Since then Google has taken Android to a whole new level, with several handset models and Android OS have been released since then.

There are currently over 70,000 apps available for Android with in the Android Market with some estimates saying 100,000 have been submitted, which makes it the second most popular mobile development environment, after Apple’s iPhone. Now that is what I call fast growth.

Android OS has seen several updates since the initial release.

Versions and associated names for updates:

• Version 1.5 : Cupcake
• Version 1.6 : Donut
• Version 2.0/2.1 : Eclair
• Version 2.2 : Froyo
• Version 2.6 : Gingerbread (to be launched in Q4 –2010)
• Version 3.0 : Honeycomb (to be launched in 2011)

I love the Android platform, not only since its so versatile, but its an open platform, which brings in a lot of talented developers together to create something powerful for everyone.

If you are an Android Fan you would love the Android Windows 7 Theme. It consists of 25+ Custom Android Wallpapers, Custom Android Icons and some Funky sounds which every Android fan would like.

Windows 7 Android Theme Screenshots:

Custom Icons And Sounds For Android Windows 7 Theme:

We have included Custom Android icons to make this Windows 7 Theme as original as possible. They would replace the same old boring icons and enhance the desktop.

Custom Start and Shutdown sounds have been included and If you are an Android user, chances are good you would recognize these “tones” and even if you don’t have the phone, you would like them.

Download Android Windows 7 Theme:

We have a dedicated download page for this theme. You can also explore various other Windows 7 Themes on our themes download page.

Download Android Windows 7 Theme.

Fun Facts & Trivia About Android:

• Research company Canalys estimates that by Q2 2009, Android had a 2.8% share of the worldwide Smartphone market. By the following quarter (Q3 2009), Android’s market share had grown to 3.5%. By May 2010 Androids share has gone above 13%.
• According to an interview with Eric Schmidt in The Guardian, Android is getting 160,000 new users per day (end June 2010) up from 100,000 per day in May 2010.
• Analytics firm Flurry estimates that 250,000 Motorola Droid phones were sold in the United States during the phone’s first week in stores.

© VikiTech.com, 2010. | Permalink: Windows 7 Themes : Android Theme For Windows [Tech Themes]
Read more about:: Tech Themes, Windows 7, Windows 7 Theme

How about a website that brings the best flash games from around the web to one convenient location?

Friv is such a website. It does not have any categories or a confusing interface. It does only one thing and does it very well – List the best games from around the web at one single location.

Friv.com – A Leaderboard Of Best Online Flash Games:

Although Friv isn’t essentially a leaderboard, but it does work on “best in – worst out principle”. It lists about 250 games on their homepage and they are arranged according to their popularity.

Whenever a newly popular game is inserted, the least popular one on the website is removed.

As you hover over the game icons the game’s name is shown on the Friv bubble. When you click on the icon, the game loads.

Compared to other sites, most of the games are full web page size. Some are highly detailed strategy games, where are others are simple racing games.

However you can rest assured that you are playing the most entertaining games, as Friv only lists the most popular games from around the internet.

Go ahead, check out Friv and play a few games.

© VikiTech.com, 2010. | Permalink: Friv Games – Leaderboard Of Awesome Free Flash Games [Fun Web Apps]
Read more about:: Flash Games, Fun Apps, Online Games, Web App

At the same time, Google Chrome 7 has also arrived, in the experimental form at least and it sports some great new features, which we can expect to see in when version 7 is released to public.

If you are one of the guys who like to keep up with the new features in the latest Chrome builds, you would be exited to know about the “Labs Section” and Sidebar Tabs feature in Chrome 7.

You can always use the Google Chrome Canary Build alongside your regular Chrome browser to try out the latest features in Chrome.

Chrome Labs, Side Tabs & Exposé For Tabs Feature:

A new Google Chrome build added a new internal page that lets you enable some advanced features: about:labs. You can access the page by typing about:labs in the address bar in Chrome.

In their own words:

“Tabpose is currently the only lab on Mac, tabs-on-left the only lab on windows. Nothing for linux yet,” as stated in the Chromium blog post.

“Go to about:labs. Should have one feature on windows and osx each, none on linux yet. about:labs should not be visible on the stable channel. Labs that were enabled on the dev channel should not be enabled on the stable channel. about:labs in chromeos should still work (they use a different implementation).“.

Windows 7 Side Tabs Feature:

If you type in about:labs in the dev or canary build of Chrome, you would see the Labs section. In Windows you would see the Side Tabs experiment. To start using Side tabs, just enable the feature and restart the browser.

Right click on the tabs to enable the side tabs.

Side Tabs is a Windows only feature, and would be especially useful on Wide Screen monitors. You can see the side tabs in action below.

Just uncheck the option to switch back to tabs at top.

Tabpose For Chrome on Mac OS:

If you’re a Mac user you’ll get the “Tab Overview” experiment which enables you to view your current tabs in a manner similar to the Mac OS X Expose.

Tabposé is a Mac-only feature that adds Exposé for tabs.

The Chrome Labs section is similar to the Labs feature we see in other Google products . It’s a place for experimental features and tools that aren’t stable enough for wide use or are of interest to only a small part of the users.

If you want to try these features, check out how to do it without messing with your regular Chrome installation here.

[via Google OS]

Further Reading About Google Chrome:

© VikiTech.com, 2010. | Permalink: Google Chrome 7 Gets A Labs Section, Tabs On Side Feature
Read more about:: Google, Google Chrome, Google Chrome 7.0, Google Chrome Labs, News

Luxand Blink! allows a PC equipped with a webcam to scan your face when you log into your Windows. Just look into your webcam and you’ll be logged into your account in the blink of an eye, without the need to type in the password.

Blink! employs advanced face recognition technologies to provide automatic, quick and reliable login for one, or multiple, computer users. If it matches a previously saved template, it will allow you to login by facial recognition instead of password. Blink! is a freeware from Luxand, who create face recognition and image editing software.

Luxand Blink! Installation and Configuration:

Installation is straightforward and during installation process you can configure your webcam to recognize your face for logging into your Windows OS.

You can click on options button to change the installation directory if needed.

Once the installation completes, Blink offers you to configure the software to work with your web cam.

Blink! detects the available Cameras on your computer.

When your camera is configured with the software, it would ask you to keep your face in focus of the camera for it to make a template of your face, for recognition during login process.

Once your face is recognized, Blink! shows a confirmation window and asks you to input your Windows Account Password.

Just input the password, click on “Finish” and the Blink! configuration is done.

Blink! provides additional security benefits by making it easier for you to automatically unlock your PCs by simply looking into a webcam. Stolen passwords are becoming less of an issue as Blink! photographs and timestamps you every time you login, whether you use a password or a biometric sign-in.

Keeping a Log of account logins helps identify hijacked accounts and can determine who logged in using stolen credentials.

Luxand Blink! In Action and Settings:

Advanced biometric identification algorithms used in Blink! enable it to adjust to changes in your personal appearance. Grow a beard or mustache, or shave it off. Use makeup or dye your hair. Wear or remove glasses or contact lenses – Blink! will recognize your and let you login to your PC, no matter what.

You would see Blink! window while you try to login to Windows the next time.

Blink! does not disable your password. If for some reason your face isn’t recognized, you can always use your password to login.

Settings:

You can get access to Luxand Blink! settings by right clicking the system tray icons.

You can disable Blink!, reconfigure your face recognition template and change the webcam used. You can also choose if Blink! stats when you computer starts up.

The history shows, if there were any login attempts while you were away.

Conclusion:

Luxand Blink! makes the concept of security more “cool”, even more than biometric access. Not just this, it provides an extra layer of security and keeps a log of invalid logins that might have been attempted.

Luxand Blink! works with Windows Vista and Windows 7 and is available for both 32 bit and 64 bit versions.

Download Luxand Blink!

Some Other Interesting Security Freeware:

© VikiTech.com, 2010. | Permalink: Blink! Uses Your Face As A Password For Windows Login [Security Freeware]
Read more about:: Password Protect, Privacy, Security, Windows Tools, Windows Vista

It’s always good to have an app handy on any phone for some photo fun, since most of us primarily use phones for taking pictures.

Face Fudge is an awesome app to add some cool effects to any pictures right from your iPhone and share them with your friends.

Photo Morphing Made Easy On iPhone – Face Fudge:

Ever wondered how you’d look as a Victorian gentleman? Or as a hardened criminal? Or a 50′s geek?
Find out with FaceFudge!

Using Face Fudge is quite easy. Use the markers to make changes in the eyes and mouth – two most distinctive face features. Add more effects like making any picture a bit darker (tan anyone?) or blur the photo, if needed.

It’s a fun app that transforms your face into a variety of different guises at the click of a button – from mugshots and yearbook photos to ye olde victorians.

Take pictures of you and your friends and post the hilarious results on Facebook or Twitter!

Face Fudge Feature:

• Use pictures from your photo library or the built-in camera.
• Post the results to your Facebook and Twitter page.
• Save or EMail the photo to your friends.

This App is free and you would get 6 free templates like the Victorian, Mug Shot and 50’s geek shown above. However, if you want more you can buy the template pack from the developers site.

Try it out – Download Face Fudge.

© VikiTech.com, 2010. | Permalink: Have Fun Morphing Photos On iPhone With Face Fudge [iPhone Fun Apps]
Read more about:: iPhone, iPhone Apps, iPhone Entertainment, iPhone Photo Apps

Short URLs make sharing websites links and other media on Social Media sites, email or forums quite easy and convenient.

Short URLs also save space while sending messages.

If you use Twitter or Facebook or any other Social Network, you must be quite familiar with short URLs.

There are several tools available for different browsers, to generate short URLs. However, I have always found that having such a frequently used feature in the Right Click context menu is a huge plus. Right click > Create Short URL – No clicking toolbar buttons, or digging into options of complex tools.

Context Menu URL Shortner Creates Short URLs in 2 Clicks:

This Chrome extension will add an option to your context menu that will allow links to be copied as shortened URLs, without the need to actually visit the URL Shortening website.

This makes sharing links even more convenient, as the short URL for any page is just a click away. This extension can be installed from Google Chrome Extension Gallery. (Link Below)

This extension does not have any button.

Context Menu URL Shortner Usage & Options:

To start using it, just right-click on any link on a page and click on “Copy Short URL” to get a shortened URL for the link.

Currently this extension supports two URL shortening services – TinyURL and Bit.ly.

Recently the developer has added the option to track your Bit.ly URLs, if you have an account with Bit.ly.

This way all you can track all the links that you share via your Bit.ly account.

Conclusion:

Like I said before, URL Shortening can’t get easier than this. With the developer promising addition of more services in next versions, this addon is slated to be quite popular.

Download Context Menu URL Shortner.

Update – New Url Shortening Services Added:

We can expect more to be added in the future.

Further Reading on Topic” Chrome Extensions”:

© VikiTech.com, 2010. | Permalink: Right Click To Create Short Urls For Any Page [Chrome Extensions]
Read more about:: Chrome, Chrome Extensions, Context Menu, Google Chrome, Short URLs

While most of the times we are careful not to install the annoying toolbars, sometimes, they slip past us, or install even after unchecking the option for toolbar installation.

It’s not just the freeware installation – sometimes we install some toolbars to try the features and get stuck with them.

Some of these toolbars are notoriously difficult to remove. One particularly well-known for this behavior is the Ask Toolbar. If you have multiple toolbars installed on your PC, we now have an easy way to remove all or any of them simultaneously.

Remove Annoying Browser Toolbars With Multi Toolbar Remover:

The Multi-Toolbar Remover application was developed to be a small tool that will allow you to remove the toolbars of your choice.

It will remove all entries of many Toolbars such as:

• Google Toolbar and QuickSearchBox
• Yahoo! Toolbar
• AOL Toolbar
• AOL Radio Toolbar
• AOL News Toolbar
• AOL Email Toolbar
• AOL TalkTalk Toolbar
• Comcast Toolbar
• ASK Toolbar

To remove any toolbar, just check the box next to the toolbar name and click on the “Remove” button. You would get a confirmation window which lets you know if the toolbar has been removed.

It’s easy to use and makes the job of getting rid of annoying toolbars very easy. It’s very small in size (~300 Kb) and needs no installation. Download it below.

Download Multi Toolbar Remover.

Further Reading On Topic “Freeware”:

© VikiTech.com, 2010. | Permalink: Easily Remove Ask, AOL, Google, Yahoo Toolbars With Multi Toolbar Remover
Read more about:: Remover, Toolbars, Uninstaller, Windows Tools, Windows Utilities

We also see many programs offer the option to start up with Windows, during the installation process. This saves us time since the programs we need are already up, when Windows starts.

Some programs do not offer this option while they are installed. If you need to start any program when your Windows boots up, there is simple way to add any installed programs to the start up list so that you do not have to manually start it after Windows boots.

Start Any Program You Need When Windows Boots Up:

In Windows 7, we have a “Startup” folder, where links or shortcuts for programs which start at Windows boot up are placed. Using this folder we can start any program we need.

Before you get started, locate the program that you need to start when you boot up your machine.

For e.g. If we would like Mozilla Thunderbird to start up automatically, we locate it in the Start Menu and right-click and click on copy.

Now we locate the Startup folder. It is located in the Start Menu. Click on Start button and find it.

As you can see, we already have a few programs in the Startup folder on our PC.

Now right-click on the Startup folder and click on “Open”. If you use multiple profiles on you Windows PC and want the program to start with every profile, click on “Open all users”.

When the folder opens you would see the shortcuts for other programs which start when Windows boots up.

Right click anywhere inside the folder and click on “Paste Shortcut”. Now you would see your desired shortcut in the startup folder.

Alternatively, you can also create a shortcut for any program on the desktop and then paste it in the Startup folder. Make Sure you don’t paste the entire program, just paste the shortcut.

The next time when you restart Windows 7, the file or folder or program which you added will start automatically while booting.

Tip: Too many startup programs can slow down computer boot time, so choose the programs to include wisely. A good practice is to select programs which you really need every time the computer starts.

© VikiTech.com, 2010. | Permalink: Add Any Program To Windows 7 Startup [How To, Windows 7 Tips]
Read more about:: How To, Shortcuts, Start Up, Windows 7, Windows 7 Tips

The firm’s research arm StatCounter Global Stats reports that, in August, Windows 7 took 19.4% total market share, compared to Vista’s 17.7% worldwide. XP continues to dominate the global market with 55.4%.

Microsoft already revealed that it sold in excess of 175 million copies of Windows 7. The company is projected to push over 300 million Windows 7 licenses by the end of 2010.

Windows 7 Vs Vista Vs Windows XP Market Share:

Vista continues to outperform Windows 7 in North America with a market share of 24.7% compared to 20.7% for Windows 7 (Windows XP 40.6%). In Europe the gap is even closer with 22.7% for Vista compared to 21.9% for Windows 7 (XP 47.5%).

The installed base of Windows Vista was very low in Africa, Asia and South America and now users in these regions are upgrading straight from Windows XP to Windows 7 giving rise to this leap in market share.

Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter commented, “Africa, Asia and South America are driving the increased market share for Windows 7. Although there has been extremely good growth for Windows 7 in Europe and North America, it has yet to overtake Vista in these regions.”

The data is based on an analysis of 15 billion page views for August 2010 collected from the StatCounter network of over three million websites.

Windows Vs Mac OS Vs Linux Market Share:

For the past year now, Windows, Mac OS X and Linux have been the number 1, 2 and 3 operating systems worldwide in terms of market share. This is no longer the case as Linux has lost the 3rd spot, leaving Apple platforms to occupy both the second and third positions on the OS market.

In order to more accurately describe usage share for Apple devices, the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad are now being grouped under their common operating system ‘iOS’.

“Each of these devices can still be tracked separately using the Operating System Versions report. When these devices are combined, they have over 1% of global browsing share, which is now higher than Linux,” Net Applications reveals.

Statistics now indicate that while Windows continues to account for the largest number of users worldwide, with the Mac platform as runner up, customers running various Apple devices such as the iPhone and iPod, are in greater number than those running the Linux open source operating system.

View StatCounter OS Stats.

View Net Applications OS Stats.

© VikiTech.com, 2010. | Permalink: Windows 7 Overtakes Vista, Linux Loses 3rd Position To Apple OS [Stats]
Read more about:: Apple, Linux, Microsoft, Stats, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Xp

Dropbox only syncs files which are inside the “My Dropbox” Folder. If you need to sync files that are located on a different drive or folder, you need to create a copy of the folder inside Dropbox Folder. This would not only create multiple copies of the same files and waste hard drive space, but you would need to manually copy paste any new files created in the original folder.

Lets see how we can sync any external files and folders to Dropbox with ease.

Sync External Folders With Dropbox Folder Sync:

Dropbox Folder Sync is a simple utility which gives you the ability to sync any file or folder to your Dropbox account, without the need to place those files inside the Dropbox folder.

After install you would be asked to set the location of your “My Dropbox” folder. Just browse to your My Dropbox folder and select it.

You can click on “Sync A Folder” button to select any folder which you would like to sync with your Dropbox account.

This utility also adds an option to the right-click context menu, which lets you sync any external folder with Dropbox.

How Does This Program Work?

It moves the original folder to Dropbox and creates a symbolic link for the folder using the junction utility (installs automatically with the setup) from Sysinternals. Thus you can get access to the same folder from two locations.

The folders aren’t created twice and you can access your folders at the original location.

Yup, Its that easy, and you thought this was going to another big How-To post. There is nothing to it. Download and install this nifty little utility and sync away.

Dropbox Folder Sync Features:

• Lets you sync any folder outside Dropbox using a simple GUI or just Right Click any folder and Select “Sync With Dropbox”.
• Asks for a confirmation to overwrite if the folder already exists in Dropbox.

Couple of things to remember:

• This method which uses symlink ONLY works on NTFS partitions.
• The symlink might not appear immediately because if you are moving a huge folder say some gigabytes, symlink will be created only after the folder has completely moved into the Dropbox folder.

Download Dropbox Folder Sync.

© VikiTech.com, 2010. | Permalink: How To Sync Files & Folders Outside My Dropbox Folder
Read more about:: Context Menu, Dropbox, How To, Sync