Google faces malware scare

March 8, 2011 by

Android, which had lately become the second most used mobile operating system in the world market and is bound to overtake Symbian has been lately found to be under malware attacks. It has been revealed that many Android apps may be sending personal information like IMEI numbers, phone numbers, E-mail addresses and other information to advertisers.

Google Android Logo

Google Android Logo

In the latest attack this past week Google has admitted about 260,000 devices had been affected by these malicious apps before Google removed them. Now Google has activated a remote kill switch to remove about 60 odd apps found to be Trojans. This has raised a global concern about the mobile and personal data security on Android Phones. Experts advise having a good antivirus to be installed on the devices and to exercise caution while installing apps from the Android market.

Filed Under: Apps, Reviews, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: , ,

Steve Jobs unveils Apple iPad 2

March 3, 2011 by

Watch this video to know what is in store for those who are eagerly waiting for the release of Apple iPad 2.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004, though on medical leave since January 2011, presented the improved version of iPad and said, “We have been working on this product for a while and I just didn’t want to miss today.”

So, Jobs showed off the second generation of the iPad tablet computer on March 2, at an event in San Francisco. The new iPad which is scheduled for shipping on March 11 comes with two models in terms of color: the white iPad2, and the black iPad 2. Jobs said that Apple will be shipping out the white model on day one of starting shipping of the product.

Also, Jobs said the new version of iPad is 33% thinner than its predecessor, thinner than iPhone 4, and it weighs less than iPad 1. He said iPad 2 is also much faster as it is equipped with what he called the A5 processor, a new chip with a dual core processor. The machine is twice as faster on CPU performance and 9 times faster on graphics performance, Jobs said.

Also iPad 2 comes with two cameras to make video conferencing more convenient: a built-in rear camera and a front-facing camera. The other features included can be a video editing package iMovie and a music making program.

The all new design iPad 2 will be priced at the same old price of iPad 1, starting at $499 (£305). The gadget will have 10 hours battery life, and over one month standby, Steve Jobs said.

What Steve Jobs calls ‘the dramatically improved product’ will go on sale in the U.S. on 11 March, and later on 25 March it will be available in 26 other countries including the UK.

According to industry analysts, Apple iPads accounted for 95% of tablet computer sales until September 2010, but the sales declined to 75% by the end of 2010. The fall in sales is due to new tablet devices that are based on Android operating system, Google’s open-source product.

Microsoft Windows 7 and HP’s WebOS are the other platforms that are competing with Apple iPads. According to reports, a lot more products are expected to give tough competition to Apple’s tablet PC throughout 2011, as over 80 new devices have already appeared in the market.

Filed Under: Apps, Computers, Gadgets, Technology, video Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Wow!! a great mail alternative

March 2, 2011 by
screenshot of Mailinator free email service site

Screenshot of the site of Mailinator, the free email service

Many a time we are confronted with a situation where we are required to convey our email address to proceed with registering some service or freebies and you don’t want to give out your personal id since it means you are going to be bombarded with spams, ads and promotions. So what you require is a temporary email id where you can receive your token or confirmation mail and so on.

Here is Mailinator. Just enter whatever mail id you wish and you can login to that inbox at mailinator and you will have the mail token there! Yes you need not create any mail id or password or anything. Just put any random word as your id and login to that account. It’s a free service and do have some restrictions. Like any one can login to that id since no password is required. But that’s a small price for such an innovative service. Read out their FAQ for more info.

Filed Under: Apps, Technology, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: , ,

Funny experience while using Microsoft Word as an editor

March 1, 2011 by

It was with interest that I read some time ago from a blog post that posting directly from Microsoft Word to a blog or Facebook can have unpredictable and undesired funny results.

As many people may be using Microsoft Word for writing articles or editing, probably because the app helps in checking spelling and grammar and also to count the number of words in an article without manual counting, there is a tendency to post the edited articles directly into blogs. In such cases, especially in the visual mode, there is a possibility the article will carry with it the formatting code used by the program along with it and will not be visible.

I did not take it seriously, as I always use the HTML mode and I can always see the coding/ HTML that goes into the blog post. But the writer of the article claimed that even in HTML mode, there will be some codes associated with formatting in Microsoft Word, and carried to the posts and reappearing when re-posting, exporting/ importing, or re-tweeting.

I have noticed it happening while posting to the good old MS FrontPage that I used to use for HTML editing. And today a funny thing happened while I was sharing an interesting article I found on a friend’s blog on poverty in New York City to Facebook. After that I just posted an excerpt that I edited in Microsoft Word as my review to my Facebook post.

The words I posted were only:

Approximately 1.4 million New Yorkers rely on soup kitchens and food pantries. Please don’t make them beg

And what went into the Facebook box was a huge chunk of 17,330 characters/ 1272 words, instead of only 105 characters/ 17 words. See the entire code to format 17 words in the text box below (scroll it down, it is quite huge):

Advice: If you are using Microsoft Word as an editor, before posting to blogs, or other locations, first cut and paste to a plain editor like a Notepad and from there cut and paste to wherever you want so that the embarrassing hidden code like the above will disappear.

Filed Under: Apps, How-to, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Space Shuttle Discovery’s Final Mission

February 26, 2011 by

After a last minute computer hiccup almost threatened its thirty-ninth liftoff to the space, the six member crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery managed to blast off successfully from the Kennedy Space Centre.

The launch of Discovery was delayed for over three months as cracks developed in an external tank. In its final mission — from February 24, 2011 to March 7, 2011 — Discovery will deliver supplies and a module to the International Space Station.

The Space Shuttle Discovery is the oldest of the three currently operational orbiters in the Space Shuttle fleet of NASA. The other two operational orbiters are Atlantis and Endeavour, the final missions for which are also scheduled for the later part of this year.

Flying for the first time in 1984, Discovery became the third operational orbiter. Before its final and thirty-ninth space mission, it has circled the Earth 5,628 times, flying for over 143 million miles (230 million kilometers) and spending 352 days in space with 246 crews. Discovery has also deployed 31 satellites including Hubble Space Telescope.

Out of the five operational space shuttles in the space shuttle fleet of NASA, Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff on January 28, 1986 over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of central Florida, killing all its seven crew members.

In another disaster, Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated on its way back to Earth on February 1, 2003, before it was scheduled to conclude its 28th mission, disintegrating over Texas during reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere, causing the death of all the seven crew members.

The sixth Space Shuttle Enterprise was the first space shuttle orbiter of NASA, built for performing test flights in the atmosphere. It had no engines, and had no functional heat shield, making it unfit for space missions.

Filed Under: Technology, video Tagged With: , , , , ,

Browser Wars

February 24, 2011 by

Internet browsers have become the most used application of an average computer user. Gone are the days when one had to be content with the default IE that came shipped with the windows OS . Not long time back IE boasted of about 60-70% usage share of the browsers.The latest figures show they have been pegged down to about 43% with Mozilla firefox coming in second with about 27% share.

Today users have many options like Mozilla Firefox ,Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Opera , Apple Safari etc to choose from . And as in any market competition has meant user has become king with all of the above browsers claiming to be the better one with great features on offer.

One may compare the browsers on the basis of indicators like speed, average CPU usage, page load time, cache performance,memory usage etc.

Over the time what we have found is firefox is the right contender to be numero uno . They introduced us to the tabbed browsing and user customization through installable addons and plugins. And there are too many features incorporated to be briefed here. And google chrome claims to be the fastest out there.

We would like to go into the details of the browser shootout but that would come later . For now our personal rankings are as follows.
1. Firefox
2. Internet Explorer
3. Chrome
Safari,Opera follows suit.

Comments and views on the same are welcome

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: , , ,

Columbia Supercomputer at NASA’s Ames Research Center

February 20, 2011 by
Photo of Columbia Supercomputer at NASA's Ames Research Center, California

Photo: Columbia Supercomputer at Advanced Supercomputing Facility of NASA at Ames Research Center, photo by Trower, NASA

This supercomputer is named Columbia Supercomputer in honor of the crew of the ill-fated Space Shuttle Columbia that disintegrated over Texas on February 1, 2003. The disaster resulted in the death of all the seven crew – Commander: Rick D. Husband, Pilot: William C. McCool, Payload Commander: Michael P. Anderson (also in charge of science mission), Payload Specialist: Ilan Ramon (an Israeli Air Force colonel, also the first Israeli astronaut), Mission Specialist: Kalpana Chawla (an India-born aerospace engineer on her second space mission), Mission Specialist: David M. Brown, and Mission Specialist: Laurel Clark.

The Columbia Supercomputer was specially built for NASA by Silicon Graphics. The main purpose for which it was built was to “esimulate the violent collision and merger of spiral galaxies that lead to the formation of elliptical galaxies”. The supercomputer is connected to the NASA Research and Engineering Network. In 2004 it was installed at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility at Ames Research Center (ARC) located at Moffett Field in California’s Silicon Valley.

Filed Under: Computers, Gadgets Tagged With: , ,

How to choose your own header images

February 11, 2011 by
FREE Header Image for WordPress themes: size 1024 x 125 pixels

FREE Header Image for WordPress themes: size 1024 x 125 pixels

A suitable header image that highlights the contents of your blog or website makes your site stand out from the rest of the crowd. It also adds to the individuality and personal identification that you and your site are recognized by your friends, family, admirers, and all visitors.

People who are creative themselves can do this job exceptionally better than professional designers, who may sometimes burn a hole in your pocket for this simple job, though there are very good web designers who offer all that is needed for your site’s design in their package offer. Still you may need changes, or just need to change only the header image.

If you are a site owner who depends on professional services for everything this article is not for you. Also, if you are big enough to maintain paid staff for each and every aspect of your site and business, do not read this further. But if you are a do-it-yourself (DIY) site owner, or even a newbie blogger, this article will help you, and you MUST read it.

There are two ways you can get a suitable header image for your blog or site. The first sweat-free option is to make a search and find out suitable images for headers that are offered as public domain images, or free stock images, or whatever name they call for such images. You can find tons of such images on the internet. And the second step is to design your own header images.

It is easier than it sounds, and better for various reasons. First of all, some ready-to-use themes or site design templates that can be used without the knowledge of designing or coding will have options to upload your own header image, as a part of theme customization. Some of them will specify sizes, for example, 1024 x 125, or any other size. That means you have to upload the same size. With a bit of knowledge of resizing photos and images using Adobe Photoshop or other software, you can easily do it.

So, if you are designing your own headers, it is the easiest because you know the size of the header image and you can do it easily from the start of the header image designing work. The image above is created by me, and if you like it you can DOWNLOAD IT HERE and use it for free. If you need more designs, textures, backgrounds, etc., for your WordPress theme design work, you can view some of my free designs HERE. Or, if you need a different size header image for free, just contact us.

The other option is to get the entire work of WordPress installation, theme designing, SEO, etc. done through us so that you get everything at an affordable price that includes one of the best premium themes in the market, or a custom design exclusively created for your site.

Filed Under: How-to, Themes, WordPress Setup Tagged With: , , , ,

Tips – Limited Account

February 9, 2011 by

Many users must be facing the dilemma of constant virus and bot attacks in spite of having the best antivirus program installed. A very Basic and simple procedure is to create a limited account for daily use .

Yes , many a times in systems where multiple users have access, it is difficult to monitor what programs get installed or deleted, especially where children are involved . Once we have installed all the required programs and fine tuned them there is hardly any need for us to have the administrator rights kept enabled . So the simple way is to create a new account with limited rights . Windows XP onwards this can be done very easily from the control panel. And password protect the main administrator user. This new limited account can be used for daily use . In windows 7 there are further tweaks that can be applied to any user account like time limits, parental control etc.

In limited accounts there is restriction on installing new programs or modifying the registries. Most viruses and bots needs to make changes in the registry and services which will not be possible and hence will not be able to get installed in your system. So you can thus keep your system virus free and more ever clutter free also.

Filed Under: Tips and Tricks Tagged With: , ,

The latest Fad to hit the youth, Tablet PC

February 5, 2011 by

IPad-02

Gone are the days when you were judged by the phone you carry . The latest gadget to flaunt is the Tablet PC . And the frontrunner in this segment of course is Apple iPad. But Apple is not the sole player and others like Dell, Blackberry, Samsung, Olive and many Chinese brands have come out with their offerings.

Not long time back the entry of net-books was considered a turning point in the Desktop and laptop market realm. And it did manage to garner a major share in the worldwide markets largely due to its size,weight and price advantage. Like the advent of LCD and LED screens proved to be the death knell for CRT Monitors, will these Tablets prove to be the end of road for laptops and net-books? It seems highly possible. For these tablets are light weight, portable, powerful, futuristic and can do almost anything that a PC or laptop can do. At present the tablets of Apple, Samsung, Dell, Blackberry, etc. costs as much as Mid range laptops but with the Chinese and Korean companies coming up with cheap models the Price is bound to crash and even out.

And what all can you do on a Tablet PC? Well almost anything. You can browse the net on the move. listen to music, view videos, do social networking, receive and send mail, read write documents, spreadsheets, presentations, print documents, play games, so on and on and on. Technologically also it has everything you can wish for in a futuristic device. They have latest touch screens, HDMI output, motion sensors, Long battery life, multiple connectivity.

So while the Companies battle it out for their share of the pie, we the consumers are going to be spoilt for options and low price.

Filed Under: Gadgets Tagged With: , ,