Fresh Tech Tips

Soocial: Update Your Blackberry, Outlook, GMail and Mac Address Book In One Go

2009-05-05T07:33:00.001+05:30

There are several contact management services available on web. Some are commercial solutions and others are free to use. Every such application offers different features. Generally, we want to sync all our contacts regardless of the service or hardware device we are using. Here comes the role of a service that provides us the facility of syncing all contacts on multiple platforms from a centralized location.

Soocial is one such service that helps you manage your contacts with ease from a single location. You just have to update, edit and delete your contacts in your soocial account and all your connected accounts will be updated with new data automatically. Social supports following platforms and hardware devices.

1. Microsoft Outlook
2. BlackBerry (Coming soon)
3. GMail
4. Highrise
5. Mac Address Book
6. Your Mobile Device

Soocial provides a neat and easy-to-use web interface for complete contact management. It automatically backups your contact database and provides one-click restores. For developers, soocial also provides OAuth based API access for connecting your account with different 3rd party platforms or hardware devices. It's free to use and provides some great features at no cost.

5 Best Permanent File Erasers And Shredders

2009-05-04T08:40:00.002+05:30

Normally, a deleted file is only removed from the directory entry of the file system and still can be easily recovered back from a file recovery software. If you want to completely wipe out any trace of a file, a file shredder or permanent file deleter can do the trick. It completely overwrites junk characters on the space occupied by the original file and makes it unrecoverable.

Permanent Eraser - It is one of the best file erasing utilities for Mac OS X. This excellent software not just deleted files from hard drives, but also permanently erases the files from CD/DVD.

File Shredder - It is a powerful file deleting software for Windows platform. It is a freeware and very light on system resources. File shredder fills the file space with random binary junk making completely unrecoverable.

AbsoluteShield File Shredder - Yet another powerful and free file eraser for Windows. It erasing process is lightning fast and is ideal for permanently deleting files in bulk.

Heidi Eraser - This file shredder is available for Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 2003 Server and DOS. It is completely free and very light on system resources. This software is published under GNU General Public License and source code can be modified under license terms.

Easy Shred File Shredder - This is one of my favorite file shredding software. It has drag and drop support and shell integration. Simple right-click on a file and delete it forever. It is free and works on all major Windows OS.

Image Credit: Kasaa

WordPress Plugin Development: A Guide For Beginners

2009-04-10T08:38:00.001+05:30

If you are using WordPress as your blogging platform, most probably you are already familiar with plugins. These excellent add-ons help you extend the features of Wordpress giving you complete control on blog customization and enhancements. There are thousands of plugins available today supported by countless developers from around the globe who are developing these WordPress plugins for the ever-growing user base of this widely used blogging platform. Recently, Vladimir Prelovac has released his book entitled 'WordPress Plugin Development: Beginner's Guide', available from Packt Publishing which provides detailed step-by-step guide to create WordPress Plugins.

What immediately caught my attention about this book is the detailed step-by-step development process of 6 popular WordPress plugins, instead of giving bits and pieces in each chapter. Following are these 6 plugins.

1. Digg This - Adds Digg button to your posts.
2. Live Blogroll - Hovering mouse on blog links pops up recent posts from that blog.
3. WP Wall - No reload required to display the comments in sidebar.
4. Snazzy Archives - Archives presentation in a unique way.
5. Insights - Access your flickr images and articles directly in post editor.
6. Post Types - Pre-define post templates for quick insertion of photos and links.

Since each plugin mentioned above is made from scratch in each chapter, you get extensive code examples to properly understand the plugin-API. Because some of these plugins require dynamic content generation via WordPress database, you also learn the use AJAX and jQuery to achieve the same in a more optimized manner to speed up the execution. You also get to learn accessing third party APIs of Digg, flickr and many more.

Integration of TinyMCE plugin, WordPress hooks, forms submission through AJAX and Creating pop ups with CSS are some of the techniques you will learn during each plugin development process. A seperate section is dedicated for AJAX, so that developers who are not familiar with the technology can get a good hand on it before going ahead with the actual implementation of AJAX in the plugin.

All the development tools required to create a WordPress plugin are free. The book has a separate section in the beginning tabulating all the tools required for plugin development, where to get it and what is their use. The author of this book is an expert WordPress developer and has stressed on optimization and security of each WordPress plugin. You will also get to know the security issues and optimization techniques that are must for a successful WordPress plugin.

Who should read this book?

Whether you are a hard-core web developer or a hobbyist, if you have working knowledge of PHP, HTML and Wordpress, and if you want to develop your own WordPress plugin, this book is an excellent choice for you.

Book: WordPress Plugin Development: Beginner's Guide
Paperback: 278 pages [191mm x 235mm]
Publisher: Packt Publishing (Released: February, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN: 1847193595
ISBN-13: 978-1-847193-59-9
Also available as an e-book from Packt Publishing

10 Useful Facebook Tools and Add-Ons

2009-03-28T16:19:00.001+05:30

Facebook is one of the most popular social networking site with over 2 million members from every corner of the globe. There are countless 3rd party add-ons, widgets and plugins to enhance and enrich your Facebook experience. Here are some useful applications and extensions to spice up your Facebook account.

1. Facebook Toolbar - A very popular Firefox add-on that tightly integrates your Facebook account with your web browser. You can do search, upload and download photos, messages directly from this toolbar.

2. FriendMobilizer - This excellent application provides access to Facebook from wide range of smartphones and PDA's.

3. Facebook Desktop Client - A handy desktop application keeps you connected with Facebook and provides all updates, alerts right on your desktop.

4. LiveUpload - An excellent plugin for Windows that integrates with Windows Live Gallery facilitating direct uploads of photographs from Windows Live Gallery Beta to your Facebook account.

5. OutSync - A unique application that updates and syncs your Microsoft Outlook contacts photographs with that in your Facebook account.

6. Wordpress Fotobook - Want to keep all your Facebook photo albums on a single Wordpress page? Then use this handy Wordpress plugin to seamlessly import all your albums in your Facebook account.

7. Friendbar - A Facebook toolbar for Microsoft Internet Explorer. You can update your status, send scraps, share videos and web pages and can get alerts through this toolbar.

8. Wordbook - This Wordpress plugin integrates your Facebook account with your Wordpress blog and vice-versa.

9. Netvibes Widget - One of the popular widgets that lets you see your Facebook profile and friends from your personalized Netvibes home page.

10. Google Notifications Gadget - Integrates Facebook alerts into your Google Desktop application. Supports fluid resizing sidebar with internationalization support.

10 Best Free And Open Source CMS For Web Developers

2009-03-16T21:24:00.002+05:30

Web development has seen many changes in last decade. Some of the technologies has completely revolutionized this process. Prominent among them is use of content management systems (CMS). These systems provides a core-engine on which a site runs giving easy-to-use interface for web administrators. No coding from scratch is required. Just install it and your site is up in few minutes. Here are some of the best content management systems.

SilverStripe: This is one of the most flexible and easy-to-use content management system for editing the web sites. It's free and open source CMS that can be extended easily with plenty of add-ons like Sapphire Framework. SilverStripe is supported by plenty of modules, themes and widgets to give your site the desired look and feel.

Drupal: Yet another excellent free and open source content management system. Drupal is well known for its stability and large support community. You can find tons of themes, widgets and add-ons for this web development framework. Drupal also supports powerful user management system that includes authentication from various services like Jabber, Blogger, Live Journal and many more.

Joomla: Award winning open source and free content management system with easy-to-use interface. Like Drupal, this CMS also has a large support community. Joomla is well known for its extensions that add sophisticated features to an existing core-engine. Some large organizations of the world use Joomla as their CMS.

Frog CMS: This free and open source content management system is one of my favorites. Light weight, clean interface and very flexible. Frog CMS is based on Radiant CMS that worked on Ruby on Rails. This CMS requires PHP5, MySQL or SQLite3 for its working. A must try for every budding web developer.

Plone: A sophisticated multi-platform (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, Solaris) content management system with tons of features. Ideal for power users who want to make large dynamic web site. Plone comes with clustering capability and intelligent caching proxy integration. It also supports hardened role-based security model.

CushyCMS: No installation is required to use this innovative content management system. You just have to create an account for integrating your existing web site with CushyCMS system. Once the integration is done, you can directly edit the site code from within its user friendly interface. The integration process just takes a minute by supplying your FTP details for site connectivity. You can assign different roles (designer, content editor) to your web development team for restrictive access to your CushyCMS account.

Mambo: A flexible, free and open source CMS with large support community. Mambo is available for multiple platforms (Linux, Windows IIS, Mac OS X, FreeBSD). You can find tons of plugins and add-ons for this excellent content management system. Mambo is known for its stability and powers millions of sites. You can download additional language packs to add support for multiple languages.

Typo3: An ideal content management system for large scale distributed systems involving intranets. Offers tons of add-ons from its rich Typo3 extension repository. If you are working on a multi-location dynamic web portal with a large development team, this CMS is your best bet. Typo3 has a strong support community that provides quick answers to new users.

dotCMS: A light weight and extremely flexible content management system. dotCMS supports content versioning and rollback in case something goes wrong. This powerful CMS also supports AJAX Photo Galleries,RSS Feeds, Streaming MP3 Player, Social Networking, Video Player / Galleries, Google Maps Integration, Online Form Creator / Handler and much more.

modx: This CMS is also one of my favorites because of its excellent interface that makes even a newbie developer feel at home. modx CMS has full support of Web 2.0 Ajax technology. modx has perhaps the best rich text editors for easy and fast web site coding. You can also switch to strict XHTML 1.0 coding format to meet the quality standards required by your project.

There are dozens of free content management systems available on Internet. The list presented here is picked randomly and in no way represent the popularity of any content management system.

AdSweep: Ad Blocking Plugin For Opera And Google Chrome

2009-02-24T21:18:00.001+05:30

Firefox users use AdBlock Plus to filter out advertisements from web pages. What about Opera and Chrome users? An excellent ad-blocker plugin/add-on has been developed that works smoothly both on Opera and Google Chrome.

AdSweep is an equivalent of AdBlock Plus for Opera and Chrome users. Although, it has been developed for Opera, you can easily use it for Google Chrome too.

Installation On Opera

1. Extract the javascript file from Zip archive after download and save it in a directory.
2. Go to 'Tools -> Preferences...'.
3. Select 'Advanced' tab and select 'Content' menu item.
4. Click 'Javascript Options button and select the Adsweep .js file through file browsing dialogue box. Click 'OK'.

Installation On Google Chrome

1. Extract the AdSweep.js from Zip archive and rename it to AdSweep.user.js.
2. Place this file in Chrome's user script directory.
3. Right click Chrome's shortcut and select 'Properties' option.
4. Select 'Shortcut' tab and append --enable-user-scripts to the string in 'Target' field.
5. Make sure there is space between the old string and your appended string. Click 'OK' and save.

5 Best Linux Live CDs

2009-02-23T22:50:00.001+05:30

If you are new to Linux and are hesitant to make your system dual boot before getting a good taste of this popular open source OS, here is a collection of best Linux live CD's that will boot up an entire operating system without the need to install it on your hard disk.

1. KNOPPIX - One of most popular Live CD distribution and my favorite. This highly compressed distribution contains over 2GB of useful software giving you almost every tool found on a typical desktop system.

2. Ubuntu - In recent years, Ubuntu has raised itself as a leader in desktop version of Linux. This famous distribution also provides Live CD's for every new released distribution.

3. Gentoo - Light weight and very fast booting. Gentoo provides Live CD's for x686 and AMD (64-bit) platforms. Good Live distro for low configuration systems.

4. openSUSE - Novell offers two variants of Live CD (KDE Version & GNOME Version). Ideal for normal home/SOHO users.

5. FreeBSD LiveCD - A power-packed Linux Live CD for power users. A robust distro with advanced tools to convert your machine into a desktop, server, web server, router, bridge or a firewall. Recommended for experts.

How To Configure Multiple-Inboxes In GMail

2009-02-15T12:53:00.003+05:30

One of the latest feature of GMail - 'Multiple Inboxes' has made my life easy. It is very flexible and highly customizable feature. I have noticed some of my followers on twitter are wondering how to effectively use this feature. So let's see how to use this excellent feature to save our time and be more productive.

Although you can use this feature in many different ways, I'll show you how I am using it to save my time. If you receive lots of mails on daily basis and struggle to read/answer all of them in time, here is a good solution for you.

I receive about 150 mails (avg) daily. These mails include social media notifications/alerts, RSS subscriptions, readers mails, mails from peers and other random stuff.

Earlier all these mails were stored in one location (inbox) and I used to process them in reverse order (older-to-newer). This methodology was a big time-waster. Then I found an intuitive solution to this problem. I enabled the Multiple Inboxes feature and created 3 new inboxes. Then I created several filters such that a partucliar type of mail lands in its respective inbox.

For example, any mail coming from Digg will automatically land in Social Media inbox. This helped me in segregating the mails according to their type. Once you configure this feature, its on autopilot. The benefit of this approach is that you can process the high priority mails first, leaving less important mails to be processed later.

Let me give you an example, how to create an inbox and how to create a supporting filter to automate this segregating process.

1. Enable feature - Go to Settings -> Labs and enable the Mutiple Inboxes feature.

2. Create a label for new inbox - Go to Settings -> Labels and create a new label. Choose an appropriate name for the inbox. Let's assume you want to name your new inbox - 'Feed Subscriptions'. Your aim is to filter out all your incomng subscription mails such that they automatically land in this new inbox.

3. Create a new inbox - After creating the label, you will find a new Multiple Inboxes tab in settings.

Go to this tab and remove all the default pane entries in it. Now write label:Feed Subscriptions in the first pane. Choose 'Below the inbox' from 'Extra panels positioning:' option. This will ensure that the new inbox is placed right below in inbox.

4. Create filter - The last step is to create required filters. Remember, you may have to create many filters but it will be one time process. For example you want all your incoming mails from no-reply@digg.com should land in this new inbox. To achieve this, go to 'Settings -> Filters -> Create a new filter'. Paste the email address in From and click Next Step. Select the Skip the Inbox (Archive it) option. Now check the Apply the label: and choose the 'Feed Subscriptions' label from the drop down box. Click Create Filter and done.

Similarly, you can create more inboxes and required filters to completely automate this process and group your incoming mails according to their type and priority.

iCore: Create Virtual Accounts In Your Windows Machine

2009-02-06T20:03:00.003+05:30

There are many virtualization software available on Internet including sandbox software running your system in isolation. However most of these software create an aditional layer on top of host OS adding more overhead on system resources.

On the other hand, iCore goes one step ahead and creates OS-level (Container-based) virtualization for your windows machine. With iCore, you can create virtual windows accounts and can create isolated environment within that account giving you complete security to test new software or to browse internet.

In case a virus spreads in your system while browsing Internet through your iCore virtual account, there is no need to worry. Just delete to iCore account and the rest of the system remains unaffected.

If you want to test any new software, game or any other custom software but are worried of any hidden malicious code within that account, then install and use it in iCore virtual account without the fear of any infection in your Windows machine.

How To Listen Free Web Radio On Google Talk

2009-02-02T19:05:00.000+05:30

There are thousands of digital radio channels on Internet that you can listen while browsing the net. Through an excellent VOIP service you can listen to countless radio channels via Google Talk.

GTalk2VoIP is a popular service offering VOIP and SMS services. Since most of the web radio stations are free you can use this service to listen radio stations via Google Talk.

Start with adding service@gtalk2voip.com to your buddy list in Google Talk. Once this bot appears online, type IM RADIO command to display the number of available radio channels. The available radio channels will be prefixed by a number (id) identifying each station uniquely. To listen a particular radio station, simply send a command RADIO (number/id). For example, RADIO 137. A call connection will be established and you will asked to pick the call. Accept the call and enjoy the radio station.

Best Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts

2009-01-23T11:32:00.002+05:30

As Windows 7 official release time is coming near, more and more people are trying the beta and leaked versions of Windows 7. Some say it is a tweaked version of Vista, while others say it is completely a new operating system. Let's see some of the best keyboard shortcuts of this much awaited operating system.

1. Win + L : Locks the computer system. Also present in old version of windows.

2. Win + G: Brings all the windows gadgets to front in a single click, regardless of how many other applications or modal windows are opened.

3. Win + D: Show and hide Windows desktop. Works in toggle mode.

4. Win + M: This excellent key combination minimizes all opened windows in a flash.

5. Win + E: What more can we expect! Yes, you guessed right, this key combination launches Internet Explorer.

6. Win + #: Activates Windows Quicklaunch system.

7. Win + +Zoom active window In/Out

8. Win + Shift + Left: In dual monitor mode, jumps to left monitor.

9. Win + Shift + Right: In dual monitor mode, jumps to right monitor.

10. Win + P: Activates dual-monitor mode.

10 Best Greasemonkey Scripts For Better Twitter Experience

2009-01-20T14:48:00.002+05:30

Twitter is growing rapidly as one of the best microblogging platform. Developers are coming up with hundreds of twitter applications. These 3rd party apps not only makes tweeting fun but also add several features for better tweeting experience. Let's see the best Greasemonkey scripts that will enrich and enhance your twitter experience.

1. Twitter Live Updater - This script updates your twitter timeline in your account's homepage without refreshing the browser. The timeline is updated every minute.

2. Twitter Mod - This is a powerful script that enhances the twitter UI with many add-on features like tinyurl previews, addition of followers list under friends list, profile popup and many more.

3. Twitter Lite - As the name implies, this is a light weight twitter client that opens in your browser without hindering your opened web pages. Just hit 'Shift - T' and this excellent twitter client pops up at bottom right corner of Firefox browser.

4. Twitter Highlight - This useful script hightlight all those tweets in your timeline that are sent to you starting with @yourtwitterid.

5. Twitter Profile Popup - One of the most popular and very handy script. Just hover your mouse on any twitter profile image and a popup will be displayed containing profile information for that user.

6. Nested Twitter Replies - Just like threaded comments on various blogging platforms, this script nests the twitter conversation trail giving you better picture of your interaction with particular user.

7. TwitPic Previewer - One of the best time saving script. If you get lots of pictures via twitpic, this script can be very handy. Just hover your mouse over twitpic link and preview the sent picture.

8. Google Reader + Twitter - If you are an avid user of Google Reader, at times you may have wanted to tweet a good post from your favorite feed reader. Just install this script and tweet posts to directly from Google Reader.

9. Delete Twitter Messages - Another time saving script for those who gets tons of direct messages. Just install this script and with one click you can erase all direct messages in your twitter account.

10. Retweet This - Adds a retweet button below the regular delete and reply buttons in your twitter account for easy one click retweeting.

Stay Connected On Facebook With Facebook For BlackBerry

2009-01-19T10:03:00.002+05:30

Do you own a BlackBerry Smartphone? Developers has created an excellent application to access Facebook from Blackberry. This application is light weight and rich in features.

Facebook for BlackBerry is completely free application and is available for almost all models of BlackBerry. Facebook for BlackBerry enables you to access messages, wall posts, photos and status updates as soon as any change is reflected in your account.

This excellent software is available for the following models.

1. BlackBerry Bold
2. BlackBerry Curve
3. BlackBerry Pearl 8220
4. BlackBerry Pearl 8100 Series
5. BlackBerry 8800 Series

The application is used by over 3 million users that shows the stability and popularity of this application. You can customize various settings for alerts and updates according to your needs.

10 Best Adobe AIR Applications For Web Developers And Designers

2009-01-15T14:36:00.001+05:30

Developers around the world are making dozens of niche Adobe AIR applications every month. Some very useful and time saving applications have been created for web developers and designers. Here are the best 10 that can enrich your designing experience.

Some of these applications are big time savers and can reduce your development time significantly. All listed applications are less than a MB and light on system resources.

1. Splashup Light : Photo Editing Application

Splashup Light is light weight image editing application made for web designers and photographers. Not only you can perform general image editing tasks, but can also add special effects, speech bubbles and similar effects with a click of a button.

2. Color Browser: Palette Creation Application

This is one of the most popular AIR application among web developers. The handy tool is the ultimate palette creation and organizing tool. You can create and organize your favorite palettes with ease with this application. Ideal for theme and template designers.

3. Icon Generator: CS3 and Web 2.0 Icon Generator

This handy application can create CS3 and Web 2.0 style icons in less than 15 seconds. Very light weight and ideal for theme developers. All you need is typing the icon text and selecting the color scheme and style.

4. Pixus: Screen Object Measuring Application

I would strongly recommend every theme designer to install this application. Less than 200KB application, but works wonders. You can know the size of any object on the screen with this handy tool. Very useful while designing web templates.

5. Font Picker: Font Selection Application

This excellent application detects all the fonts installed on your system and helps you in selecting the right font for your template. You can type desired text in each font entry to preview the font style before selecting it. A great time saver application for web designers.

6. Color Picker Application

As the name implies this application lets you pick and generate colors with a click of button. You can also create custom colors by three RGB sliders provided in the application.

7. Em Calculator: Better Typography (Vertical Rhythm Calculator)

A must have tool for every web developer. This excellent application helps in calculating accurate em-pixel typography conversions and help you make standard web sites for better browsing experience for visitors.

8. Webkut: Screen Capturing Application

Very useful screen capturing application that allows you to capture entire web pages or selected region. This application also supports one click flickr uploads and preview before saving options.

9. Snippely: Text and Code Organization Application

This application is ideal for keeping track of large web sites code. You can easily create different groups and can organize code snippets and notes for better reference and updation. Very handy tool for web programmers.

10. Google Analytics Reporting Suite

The name says it all. One of the most popular Adobe AIR applications used by webmasters and developers. This application acts as a desktop client for your Google Analytics account. It has stunning interface with advanced reporting right on your desktop.

5 Best PDAs To Rock The Market In 2009

2008-12-24T19:33:00.002+05:30

There are dozens of PDAs available in the market, but some of them beat every other in their segment. The power, flexibility and loads of applications makes them way ahead from their competitors. Here are five best PDAs that you may want to buy in 2009.

1. Hewlett-Packard iPAQ 200 / 210 / 211 / 212 / 214

Features

1. Big 4" 480x640 transflective TFT display
2. OS: Microsoft® Windows Mobile® 6 Classic
3. 128 MB SDRAM, 256 MB Flash ROM
4. 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.0
5. 32bit Marvell PXA310, 624MHz CPU
6. 2200 mAh Lithium-ion battery
7. 2.97 x .69 x 5.27 in (75.4 x 17.5 x 133.9 mm), 6.6 oz (190 g)
8. mini-USB port, 3.5mm audio jack, CF I./CF II./MMC/SD/SDHC/SDIO

2. Pharos Traveler 535e/535PB/535+

Features

1. Vibrant 3.5” TFT color LCD
2. OS: Microsoft® Windows Mobile® for Pocket PC Premium Edition
3. 128MB Flash ROM, 64MB SDRAM
4. Intel Bulverde 312 MHz processor
5. Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, IrDA
6. 1200mAh Li-Ion Battery
7. 2.8in(W) x 4.6in(H) x 0.6in(T), 160 g
8. RS232 serial, USB 1.1
9. 3.5 mm Earphone jack, SD/MMC, SDIO Expansion Slots

3. DAP 2240X WE

Features

1. 3.8" 240 x 320 transflective TFT display
2. OS: Microsoft® Windows Mobile® 6 Classic
3. 64 MB RAM, 384 MB (NAND Flash) ROM
4. XScale - PXA255 @ 400 MHz
5. 802.11b, 802.11g, Bluetooth 1.2
6. 3800 mAh NiMH Battery
7. CF I., CF II Exp Slots, RS-232, USB 1.1 client, 12Mbit/s
USB B
8. 95 x 165 x 45 mm, 490 g

4. Nokia n810 WiMAX Edition

Features

1. 4.13” 800 x 480 px WVGA touch screen display
2. OS: Nokia Internet Tablet OS 2008 Edition Maemo 4.1 (Diablo)
3. 128 MB RAM, 2 GB internal memory
4. TI HS OMAP 2420 Processor @ 400Mhz
5. WiMAX 802.16e / 2.5GHz, 802.11b/g
6. 2.83 in (L) x 5.04 in (W) x 0.63 in (D), 8.06 oz (225 g)
7. USB 2.0, 480Mbit/s micro-USB
8. Nokia BP-4L Battery

5. Palm® Tungsten™ E2 handheld

Features

1. 320x320 Transflective TFT
2. OS: Palm® OS® Garnet (v5.4)
3. Intel® 200MHz XScale processor
4. 32MB Flash Memory
5. MultiMediaCard, SD, SDIO Expansion Slot, Bluetooth
6. 0.59 in (L) x 4.5 in (H) x 3.1 in (W), 4.7 oz
7. Lithium Ion 1050 mAH Tungsten™ E Battery
8. USB Sync Cable with Multi Connector, Stylus

Mobile Web Development: The Future Is Here

2008-12-18T23:08:00.003+05:30

Mobile communications have literally exploded in the last decade, resulting in exponential growth of mobile subscribers around the globe. With the introduction of 3G technology, mobile platform is turning into a personal computer. We can see new mobile applications being written for various mobile platforms around the world, whether it is Symbian, Windows Mobile, iPhone or Google's Android. Websites and blogs have also started to create their mobile versions. The share of mobile web development is increasing at fast pace and has very bright future. Recently, Nirav Mehta has released his book entitled 'Mobile Web Development', available from Packt Publishing which provides in-depth coverage of developing mobile web applications, whether its a minimal basic web app or a complex web application including multimedia features. If you have working knowledge of XHTML, CSS and Ajax, you can easily develop your own data driven mobile web applications after reading this book. The book can be broadly divided into three parts. viz.,

1. Mobile web development basics
2. Building business oriented mobile web applications
3. Advanced concepts: Integrating Payment system and multimedia web development

Mobile Web Development Basics

For better understanding of the subject, an example mobile website (Pizza on the Run) is taken by the author and the whole site is built from scratch. New features are added as the reader go through each chapter. This approach involves real coding examples giving the reader the very best in understanding the development concepts. The first two chapters provides a solid foundation of principles of mobile web development. Cutting edge technologies like WCSS, XHTML MP and mobile AJAX are introduced in these two chapters.

Building Business Oriented Mobile Web Applications

Next 4 chapters provides in-depth coverage of layout & designing of mobile website, integrating payment systems, bulk SMS capability and various optimizing methodologies depending on the mobile platform and hardware. This section also gives detailed information about configuring your own SMS gateway and to seamlessly integrate text services in your mobile website.

Chapter 4 explains very vital part of mobile web app development. This chapter explains different techniques about detecting device capabilities and providing the appropriate version of mobile web app to the visitor according to the hardware configuration of the mobile device. Various device detection libraries are explained in this chapter making it one of my favorite section.

Advanced concepts: Integrating Payment System and Multimedia Web Development

The last section goes one step further and provide the latest technologies that can be easily integrated in any mobile website. These technologies include receiving photos from from customers via MMS, sending information through MMS integrating paypal payment system, premium SMS and short codes, receiving text messages via short codes. The book also explains about future-proofing your mobile web app by explaining the basics of iPhone development and Android platform.

Chapter 9 provides very detailed information about integrating interactive voice response (IVR) platform to your mobile web app. Advanced concepts like speech recognition is also covered in this chapter. The last 2 chapters covers my favorite topics. Integrating Ajax interface, provide fast Ajax forms for your customers, mobile widgets, and of course iPhone and Android mobile web devlopement basics.

Who should read this book?

After completing this book, you will be able to make your own state of the art mobile website giving the best browsing experience for your valued customers. You will also be able to integrate payment systems, MMS, SMS and various user interaction features (touchscreen, keypads) on your mobile website.

If you are planning to do some serious mobile web development, then this book is for you. The book will guide you in creating, managing and customizing your own mobile web application by using the available tools for developers. Working knowledge of XHTML, CSS and Ajax is required to develop mobile web applications.

Book: Mobile Web Development
Paperback: 236 pages [191mm x 235mm]
Publisher: Packt Publishing (February, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN: 1847193439
ISBN-13: 978-1-847193-43-8
Also available as an e-book from Packt Publishing

10 Best Windows Vista Themes

2008-12-16T18:32:00.003+05:30

Although Vista didn't got that much success as compared to XP, still it has fairly large user base. The premium edition comes with stylish Aero interface. Here are some excellent Windows Vista themes that can add that extra pinch in your desktop.

1. AeroVG Theme

This stylish vista theme comes with transparent start menu and task bar, giving totally different browsing experience. AeroVG themes's check boxes and radio buttons are of Apple leopard style giving a mixed Windows and Apple experience.

Download AeroVG Vista Theme

2. Indigo Theme

Another highly popular theme with transparent address bar and transparent search. Other features include 3D user pic with new shell style. Doesn't take much system resources and definitely worth trying.

Download Indigo Vista Theme

3. Broken Aero Theme

Make sure you have installed Windows Blinds Theme rendering engine to use this theme. Very stylish and light on system resources. Great animation effects and smooth rendering of broken edged sides makes it a unique theme.

Download Broken Aero Vista Theme

4. XBox 360 Theme

Stunning graphics with loads of features. To install this theme on XP you have to first apply XP Theme Patcher (not needed for Vista).

Download XBox 360 Vista Theme

5. M7 Remix Theme

Elegant theme with shady rounded windows. Large icons support and light on system resources.

Download M7 Remix Vista Theme

6. Harmony Theme

Cool green Vista theme with frosty windows. One of the most popular theme with high quality rendering of windows.

Download Harmony Vista Theme

7. Blue Aurora Shellstyle Theme

Crisp green with transparent windows soothing to eyes. Works fine even on low end systems. This theme is based on 7’s Control Panel navigation pane.

Download Blue Arora Shellstyle Vista Theme

8. Auroh The Final Release Theme

One more extremely popular Vista theme with stylish transparent menus and windows. This theme has extremely stylish logon screen that makes it one of the most installed Vista themes.

Download Auroh The Final Release Vista Theme

9. Camouflage Final Vista Basic Theme

Stylish beige theme with rounded and shaded windows. This theme is also available for Windows XP.

Download Camouflage Final Vista Basic Theme

10. Cleaero Theme

Another blue Vista theme with transparent windows and taskbar. Soothing to eyes and very light on system resources.

Download Cleaero - Vista Theme

All skins compiled from deviantART Visual Styles.

How To Hide Drives In XP and Vista

2008-12-14T16:07:00.002+05:30

Sometimes you may want to hide the entire drive instead of specific folders. You can do it very easily in two ways. One method requires updating the windows registry, and other one requires some simple commands on command prompt. Both these methods work well on XP and Vista to hide entire drives.

Method - 1 : Registry Hack To Hide Entire Drive

1. Open Windows Registry through 'RegEdit' command.

2. Go to following path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

3. Create a new Key of type '32-bit DWORD' and name it NoDrives.

4. To hide drive C: give a value 4 in this key. For drive D: give value 8, for drive E: 16, for drive F: give value 32 and so on...

5. Reboot Windows and see your drive completely hidden. To unhide, simply delete the 'NoDrives' key.

Method - 2 : Hiding Drives Through Command Prompt

1. Go To 'Start -> Run' and type 'diskpart'.

2. To hide drive D:, type 'remove letter D'.

3. To unhide the drive anytime, type 'assign letter D'.

Top 5 iPhone Accessories - Editors Choice

2008-12-12T13:24:00.002+05:30

iPhone it perhaps the most popular mobile phone used by millions of people. The phone carries tons of features and applications. Adding some cool accessories to your iPhone can make you stand apart from the lot. Let's see some popular and useful accessories for your iPhone.

1. Belkin Sport Armband

This light-weight, washable and water resistant sport armband for iPhone is perfect for sports person, moutaineeers, trackers and bikers. The armband comes with lifetime warranty and is a good value for money.

2. Blueant V12 Bluetooth Headset

One of the best selling Bluetooth headset for iPhone. Integrated LCD display with 12 digit caller ID enabled. Supports vibrate alert for incoming calls. Powered by rechargeable lithium polymer battery with talk time of up to 12 hours and 360 hours of standby time.

3. iGrip Universal Fit Sturdy Swivel Mount for iPhone (Car Kit)

Ideal for people spending most time on rough roads. Heavy duty, durable mount for iPhone, giving you hands free driving. Vibration proof and rugged construction makes it the most durable iPhone mount for car in the market. Adjustable holder can be shifted in 4 directions (left, right, top and bottom) giving you ample flexibility for arranging your iPhone position as per your requirement.

4. Mobi Products Crystal Case With Clip for iPhone

Best selling iPhone cases with a price tag of just $0.99. Available in many colors, lightweight, transparent and durable. This case comes along with a removable belt clip.

5. Smartphone Experts Car Charger

Ideal for recharging your iPhone in your car while on move. Light weight, 18 inches long coil with LED indicator. This car charger is compatible with most 12-volt auto power outlets.

3G Mobile Services Launched In India

2008-12-12T09:41:00.002+05:30

India has finally launched 3G Mobile services for its mobile service subscribers. The service was officially announced by Prime Minister Manmohan on 11th Dec, 2008 in Delhi.

Currently, the service (Jadoo) will be offered by MTNL in selective areas of Delhi, which will be later extended to whole of the NCR region. BSNL will be given spectrum to provide 3G services in other part of the country.

Subscribers will get a maximum of 600 kpbs broadband service and can experience more reach multimedia experience from their 3G enabled phones. More detailed tariff [plans will be decided by the companies once it will launched in other parts of the country.

Mobile handset companies are planning to roll out low-cost 3G enabled handsets to tap the huge Indian market.

10 Best Free CD-DVD Burning Software

2008-12-11T22:10:00.002+05:30

There are many commercial as well as free DVD burning software. Nero is one of the most popular commercial solution available. The free alternatives are not behind and match the features and performance of Nero. Here is a comprehensive list of 10 best free DVD burning software.

1. CDBurnerXP

One of the most popular free DVD burning software. Supports Blue Ray discs, HD DVD. Very user friendly and attractive interface.

2. DeepBurner (Free Edition)

Very handy and light weight. A portable version of DeepBurner is also available.

3. DVD Shrink

DVD Shrink is an excellent software to back up Video DVD's. Very light on system resources.

4. ImgBurn

Supports both HD DVD and Blue Ray Disks. This software is available for Windows as well as Linux platform, and has tons of advanced options for expert users.

5. Burn4Free

Burns CD/DVD/HD-DVD, MP3 and much more. I would strongly recommend to try this software.

6. BurnOn CD/DVD Free

Tons of features with lots of options packed in attractive user interface. Supports all major formats.

7. BurnAware Free

Supports Blue Ray disks, light weight and fast burning. Definitely worth trying.

8. Totally Free Burner

Extremely light weight and installs in seconds. This is one of the most fast DVD burning software.

9. InfraRecorder

Another hugely popular DVD burning software. IrfaRecorder come under GPL license and has a very simple interface with no fuss.

10. StarBurn

Supports Blue Ray disks, HD DVD and all other major formats. Create copies, burn, rip or create bootable disks.

Out of these 10 DVD burning software, I would definitely recommend trying ImgBurn, CDBurnerXP and Totally Free Burner.

Best GMail Management Tips: Part - 1

2008-12-10T13:58:00.004+05:30

GMail is one of the most popular e-mail service on Internet with millions of users across the globe. It has been a long time since it is in beta stage. Google is adding new features to it at fairly consistent pace and it has become the favorite mail service for many of us. As our contacts grow, so do inflow of mails in our inbox. Let's see some useful GMail Tips and Tricks to effectively manage our GMail accounts.

GMail Security Tips

Last month, we saw many stories covering domain hacks due to some vulnerability in GMail. Although GMail has officially clarified that their mailing system has no such flaw, still many of us are concerned about their sensitive data in the account. Here are some security measures that can be implemented to harden the security of our GMail account.

Switch on 'Always use https' option to make your your GMail data stream encrypted. If you have old sluggish system, your GMail experience may become slow afer activating this option. For activating this option go to 'Settings -> General (tab)'.

Disable mail forwarding option to avoid auto-mail forwarding to any unknown mailing address. You can turn on this feature from 'Settings -> Forwarding and POP/IMAP' and selecting the 'Disable forwarding' radio button. Once this option is enabled, it will override any other mail forwarding rule created in your account.

Disable IMAP to prevent access of mails from any e-mail client like Outlook or Thunderbird. To turn off IMAP, go to 'Settings -> Forwarding and POP/IMAP'. It may happen that sometimes you configure any e-mail client in office PC or some other place and later forget to flush all the information. In this case any third person can easily get access to your account. It is always advised not to configure any e-mail clients on a shared computer, and in case you have to do that, make sure you erase all your accounts settings when you do not use that system.

GMail filters have amazing power for better management of mails. Last month, when several domain hacks were reported on makeuseof dot com, hackers used GMail filters to get the sensitive information. How they managed to do it is still a question for debate. Learning a lesson from these incidents, now I always check my filters once in 24 hours to make sure there is no suspicious mail forwarding filter which is not made by me. I strongly suggest you to do the same on regular basis and do not open any unsolicited mails.

Adding Multiple E-Mail Addresses To GMail

Interestingly, you can use GMail as a central hub for all your e-mail communication including personal and business correspondence. GMail gives you the flexibility to use external e-mail addresses for sending mails. Let's see how to do it.

1. Go to 'Settings -> Accounts' and click 'Add another email address' link.

2. A pop-up window will be opened and you will be asked to provide 'Name' and 'EMail Address'. Click the 'Send Verification' button to receive a code for verifying your email address.

3. Enter the verification code in the text box provided in the pop-up window to complete the process. Now you can use this email address in the 'From:' field.

You can go ahead one step further by forwarding all your emails coming on external email addresses to your GMail account. Now you never have to leave your GMail inbox for using any external email addresses.

Creating Folders/Labels In Gmail

Another very useful feature in GMail is 'Labels', that can be used to get the functionality of folders. Combining it with the power of GMail filters, you can automate the process of sorting and segregating the mails.

Labels can also be compared to TAGS that are associated with item. To create a label choose 'New label...' from 'More Actions' drop down list. To apply label to any email, simply open or select that mail and choose the appropriate label from 'More Actions' drop down list. You can see all mails associated with a particular label by clicking that label name from the list of labels on left hand sidebar.

Automating Tasks With Gmail Filters

GMail filter is one of the most powerful feature that can make your life easy by automating day-to-day activities. With the help of filters you can automatically delete, archive, forward, label and can do many other similar tasks. GMail filters support advanced filtering supported by pattern searching that can fine tune your filter giving you the desired result you want from it.

To build a fresh filter, click the 'Create a filter' link and follow the simple step by step wizard to create a filter as per your requirements. Some common filters are,

1. Deleting mails received from certain domains
2. Deleting mails containing certain words
3. Forwarding specific mails to specific accounts. (May keep a copy too)
4. Applying labels to mails according to their address and content
5. Archiving mails according to their address and content
and much more...

With filters we can automate these common tasks and can reduce our burden to great extent.

Send Free Fax Across The World In Over 100 Countries

2008-12-06T12:47:00.002+05:30

Fax is still one of the most important medium of exchanging business documents, important papers and similar stuff. Here is an excellent site that let's you send fax free of cost to more than 100 countries.

Burnham Free Fax service exactly does as it promises to its users.

Before sending the fax, you can check whether the destination of your fax is supported by this free fax service. Make sure you provide your e-mail address before sending the fax, so that later you can receive the acknowledgment of your fax.

For sending the fax, type the fax number in the following format 'country code + area code + fax number'. Make sure you remove the first 0 before the area code, if any. For example: if country code is 56, area code is 01567 and fax number is 5678345, then you have to type 5615675678345. Note, I have removed 0 from the area code.

Top 7 Google Chrome Add-Ons And Plugins

2008-12-04T20:00:00.002+05:30

Google's web browser Chrome is steadily making its space in web browsing market. So far, feedback from the users is encouraging and this browser is giving tough fight to Firefox. Here are some best add-ons for Google Chrome web browser.

1. blurkMAC - Mac OS X Chrome Theme

Transforms Chrome's appearance with a stunning Mac OS-X look and feel. Light on system resources and very easy to install.

2. Chrome Addon - Google Chrome Backup

Google Chrome backup add-on creates, backups, restores and manages Chrome profiles. All history, bookmarks and related stuff are maintained very easily with this add-on.

3. Chrome Addon - ChromePass

Excellent add-on for recovering passwords stored by Chrome. Along with password following information is also displayed. a) Origin URL b) Action URL c) User Name d) Field e) Password Field f) User Name g) Password h) Created Time

4. XChrome - Theme Manager

XChrome is a complete theme manager and installs different skins with a click of button.

5. Chrome Addon: Portable Chrome For USB Stick

Tiny version of Google Chrome ideal for carrying in your USB memory stick. Light and zippy with all core features of Chrome.

6. Google Chrome Dual View Plugin

This plugin splits the viewing pane into two halves and lets you browse two sites simultaneously.

7. Google Chrome Plugin: PageRank Status Checker

This excellent plugin adds the facility of checking Google Page Rank and Alexa Rank at the same time.

Google engineers are working towards full support of Firefox plugins in Chrome and we can expect the same in 1st or 2nd quarter of 2009.

Intel Launches Intel Core i7: Fastest Processor On Planet

2008-11-19T10:30:00.002+05:30

Intel has launched a new desktop x86-64 processor, claiming to be the fastest in its segment till date. It has been given the name 'Intel Core i7'. Three variants has been launched with different configurations.

Core i7 are quad core processors and are based on Intel Nehalem microarchitecture.

Intel Core i7

Core i7 has two variants:

1. Intel Core i7-920
2. Intel Core i7-940

Core-920 has the clock speed of 2.66 GHz, 256 KB L2/core & 8 MB shared L3 cache with DDR3-1066 memory speed support. Price: $284

Core-940 has the clock speed of 2.93 GHz, 256 KB L2/core & 8 MB shared L3 cache with DDR3-1066 memory speed support. Price: $562

Intel Core i7 (Extreme Edition)

Core-965 (Extreme Edition) has the clock speed of 3.2 GHz with 8 core threads, 256 KB L2/core & 8 MB shared L3 cache with DDR3-1066 memory speed support. Price: $999