Saturday, January 18, 2014

Convert Audio and Video Files to any Format right on your Android Phone

For all the people out there who love to watch videos or listen to songs a lot, this post should prove to be quite helpful. Well, if you are entertainment lover then you know there are lot many audio and video formats that it sometimes become very irritating to find out that the file we have with us is not supported by our media player.
There are two options available as a solution to this problem, one that you install somemedia player that can play any codec (which is sort of impractical, seeing huge number of codecs present today) or install some converter that can convert a media from one format to another with ease.
format-factory-conversions
Now the latter option sounds little practical and convenient. There are lot many famous audio and video converters available for your computer but what if you have some media on your phone which you are unable to play on it? You will a need one media converter for your phone too.
format-factory-interface
That’s right; today we have some apps for this purpose too. One such app is called Format Factory. Format Factory can convert all your video and music files on your android device (well at least most of them). The app supports conversion in all the major formats like Mp4, Flv, Avi, Mkv, Mp3, Flac, Wma, Ogg, Aac, M4a, Ac3, Ape and Wav.
format-factory-audio-settings
This means, whether it is an audio or a video file, you can convert it to a supported file format using this app right on your Android phone. The conversion process too is very simple as you just need to browse for the media, set the desired output format and the codec and let it take care for you.
The app also allows you to split the media from any point to certain point, so that you can convert only some part of the media and not whole of it. The app is available in the play store at the following location.


Thursday, November 21, 2013

Convert Files into any Format with Right Click using Cometdocs for Desktop

There are lots of file formats being used today, and every format has its own advantage. While we use PDF files where we wish to protect the data, we use images to capture some info. So what if you need to convert the same file you are using into some other format, you may go to the free online web services and get them converted or may be download and install a tool just for this purpose.
Meet a new tool called as Cometdocs for Desktop, and what this have in different from others is that it incorporates the converter right into the file context menu. This means, if you come across any file that needs to be converted into some other format, look nowhere, just right click on it and select the output format. The converted file will be presented to you in some time.
cometdocs-desktop-context-menu
Cometdocs is an online file conversion site which has launched this desktop tool for Windows. While uploading large documents to convert them online can slow down your browser (thereby preventing you from working) or converting the document in the system can slow down your machine, this converter works in a different way. It still uses its old way of converting which is to upload the file from the client directly (without you doing it) and then downloading back to the machine and the same folder automatically.
cometdocs-desktop-converter
Although this will use your data plan but will save the machine from getting slowed down. To be able to use this tool, you need to login into the cometdocs account which you can register for free anytime (simple email address and password is all it need).
You can convert the file into any format from the list present in the right click context menu and the conversion status can be seen in a separate window. If you think it is a really useful tool, then you can get it for free from the link below.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Scan End User License Agreements while Installing Software with EULAlyzer

Whenever you install a new software you come across the End User License Agreementalso known as End User License Agreementin short which lets you know what the software aims at and thus needs your acceptance for it. While most of the times, the EULA is genuine and doesn’t contain any bad intent but there may be some developers who wish to do something else. Therefore it is very important to go through the entire agreement before accepting it but almost everyone out there doesn’t do it.
In fact, I haven’t seen anyone till date who has gone through even a single agreement before accepting it, may be because these are generally too long or boring to read. Therefore, for all of the people who have this habit of not reading the EULA, here is a tool that can do it for you.
eulalyzer-personal-main-screen
This tool is called as EULAlyzer and is actually an EULA Analyzer for Windows that scans the EULA for you and aims at finding out some of the interesting points in the agreement. Here are the areas that this tool aims to scan for you:
• Advertising
• Tracking
• Data Collection
• Privacy-Related Concerns
• Installation of Third-Party / Additional Software
• Inclusion of External Agreements By Reference
• Potentially Suspicious Clauses
• and much more…
How EULAlyzer works
eulalyzer-personal-scan-results
You need to install this tool (you might want to go through its EULA too lol), and run it whenever you want to scan a new agreement. On the main screen you, then, need to click the Scan button to start a new EULA scan and then paste the entire agreement there.
You will then need to press the Analyze button, clicking on which it will scan the agreement and will present to you the results as a rating.
EULAlyzer can only suggest you if the software being installed is clean or not, based on the scan results, but its on you to abide the suggestion or not. The tool also stores the agreements as a database so that you can refer to it back at a later point of time.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Cover app for Android lets you Access right Apps at the Right Time

Whenever your phone screen is locked then you can’t use the apps before unlocking it. So in case you need to access any app instantly, you will have to go through the big process of unlocking the phone, finding the app and then starting it. However with the firmware 4.2 onAndroid, you have the option of placing the most used apps right on the lock screen so that you can run the apps without having to unlock the screen first.
Well there are many lockscreen replacement apps available for Android but today we are reviewing one such app called as Cover which is better than the rest. What Cover does is, it places the right apps on the lockscreen at the right time by learning your location and time so that you don’t have to unlock the screen to use that app. This way, you will have more options of the apps on your lock screen.
cover-app-android-car
How does Cover work:
After installing the app Cover, you just need to set your home and work address and the rest it will take care. So say, you just woke up in the morning, what are the apps that you would need, likely news and songs etc. This is what it will do, place these kind of apps on the lock screen.
cover-app-android-work
Now suppose you are in the car heading for your work, what are the apps you are likely to use, probably, maps, yelp and weather etc. Thus it will replace the earlier apps on the lock screen with these kind of apps.
cover-app-android-home
Now suppose you are at work, you would probably use apps like Notes, Docs and Emails etc. Thus it will again replace the apps for you. If you are thinking, how does it know your location? Then may be you are forgetting that your smartphone now comes with lot many sensors like accelerometer, gyrometer and of course the GPS.
So if the app sounds fantastic to you, then you should head on to the app website and get the invite as it is right now available only on the invitation. However it is planned to be launched in the Android store soon.

Monday, November 11, 2013

Loop Complete or Specific part of YouTube Videos with Looper for YouTube

There are times when we all have played youtube videos on repeat for many times, whether those are song videos or something really funny. I mostly play the songs when I doing something on Youtube and like to put it on repeat but if you are not using any extension then you know we have to do this thing manually since Youtube doesn’t provide any button to auto repeat the videos.
Well there are many ways to do that, couple of which we have mentioned in the past too. But the reason why I am mentioning about one more way today is that not all extensions provide a way to repeat only a specific part of a video. Say if you just like to replay or loop only certain interval of a youtube video, there is no way to do so.
looper-for-youtube
With the help of this Google Chrome extension called as Looper for Youtube, you get this additional feature. So now using this extension, you can either replay the entire video automatically, or even a small portion of the video set by you. Moreover you can also set the number of times the video should be repeated. Let’s see how this can be done.
looper-for-youtube-options
After you have installed this extension in your browser, you will notice a button in the left part of the youtube video description called as Loop. Clicking on this button will automatically put the entire video on loop and will open more options about the video like Loop for specific time period and/or loop for how many times (all this can be seen in the screenshot above).
So why repeat the videos manually each time, just use this extension and have the entire or some part of the video replayed for any number of times automatically.

Friday, November 8, 2013

Browse Internet together with your Friends using Channel.me

There are situations when you want to browse internet and websites together with your friends or family for instance, consider a situation when you want to book a trip ticket but want your friend’s view too who is sitting in some other country, or even a situation when you want to navigate through a website and show to your family member who don’t know how to do. In all these situations, you need an internet sharing tool using which you all can browse the internet together whatever be your location.
Here is a free web service called as Channel.me which lets you work together on the internet and that too without installing anything on your computer. This service is free to use and can be used by anyone.
channel-me
Here is how Channel.me works:
• To start internet sharing, just visit this service and enter the URL to browse in this website.
• After you are done, click the button Start a new Session.
• A new session will be initiated and you will be provided a session number which you need to provide to your friend so that he can also join you.
• Your friend needs to visit Channel.me and enter the session number there and click the Join button to join you for the online internet sharing.
• Now you both can start working on the same internet session and whenever anyone of you click a link, or make any changes, you will be notified with a pop up informing the action.
• You can also make use of the online sticky notes or chat box to chat and inform other of anything that you need to highlight on the page.
Although there are more services like this available today, but why I like Channel.me is for the reason that it doesn’t need any installations and is pretty simple to use. Just visit the webpage and you are good to start.

Protect your Kids from Online Adult and Inappropriate Content using eSafely

Internet is full of information; it can be useful or can be inappropriate. Whether we are working on internet or just using it for some entertainment purposes like watching youtube or social sites, we come across large number of anonymous users too who can be rude to anyone. I have seen much online content where people are debating and using inappropriate words to address each other.
Well it is not only us who are using the computer and the internet; our kids also need to use it for their study purpose. We definitely want our kids to stay away from these, don’t we? While we can’t always be with them to monitor their online activities, there are tools that can do so.
esafely-features
There are many tools for this purpose of online filtering but we are reviewing one easy and simple to use tool called as eSafely. eSafely is the only parental control tool designed to work seamlessly with your web browser to provide complete online protection for you and your family. This is available for free download and as browser extensions in majorly used web browsers namely Chrome, IE, Firefox and Safari.
Here is how it works:
eSafely protects your child from displaying any of the adult content, images, terms or conversations online from the following major websites: Facebook, Wikipedia, YouTube and Search. So in short what this does is, it block all the inappropriate images (images which are not kid safe) from appearing on the web page whenever your child is online.
eSafely on Facebook: Protects kids against bullying in chat and automatically removes harmful images to avoid accidental exposure. Moreover it doesn’t transfer any of the outrageous comment while chatting to the other side, rather display a message “Please be polite”.
eSafely on YouTube: Forces Safe Mode and disables option to view 18+ rated content on YouTube. It blocks all the adult videos and the option to view them. Moreover it also blocks any inappropriate comment to be posted.
youtube-content-warning
eSafely on Wikipedia: Provides kid-friendly access to Wikipedia, with harmful images automatically removed.
eSafely on Searches: Delivers clean search results for searches performed on most major search portals. Moreover it disables Google search and other engines, to display the results from Clearch (Clean Search) which only displays kids’ safe results.
What’s more good about eSafely is that, you don’t need to set anything up, as just enabling the extension will enable all the protection by itself. Just make sure that your kid don’t disable it while working on :D

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Monitor user logins, storage consumption and apps usage with the Admin SDK

Google have added a few new features to the Admin SDK Reports API to let you more easily visualize Google Apps' usage and security in your domain. These new features include:

Security Reports
Login audit: View all web browser based logins with IP information for all users in your domain. You can use this data to monitor all successful, failed, and suspicious logins in your domain.
Authorized applications: View a list of third-party applications that users in your domain have shared data with. Gain visibility into how many users are accessing each application. Revoke access to specific apps using the security tab on Admin console.

Usage Reports
Storage quota: View user-level quota usage. This is available both as total usage and split by Gmail, Drive and Google+ photos for every user in the domain. Monitor which users are nearing their quota limits and acquire more storage if necessary.
Google+ usage: View 1-day, 7-day and 30-day active Google+ usage in your domain. See the number of Hangouts attended by users in your domain.

Editions included: 
Google Apps for Business, Education, and Government

Friday, September 27, 2013

Organize your Tabs Vertically in Chrome with Veritabs

I still remember the days when we used to work without tabs on the browsers, whenever we need to open a new page we had to open a new window and open the link in it, thereby cluttering our taskbar and making it difficult for us to manage and surf the internet. Tabs have really changed the way surfing is done by making things easier.
If you are a person who like to open multiple tabs and keep them opened until for later time then you know it always aggregates and you end up managing lot many tabs at the same time (well this happens to me every time). While there is no issue in opening multiple tabs, it however makes us difficult to recognize which tab is for which site as it hides the title and also the favicon of the website.
veritabs-chrome
A solution to this issue can be managing the tabs vertically in a sidebar with the Chrome extension called as Veritabs. The extension allows us to see what all tabs have been opened by us and that too in the sidebar of your screen. Imagine using the unutilized space of your widescreen computer. Moreover you would also be able to scroll through the tabs with your mouse wheel. In short, definitely useful than using the old style tabs.
There is one more advantage of using this extension, those who like to surf the internet in the full screen mode (using F11) know that it’s not possible to use the tabs however Veritabs still allow you to view and manage the tabs even in the full screen mode.
Although the extension does not provide much of the uses and features but if you feel that managing the tabs vertically is a good idea then you can go ahead and give it a try.

Monday, September 16, 2013

Uninstall all the Preinstalled Software in a Click with Decrap

These days when you buy a new computer, Windows comes with many programs preinstalled. The manufacturers do so, to reduce the installation later on but they don’t realize the fact that most of these programs are not necessarily required by everyone out there thereby making the system sluggish and consume space. While some of us are very particular in keeping only the useful software in our machines others tend to forget and thus waste their hard disk space.
These useless software that comes preinstalled in the system as also known as Bloatwareor crapware. Thus it sometimes becomes very important to remove all or at least most of the useless software which can be time consuming. This process can take hours or may be even days, if you don’t have proper tools and guidance for that.
Here is a tool called as Decrap (or Decrap my Computer) which works like a PC Decrapifier to remove all the useless programs preinstalled in your system. Using this program can be very helpful as it helps in uninstalling either all of the preinstalled tools or some of them in just a click. The biggest advantage of using this tool is that the uninstallation is batch oriented and you don’t even need to keep monitoring all the time.
How Decrap works:
Just download the tool, and run it after installation. On the next screen, the tool will show a list of the tools that are installed in your machine. You can either select all of them or keep the ones that you use and select the ones that you wish to remove.
decrap-my-computer
When you click next, it will ask to create a system restore point which is a good option as to restore to the current state if something goes wrong. Now you can select the fully automatic uninstallation or manual to see and select some options.
decrap-uninstall-options
The tool also removes the registries of the software completely and lets you choose the uninstall option for that too.
Decrap is a great tool to keep the system a fresh without having to remove all the tools manually one by one. This will also ensure that your machine don’t have any useless tool (or bloatware) and is in a factory state always.

Switch any Chrome Tab between Normal and Incognito Mode with a Click

I have tried many browsers for my online browsing but the day I started using Chrome, I never went back to another browsers. This is because of the features that Chrome provides along with the ease of use. One such feature is the Incognito mode. The advantage of using Incognito mode is that you can securely browse your confidential data without worrying about clearing the stuffs later on.
While you can start the incognito mode anytime by going into the browser options, but what if you want to switch any tab that you have already opened to the incognito mode? And what if you want to switch more tabs to the incognito mode? I don’t think you would like to go through the process of copying and pasting the URL in the incognito mode manually.
incognito-tab-switch
Well here is an extension for that called as Incognito Tab Switch and what this extension does is, it adds the incognito button right on your Chrome browser toolbar so that whenever you wish to switch any tab to incognito window, you can just click this button. The button will allow you to switch back and forth from normal mode to incognito mode and vice versa in just a click.
incognito-tab-switch-same-tab
So even if you have more tabs to view in the incognito mode, just press the button on each tab and the tabs will open in the other mode without any change in the tab contents and tab view. Moreover the tab will list itself in the already opened window with other tabs and will not open a new window each time you switch it to another mode. You will also notice that the incognito mode icon “man with a hat” turns black when in incognito mode and white when in normal mode.
Well there is one more use of the extension, you can use it to view the same web page content in another mode if the page is facing compatibility issues with the already installed extensions in one mode and hence is not loading. Since both the modes have different set of extensions, you can switch the tab in another tab to load it properly.
If you liked it, you can get it from the link below.

Google’s Keep note-taking app is getting a new feature courtesy of Android 14 that’s a huge time-saver, even if Samsung got there first

  There’s a certain balance that needs to be achieved with lock screen functionality. You can’t give away too much because of, well, securit...