loading speed.

And what he found out is that an uncompressed JS file was served from all the four servers and the load time of Dropbox turned out to be among the lowest (see the image) that could be related to the fact that Dropbox automatically serves the file with gzip compression.

Is there any bandwidth limits in DropBox?

YES. For free accounts, public folders are limited to 10GB ofbandwidth per day. The limit is raised to 250GB for paid accounts. What that means? Obviously, if you are having a low traffic website or blog, IT will not change the things and Dropbox will perform seamlessly but if your site/blog is a high traffic blog, Dropbox will show 404 Error page when it a exceeds the bandwidth limit i.e., The links are automatically suspended if any of your files exceed that limit.

For the sake of understanding, let us say you have a single-page website hosted on Dropbox and the entire weight of all the images, CSS and other static files served through that page is around 500 kb. That means the page should have less than 20k impressions in a day for you to stay within the Dropbox limit and for your website to run properly.

Take care of this fact when using (or abusing!) the Dropbox service.
Read Full Dopbox tips series
Go to Dropbox if you are not using this free file storage service yet.

Automatic Wordpress Blog Backup to Dropbox

2011-05-07T17:40:00.000+09:00

If you want to backup your Wordpress blog periodically to Dropbox space, wpTimeMachine is a plug-in that lets you easily do this job.

There are many benefits of doing this. The obvious and most important benefit is that you will have access to you blog’s backup all the time and everywhere on any device provided that you be connected to the internet.
wpTimeMachine can perform an automatic backup of your Wordpress MySQL database, themes, plug-ins and all the other files and images at scheduled times that you may uploaded to your Wordpress folder.

After installing the wpTimeMachine plug-in, enter your Dropbox account information and hit the Generate Archive button. Within minutes, you should see the backups in your Dropbox folder. It may take long times also depending on the size of your blog.

How to schedule and initiate Backups?

Either you may choose to perform backups manually, as in the case above, or you can setup a cron job to backup your Wordpress site at preset schedules automatically.

The plug-in can also be configured such that backups are triggered as soon as you publish a new post but use it with caution as it may put lot of extra strain of your server.

One other things to take into account, you may have uploading issues if the WP-content older is too large because the Dropbox API won’t accept files that are larger than 300MB.

If in case you are new to Dropbox, it is without any doubts, world’s number one service for online file storage (also called as cloud storage) that gives you 2GB of free space (more space is available for paid users.) that you can use just like any other Windows folder to upload files to Dropbox servers and then you can access your files from anywhere, any device any time.

Via Digital Inpiration.

How to Use Dropbox to Print Files remotely on Linux.

2011-05-06T19:14:00.000+09:00

After giving solutions for remote printing on Windows and MAC by using Dropbox, it’s time to find a solution for Linux that will make us able to do this:

If you have a printer attached to a Linux machine, you can easily control that printer from another remote computer using Dropbox.

So, that’s how it is done.

The central point is that we create a shell script to monitor a local Dropbox folder. As soon as a new file is added to that folder from a remote computer (or mobile phone), the script will send the file to the attached printer for remote printing. Once the printing job is completed, the file is deleted from the incoming print queue.

You can use the script given below to implement this task. You only have to setup a cron job against this script such that it runs after every ‘n’ seconds (or minutes).

...................................................................................................
       1: --- dropprint.sh ---
       2:
       3: #!/bin/bash
       4:
       5: export PrintQueue="/root/Dropbox/PrintQueue";
       6:
       7: IFS=$'\n'
       8:
       9: for PrintFile in $(/bin/ls -1 ${PrintQueue}) do
      10:
      11:    lpr -r ${PrintQueue}/${PrintFile};
      12:
      13: done
      14:
      15: --- dropprint.sh ---

...................................................................................................

Now that the process is set up completely, you can test it by sending a test file from you mobile phones to the Prinqueue folder. You can either use Dropbox native applications for Android, iPhone, Nokia, Blackberry or iPad. Alternatively, you can also use Habilis application. Learn what Habilis does for you.

If you have multiple printers attached to Linux computer, use the –p parameter to specify the printer name.
If you are on Ubuntu, you may use "sudo apt-get install gnome-schedule" (Gnome Schedule) to setup a scheduled task for the script with recurrence set to "every minute."

What the script does?

Here’s an commented version of the script that will help you easily understand how the script works:

1. #!/bin/bash

Specific bash directly since its feature set and behaviors are consistent everywhere

2. export PrintQueue

It's necessary to 'export' in order for the environment variable to show up in the later $() subshell

3. IFS=$'\n'

By default, spaces will wreak havoc with the 'for / in' loop. Resetting the field separator handily works around that

4. /bin/ls -1

Directly use /bin/ls to bypass the common color-enabling aliases. Use -1 to force all files into one column. There's no need to search for the beginning of the file name using this

5. lpr -r

The -r option deletes the file after it successfully prints. This is better than doing an 'rm' later since it only does the delete on a successful print.

Recommended reading: Dropbox Tips and Tricks series

How to Use Dropbox to Print Files Remotely on MAC.

2011-05-06T10:54:00.000+09:00

My previous post was about printing files by using cell phone and Dropbox on windows computer that used a VBS script which can only be used on a windows PC. However, MAC operating systems also has the capability to print files remotely by using Dropbox. Here is the solution to print files on any printer that is connected to a Mac.

Steps to Print files on Mac by Using Cell Phone and DropBox.

Install Dropbox on your PC that’s connected to your printer if you do not have it already. In case you are new to Dropbox, go to full coverage of Dropbox intro and tips and tricks. In short, Dropbox is your folder in the cloud, I mean your online file storage folder that can be accessed from anywhere.

On you Mac OS X, create a folder named as “Print” in your Dropbox folder, with two sub-folders PrintQueue and Log.

[*] Fire up the Automator application and choose to create a Folder Action.

Type “printer” in the search field and drag “Print Finder Items” to the main window pane.

Type “Trash” in the search field and drag the “Move Finder Items to Trash” to the main window pane.

Alternatively, if you want to keep the files after they’re printed, use the “Move Finder Items” workflow, to Dropbox -> Print -> Logs.

Finally, make sure to set Folder Action receives files and folders added to the PrintQueue folder you created earlier on. Save the workflow and give it a name. That is it!

[*] Even better, @bbdel (The tipster) has compiled his steps in this zip file – unzip and it should automatically open with Automator. Then, create a folder in the drop box, right click it, and go to the bottom for folder actions, and select the “printqueue” one from those actions.

Now that the process is set up completely, you can test it by sending a test file from you mobile phones to the Prinqueue folder in you MAC. You can either use Dropbox native applications for Android, iPhone, Nokia, Blackberry or iPad. Alternatively, you can also use Habilis application. Learn what Habilis does for you.

Okay, so remote Mobile printing is what I was writing for but how often do you need it? I personally used it for one time only. What about you? Let me know this in comments.

Remote Printing of Files by Using Cell Phone and Dropbox

2011-05-05T23:23:00.000+09:00

Although cell phones in the recent years have become very powerful but still they are not readily synch able with the printers to allow us print files from mobile phone.

Here are some of the situations that require you to print files from mobile devices. You may find your own situations though.

Situation#1: You just received files like pdf or other files as an email attachment and you want to print them.

Situation#2: Say, you are viewing driving directions on Google Maps using an iPad and you want to print them but notorious iPad does not have USB connection, how do you send that map to the printer?

Your phone’s app store will have a few printing apps for this purpose but if you don’t want to pay for any additional application for this purpose, you can simply use Dropbox to print documents from your phone to any printer without requiring any additional application or hardware.

Although, some upcoming printers have built-in support for printing files by sending an email to the printer but with Dropbox, you get the same feature without requiring any new hardware.

Print Files from any Mobile Phone through Dropbox

The workflow for printing files by using Dropbox and a cell phone is like this.

First of all, you need to download a small application that will constantly monitor your Dropbox folders by running in the background for printing job when required.

You can send files for printing from your mobile phone through email or using any of the Dropbox mobile apps. As soon as Dropbox downloads the file locally, the utility will send it to the default printer. Once the file is printed, it gets archived to the logs folder.

To get this process running on your computer, please follow these easy steps:

Step 1: Make sure that you have Dropbox on the computer that is connected to the printer.

Step 2: To print a file by sending it from your mobile device to the printer, you have two options.

You can download a Dropbox app on your mobile phone - they have apps for BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad, Nokia, webOS (Palm), and Android based phones.
Or, you can send files from your cell phone to Dropbox using email. Just connect your Dropbox account with an app that is called Habilis and they’ll give you a unique email address – any files or attachments sent to this address from your cell phone will automatically appear in your Dropbox folder.

Step 3: Download this zip file (credit to labnol for this script. VBS scripts are Windows-only but there are workarounds for Mac OS X and Linux as well.) and double-click the eprint.vbs file (see the source code). The script will create a sub-folder inside your main Dropbox folder called PrintQueue where all the mobile print jobs will queue up and another sub-folder called logs where all the completed jobs will be archived.

Step 4: Now that everything is set up, just send a test file from your mobile phone to that secret email address, or upload it through the Dropbox mobile app, and your printer will turn it into a hard copy almost instantly.

The utility can also handle multiple files simultaneously and it should print almost all file formats for which you have an associated application on the computer. If you would like to shut down the eprint utility, launch Windows task manager and end the “wscript.exe” process from the list.

Let's Monitor Your Computer remotely with Dropbox

2011-05-01T16:53:00.000+09:00

Consider a scenario where you don’t want to remotely access the computer but simply you want to monitor it from another location. For example, here are some of the situations that need monitoring of remote PC.

Sitution#1. You make it a point to lock your workstation every time you leave the office. How do you confirm that no one else is using your computer while you’re at home sleeping?

Sitution#2. Your kids want to use your computer while you are out shopping. They are pretty young so you really want to know what they are doing on the computer in your absence.

Sitution#3. You are running some task on your computer and want to track the progress from another computer remotely.

In this case you need remote monitoring instead of remote access.

There are a few softwares that let you access your computer from any another computer by using your internet connection. Some of these tools even provide mobile apps so you can control your remote desktop using an iPhone or android phone. But if you just need remote monitoring instead of remote control, you can do it with your Dropbox account also.

Remote Desktop Monitoring with Dropbox.

The idea behind using Dropbox for remote monitoring is not a rocket science. If you take screen capture of your desktop screen and place that image in one of the Dropbox folders on your computer, the image will automatically get uploaded to the Dropbox servers.

Repeat the screen capture process at regular intervals and you’ll get a recording of your desktop screen at regular intervals that will let you know the status of your PC. You can monitor it from any Internet connected computer or mobile phone since everything is now on dropbox.com.

Steps to implement Computer monitoring with Dropbox.

1. First of all, you need to download Screen Grabber that is a free screen capture utility and it will be used to save the screen capture images directly in your Dropbox folder. You can also use Snagit or any other utility for this purpose.

2. After that we need a tweak that will be used to capture screenshots at pre defined regular intervals. For this purpose, you can use the following Autohotkey script [See below for explanation] that runs in the background and will press the hotkey for you at set intervals.

Loop {
Send, {SHIFTDOWN}{F10}{SHIFTUP}
Sleep, 300000
}

[*] If you are new to Autohotkey, simply download and then run this executable -dropbox-capture.zip – it’s a compiled version of the above script by Amit Agarwal.

The default hotkey for Screen Grabber is Shift+F10. This script will press that hotkey and then wait for 5 minutes (5x60x1000) in a cycle. As new images get captured, they are simultaneously uploaded online.

3. Run this utility on any desktop that you want to monitor remotely and you’ll soon have a regular screenshots of the computer in your Dropbox account as shown below. Even better, everything runs quietly in the background so people who are sneaking into your PC will not notice that their activity is being monitored.

When you lock your computer, the screen capture process is suspended but it resumes automatically as soon as you log in. You can run this tool on your office desktop and lock the workstation - if you find any screenshots in your Dropbox stream the next day, someone else probably used that machine.

How to Use Dropbox [With Video Tutorial]

2011-04-29T17:37:00.000+09:00

DropBox is, without any doubts, world’s number one service for online file storage so that you may have access to your files at any time and from any device provided that you are connected to the internet.

Why is DropBox on the top spot when there are hundreds of competitors like Microsoft SkyDrive, Mozy, Adrive, Amazon CloudDrive, Google Docs and so on are on the market?

The features offered by DropBox are unmatched. The biggest advantage that DropBox offers is that it is very simple to use and even your grand ma would love using it. Moreover, it offers 2 GB of online storage for free and if you need more storage space you can sign up for paid options.

You can find review of best cloud storage services here.
Here are the steps to guide you through the process.

1. Go to DropBox.com

2. Download their application.

3. Install the application.

4. After installation, it will guide through the process for setting up the DropBox folder (Watch video below).

5. After setting up a folder, the process is very simple for file storage on online servers. Just copy and paste the file in the DropBox folder and forget it.

DropBox app (That is running is the background) will automatically upload the file to online storage space while working in the background. Now you are able to access this file from anywhere and from device like iphone, android phones, iPad laptops etc.

This simple video tutorial explains how you can use DropBox to share your files and access them from anywhere.

Video Tutorial on Using Dropbox.[ If you are on a mac OS, You won't find Dropbox guide better than THIS]

Improve search results with Personal Blocklist for Google Chrome

2011-04-26T17:51:00.001+09:00

Think Facebook chat is cool? How's about a billion Facebook chats… with your voice?

After making their fortune in social networking and connecting you with your loved ones, its time for facebook to challenge Skype, although Mr Zuckerburg and the company is not offering this facility to the users, atleast iPhone users have it now through Apple store.

Facebook Messenger allows you to make calls to your friends and family free of cost over voip(voice-over-IP) through an application called “Facebook messanger” available on Apple's App Store for a meager US$ 2.99.

This application is not limited to only apple devices. In fact, you can also make calls to your friends that are using face book on their PC or laptop etc.

Facebook Messenger by Crisp App combines two services that many of us hold near and dear: Facebook chat and VoIP.

Facebook Messenger also allows you post pictures, browse message history, view a friend's wall, use emoticons, receive instant replies via Push Notifications, and set up sound notifications and multi-tasking support from within the app.

Company is also planning to eventually offer paid plans for calling to regular phones through ths app world wide.

See this video, presenting a demo of this application, to see this Fcebook messanger on iPhone.

Facebook Messenger costs $3 and requires iOS 3.1.2 or later.

Is a great Great idea to give us yet another option for making voce calls to our facebok friends instead of typing, and very well executed. Although some minor niggles are their but all in all a fantastic way of speaking to friends for nothing.

How uTorrent 3 Makes Really Big File Sharing Extremely Simple.

2011-04-23T13:22:00.000+09:00

UTorrent 3 makes sharing of files whether small or big extremely easy. You can virtually share files of any size with UTorrent 3 without creating any account and the process is as simple as it could be.

We already know that we can share large files by creating a torrent of that file and uploading the torrent to any torrent hosting websites and then sending the link to our friend so that he may download it.

In summary the process was like this:

Create a torrent >Create an account on torrent host>Upload the torrent>Send the link to friend>friend download the file.

So, most of the people didn’t use the method because creating a torrent and then uploading it to some torrent host website was a painful process. UTorrent 3 takes all the pain and makes the process extremely simple as even the novice to torrent can do it easily now.

With UTorrent 3, the process of sharing files via torrent is like this.

Drag and Drop the file to UTorrent> Get the link >send it to friend> Friend downloads the file.

Here is the process in details with screenshots.
1. Choose the file that you want to send to your friend and then drag and drop the files to the bottom left corner of the UTorrent application.

2. It will open a window like shown below. Press “Get the link”. If you want to include a message to your friend, You can write it in this window also.

In a few seconds, uTorrent 3 will generate a tinyurl link. Copy the link and send it to your friend.. That's it.Upon opening the link, your friend will see a window like the one shown below from where he can download the file.

The only requirement is that your PC should be turned on and connected to the internet at the time your friend is downloading the file and your friend should also have uTorrent.

I have already reviewed all the methods by which you can send really big files to your Friends.

6 Best Browsers for Android Phones.

2011-04-21T23:43:00.000+09:00

Browser that is shipped with the android phones does not change the fact that a mobile browser can be so much more. Although the default browser handles the things pretty much well but there are many better options available on the market and that is the reason I thought of reviewing some of the best browsers available for android phones.

There are two kinds of browsers for Android phones.
Traditional, full-featured mobile browsers and smaller, data- economical Mini browsers.
Dolphin Browser Mini 2.1 and Opera Mini 6 android mobile browsers tend to deliver a more desktop-complete mobile experience with advanced feature sets and support for embedded video, whereas Mini browsers tend to lever performance and backward compatibility.

Dolphin Browser HD 4.5 (for Android).

Probably one of the best browser for those who don't want to sacrifice the functionality and media rich browsing, Dolphin Browser tops the list of best browsers for android phones. You can change this Android app's look and feel through custom themes, add capability with Add-ons, or even navigate by gesture. Go to webiste of this browser to dig out more as it requires a full post otherwise.

Dolphin Browser Mini 2.1 (for Android)

Despite bearing the feel of Mini, Dolphin Browser Mini 2.1 does little to shrink the experience of Dolphin HD. As with Dolphin Browser HD, you can navigate by gestures, set up Speed Dials, or auto-translate pages written in anything from Galician to Greek.

The thing is that this browser is as sluggish as it is feature-rich. If you want to feel the wind behind your sails, get Opera Mini 6; however, you're running an older Android phone and you want it all, reel in Dolphin Browser Mini 2.1.

Firefox 4 (for Android).

Firefox 4 is in the list of Best android browsers because It's fast, wears a good interface, and gives good features notably smart taps and single-click bookmarks. Firefox doesn't support embedded mobile video, an omission made all the more glaring by the fact that websites identify its user agent as a desktop and serve full-size, media-rich content. While Add-Ons—for customizing the browser's look and feel (and functionality)—and Firefox Sync—for synchronizing bookmarks, history, passwords, and preferences—may give Mozilla mavens reason to bookmark this browser.

Opera Mobile 11 (for Android)

The browser's appeal is not unlike that of opera itself. The browser, at least, also happens to be quick and capable. Opera supporters will appreciate be able to take their bookmarks, Speed Dials, and search engines to go, with Opera Link. Everyone will applaud the browser's silky smooth scrolling. When it comes to customization, Opera does not match Add-on-ready alternatives Dolphin Browser HD 4.5 or Firefox 4 Mobile; however, users seeking a polished web browser with full multimedia support should go for Opera Mobile 11.

Opera Mini 6 (for Android)

With over a 100 million monthly users, Opera's Mini browser is its most successful and fastest growing product. While Opera Mobile 11 is ideal for newer smart phones running Android 2.0 or later, Mini is available on far more devices—from the iPhone to Verizon-based feature phones to any device running Android v1.6 or higher—and uses considerably less data to load webpages, making it the model browser for slower or data-miserly cellular networks. The recently updated Mini also keeps pace with its big brother: the two share the same refined interface, smart features—including Speed Dials and text wrapping—and data syncing, thanks to Opera Link.

SkyFire for Android.

Finally yet importantly is the SkyFire in the list of top 6 browsers for Android Phones. TechCrunch ranks it on second spot in Best Android Apps of All Time. One notable feature of this browser is that it is fully integrated with Social Networking.
Other standard features include:
-Flash Video support.
-User Agent Switching – so you can make it act like Desktoip browser.
-Facebook QuickView and Facebook Like Button. Etc.
Latest version of Skyfire requires android 2.0 or higher Android 2.x device.

Round Up: 6 Ways to Send REALLY Large Files to Your Friends.

2011-04-21T19:10:00.000+09:00

This post explains how you can share/send really big files with your Friends. I’ll review various methods in this article so this is a kind of round up of all the methods currently available.

Normally we use email attachments for file transfer. The problems with email services are that they don’t allow files beyond certain limits. For example, Hotmail only allows you send files with size 10 mb or less. Gmail, being a bit generous, allow you maximum files size of 25mb. But we need solution for really larger files like various hundreds of mb or over GB.

Method#1: Using Email Work-around.

Yes, there are some works around available for sending large files over email but these methods are less preferred by me because these are not seamless and there are some drawbacks for this method. Gmail still doesn’t allow you to send large files over 25 mb but Hotmail has taken a step ahead by letting you to send upto 10 GB of files as email attachment. But, there is a problem. You cannot attach a file over 50mb. That is a big drawback. Although we have 10GB but we cannot use it as want to use it.

you can use a file-splitting utility like HJSplit to break a big file into smaller pieces and then attach them all to a single message. However, the receiver should also have HJSplit to join the pieces aina. HJSplit is a very simple to use utility with just 300 kb of size.

There is one more thing to be considered that the email recipient should also be using Hotmail otherwise he will not be able to get the large attachment because other services do not allow to receive large attachments.

Method #2. Using third party services.

There are various files storage services available on the internet that allow you to upload files to their servers and then they give you a link to that file. You can send that link to your friend and he can download the file then.

1. YouSendIt allows you to send up to a 100MB file without creating an account. Upon uploading a file to YouSendIt, an email is sent to the recipient, where they are given a link to download the file.
2. With a 500MB limit, MegaUpload offers the most storage space we found for non-paying users to send files.
4. DropSend allows you to send files up to 1GB with a premium account (starting at $5/mo). Meanwhile, their free account provides you with 250MB of file size for uploading and up to 5 sends per month.

Similarly, mediamax, leapfile and mailbigfile are some of the services with similar features that allow you to send files more than what you can send as a mail attachment.

Nevertheless, MediaFire needs some especial attention here because this is my favorite service in this category. Blazing fast file transfer service is the ability that lacks in other services.

Method#3. Using cloud storage.

These services look similar to the above-mentioned services but there is a fundamental difference. These services are more focused on the personal online file storage and backup but we can also use it to let other friends to download files from our cloud storage. This also serves our purpose.

There are various services included in this like DropBox, Amazon CloudDrive, Adrive, etc. Read my review of 6 best online file storage services for complete analysis.

Out of all these services, DropBox is my favorite service because it is simple and packs a lot of features. It is just as we move around files in our windows folders. You install DropBox desktop client and it creates a new folder on installation. There is no restriction on the file size. You just copy and paste it in the DropBox folder in your PC and they will automatically be uploaded to DropBox servers. I have already written a separate post on how to let others download files from your DropBox.

Method#4 Using IM Apapplications.

Do you know that you can share really big files with your friends through Skype and yahoo IM also?

This is also a nice method especially if your friends are already using Skype or Yahoo. In addition, the best thing is that there is no file size restriction. You can literally send a single file of several GB that many of other services would not allow (except DropBox). Yahoo allows you upto 2 GB of file size.

Method#5. Using torrent.

You probably are aware of the torrents. You can make a torrent (Only a few kb) of your file and then upload it to some torrent hosting websites like thepiratebay, Torrentz etc. Once you have uploaded the torrent, send the link to your friends and they will download the file from your PC no matter how big the file is you can use this method. The only requirements are you should have torrent client like the one uTorrent etc. and your PC should be connected to internet at the time your friend is downloading the file because in this method file is actually not uploaded anywhere. It is being served right from your PC. In addition, the final requirement is you should know how to make a torrent of your file. It is very simply, if you don’t know just post a comment and I’ll follow up.

Method#6. Using screen-sharing programs.

Screen sharing programs allow you to control a remote desktop wirelessly. The only requirements for this to work is the remote PC should also have that program installed and it should be connected to internet at that time. My favorite screen share program is TeamViewer that is a free utility for personal use. Even better, you can use screen share programs to transfer files without any file size.

Out of all other methods mentioned in this post. I normally use TeamViwer, DropBox, and Skype and media fire occaiosnally.

Amazon Cloud Player Guide with Work-arounds for iPhone, iPad [iOS]

2011-04-21T00:05:00.000+09:00

Amazon Cloud Player was launched by Amazon a few days ago along with their Cloud Drive. The idea behind launching the cloud player is to integrate it with their cloud storage so that users can use the cloud player and use it with their cloud storage to stream music but, surprisingly, Amazon decided not to make it compatible with Apple products by leaving behind the iOS.

This post explains how you can use Amazon cloud player. First, I’ll explain How to use it and Then I’ll Move towards workarounds for iOS.

Step 1: Create Account if you dont have it.

Go to the Amazon MP3 site and click Launch Player. In the resulting screen, you’ll be prompted to sign in with the e-mail address and password. If you don’t already have the Amazon account, create a new account.

Step 2: Get Amazon MP3 Uploader.

Next step is to download the Amazon MP3 Uploader(in case you do not have it already) MP3 Uploader is an adobe AIR based application that, once installed, will find MP3 and ACC files from your library and upload it to the Amazon Cloud Drive. Amazon Cloud Player only supports mp3 and ACC format. The service does not support WAV, AIFF, Apple Lossless, FLAC, or Ogg file formats.

Step 3: Upload some music.

Once you have selected the tracks you want to upload, click the Start upload button at the bottom of the window. A progress bar appears here and starts. If you need more than 5 GB of storage, you should purchase it for $1 per GB.

Step 4: Organize and listen.

Once the uploading of your songs is complete, you can now organize your files in your Cloud Drive. For this purpose, just return to Amazon MP3 website. One way to organize the music files is to create playlists you find your own ways though.

Now your music files are stored online in your Cloud Drive. You can listen to them from any browser (Expect Safari!) and from anywhere on any device. To play your music from within your browser, select some music—open a playlist for example—and click the Play All button. The Cloud Player streams tracks to your computer at their native bit rate. Therefore, if you upload a 256kbps MP3 file, that is the quality of stream you’ll receive.

Step 5: Download the files (If you need)

Assume your on a different PC and you want to download the music files from You Cloud Drive, you can do it with the help of Amzaon mp3 uploader.

To do this, just select the tracks you want to download and click the Download button. The Amazon MP3 Downloader will launch (you’ll be prompted to download a copy if you don’t have it), and the music will download to your computer. That is it.

Use Amazon Cloud Player With iOS.

Users who try to access amazon.com/cloudplayer in iOS are welcomed with a message that the browser is not supported and they should “try Internet Explorer.” Ignoring the message will serve users the standard Cloud Player interface, but hitting the play button on any song will lead to nowhere.

There are work-arounds that make you able to use Amazon Cloud Player with iOS and let you play music from cloud drive in iPhone, iPad and other apple products.

Method#1. Using Mobile Safari Method.

This is first of the two methods and is not pretty excellent but it does the task.
click on a song name and then select “Download” from the drop-down menu. This will force Mobile Safari to open the file. If you have apps like GoodReader, Filer, or iUnarchive installed, you may be able to choose to open the file in those apps or on the other other hand, Safari will launch a QuickTime audio player. This method works pretty well, however, the reality is that you need to do this for every song you want to hear. That makes a bit problematic.

Method#2. Alternative Browsers.

The second and more seamless method is to use alternative browser. Download a copy of another iOS browser—Atomic Web Browser or iCab Mobile. One of the excellent features of iCab Mobile is the ability to change the browser User Agent. So, you can make it act like some other browser. In other words, this lets the website think that you are visiting from a browser other than Mobile Safari. You can use this method to play music as you would normally do on non-iOS based systems.

Got a question? Leave a comment and I’ll follow up urgently.

2 Ways You Can Convert Partial RSS Feeds to Full Feed

2011-04-20T15:50:00.000+09:00

If you are an avid internet reader and like to use Rss feeds for this purpose you may have noticed that some websites don’t offer full feed inside feed readers like Google Reader. For example, BBC News only ofgfers headlines with a short descrition and them you have to follow the link to the main main page if you want to read more . This looses all the essence of feed readers. But, there are some work arounds that may help you to covert partial feeds into full feed.

Method#1

Websites like FeedEx, FullTextRSSFeed,WizardRSS, and FiveFilters transforms partial feeds into full feed in a matter of seconds. These services are free to use. They just require you to insert the original feed url and they convert it into a new feed that is full feed. FiveFilters also offers you a Bookmarklet that you can place on the bookmark bar and make the process really simple by using and drag and drop method.

Limitations:

1. These websites can only process a limited number of feed items per day so the transformation may not work with high-volume feeds.

2. when you convert a partial feed into a full feed, you are actually creating a new RSS feed and this will only exist as long as the conversion service is in business.

Method#2

If you are a Google Chrome user, Super Google Reader is the best way to convert short feeds into full feed without going through the hassle of transformation. You will be able to read the full text of a story inside Google Reader itself .

Super Google Reader is an extension for Google Chrome users. Whe you install the Super Google Reader extension, it adds a new menu called “Super Settings” to your feeds page in Google reader.Now to read the full feed, choose the “Readable” option.

That is it. The next time you expand a partial item inside Google Reader, this extension will automatically fetch the full content of that page in real-time and will display it in place of excerpts.

You can also use Pre-Fetching option that works in the background and saves time by pre-converting all the partial feeds into full feed.
Recommended reading:
My favourite news reader in Google Chrome.
FeedSquares: A Refreshing way to read your RSS Feed

Stream Video/Music as-you-start-download with uTorrent

2011-04-20T11:19:00.000+09:00

Days are gone when you have to wait for the torrent download to finish to start playback. Now, with Utorrent 3.0. it is possible to start playback as you start downloading the torrent file. This was the most demanding feature for torrents and it has finally been included in the latest version of their uTorrent.

Currently version 3 of uTorrent is in beta state and final version will be available soon.

New Features in uTorrent 3.0

1: Ability to start playback when doanloading starts -- from the main window, just hit the "Play" button to
start streaming of music and videos you're downloading.

2: "Ratings" tab is included in the application to give the rating and comment on the torrent's quality.

3: Overhauling of the interface. Simple and cleaner look.

4: easy sharing of files with drag and drop.

You can download the beta version of Utorrent 3 for 32 bit windows from this link. Utorrent is also available for 64 bit windows at this link.

Though there are many tweaks in the latest Utorrent version but the most impressive feature is the ability to start playback when downloading start. It keeps us away from painful waiting.