5 Most Popular Instant Messengers

Everyone enjoys a good chat with friends and family and this has been highlighted by the increasing popularity of instant messengers on the internet. A great way to catch up on news, organise a meet up or just see how everyone’s doing, instant messengers have great appeal across users of all ages and locations.

There are now a wide range of these services available for download – the majority of which are released free of charge – but which are the most popular and why?

1. Windows Live Messenger

Windows Live Messenger was probably one of the most widely used Instant Messengers a few years ago and has continued to be updated regularly.

Providing a great service to users with a variety of functions, including face to face, high definition webcam chats, photo slideshows, online video watching and the ability to share great web links you’ve found, Windows Live offers a great user experience.

2. Yahoo Messenger

Yahoo Messenger integrates the process of instant messaging with its other Yahoo products, such as Yahoo Mail and the Yahoo toolbar, to provide an experience that covers all bases.

It contains some great security features and allows you a certain amount of privacy by deciding who can view your online status at any time.

3. Facebook Messenger

Since the induction of Facebook into the list of most popular websites, new and exciting features have been constantly developed. Focusing on communication and online interaction, Facebook offers users the chance to post comments on profiles and photos as well as engaging in direct chats via private messages or Facebook Messenger.

For many users, Facebook Messenger is now the main instant messaging service which they use and it has proven so popular that other services, such as Windows Live Messenger, allow you to integrate your Facebook account with their service.

A separate Facebook Messenger programme can also be downloaded and installed on computers, laptops and even smartphones – ensuring everyone is connected all of the time.

4. Skype

Skype has become one of the most dominant means of communicating over the internet, and for good reason. Providing a high quality face-to-face chat service, the software has become the number one way for people to keep in touch over long distance. Perhaps its biggest attraction is its price as, instead of paying extortionate telephone bills, you can chat to friends and family members over the internet for free.

5. Google Talk

Google are great when it comes to providing a unified service and they’ve excelled themselves with Google Talk.

The software allows you to instant message anyone with a GMail account. However, instant messaging is not its only feature and it also boasts file transfer capabilities and voice chat.

Soft 32 is a software download website. They host a range of different types of software including software that enables instant messenging.

5 Free Tools to Help you with your Finances

In today’s ever growing world of technological advances it has never been easier to find free tools to assist you with managing your finances. Both the internet and App Stores for portable devices, such as smart phones and tablets, contain hundreds of tools designed specifically to assist you with organising your finances. Making the most of these free tools can help us to create a better financial situation for ourselves and help us to better understand our money.

Visual Budget

Visual Budget is a free App designed to help people create a successful budget to maintain a good financial situation. This App allows people to easily manage both personal and business finances, as it can handle several accounts at once, sorting them into more manageable groups. This App is easy to use; with income and expense templates having been already created, users simply have to input their information to take the first step to better managing their finances.

Lemon.com

Lemon.com has released a free help aimed at assisting you to better manage your finances. This App provides users with a fresh way of viewing their money, both through a budget and an itemised list of your spending. The Lemon.com App provides a feature that allows users to capture their receipts, which is an ideal way of managing your purchases. When using this App, you can also access all of you data online, for free, by activating an account with Lemon.com via the internet. The App provides useable help for all users, with plans designed specifically for data, personal, family and business.

Money Trackin’

This free online program allows individuals to better manage their finances, by providing assistance with keeping track of your shared expenses, along with showing your budget in an easily viewable format with graphs and charts. Small businesses can also use this free online tool to assist them with maintaining legitimate accounts. Any free online tool that aims at making accounting easier is sure to help you with your business finances. Understanding your finances is the first step in creating a better financial future for yourself and this free program helps to do just that.

Invoicemachine.com

Invoicemachine.com is a program design to help small businesses, freelancers or contractors with managing their finances, particularly invoices. The simple and easy to use program is an effective way of better managing your finances. With the ability to recall invoices where necessary and design invoices from templates, including a feature to track the details of your past clients, this program provides an easy way to manage your finances. Once you have created and processed your invoice, you are able to download the document as a PDF to print or email to clients. You can also track payments that have been received from clients, making it easier to manage your workload along with the revenue created. This program is free for users who only wish to process 3 invoices per month, if you wish to process more invoices you are able to upgrade your subscription at any time for a small price.

Mint.com

Mint.com offers a range of programs aimed at helping you to manage your finances. You can link our mint account so that you have access to your data both via a computer and a portable device, such as a mobile phone or tablet. Mint.com helps users to achieve their savings goals by creating easy to use budgeting guides and features which automatically categorize your transactions. This program offers users a smarter way to manage their finances, by being able to view all of your incomings and outgoings in the one place.

Author's Bio: Simon is an Accountant from Sydney, Australia. He was originally a Plumber but after studying his Master of Applied Finance he been a successful Accountant for over 15 years. Away from work, Simon likes to spend time with his family, watch the football and relax at the beach.

How to Download TomTom Free Map Updates

TomTom are a Dutch company and manufacturer of GPS products and in-car sat navs.  They are now becoming more popular in the United States and North America.  Whilst admittedly not as widely used in US car as say Garmin, they do still have a lot of very loyal customers who use their devices every day to help get them to and from their job or to complete driving vacations and trips.  The following article will tell you how you can download free maps to your TomTom GPS including the technical requirements needed.

TomTom Map Update Service

They currently have an online tool called the TomTom Map Update Service.  This lets their customers download TomTom map updates direct to their GPS product – meaning you have all the latest directions and even speed and safety locations that do tend to change from time to time – in fact new roads are built every day of the week.

TomTom Latest Map Guarantee

If you are after TomTom free map downloads and updates then the option for you is called the Latest Map Guarantee.  It is aimed purely at new customers who have just bought a TomTom GPS and is designed to ensure that you have the latest map installed when you start using your product.

It works quite simply, so if a new map is released by the company then they will let you download one complimentary update within the first month of you first using your TomTom GPS device.  This is all available via the TomTom HOME service – which you can sign up for online and start using straight away.

Download the TomTom Home Application (PC or Mac)

All you need to do is download the HOME application which will then check the GPS to see if there’s a new map available for it.  You can download it at any point during the initial 30 day period.  It’s a very easy to use software application and TomTom and known for their simply to use products – and the HOME map update service really is no different.

If you own a rival product, for example a Garmin Nuvi, then this service will not work for you.  Instead you will have to check a different website for free Garmin GPS map updates and follow a different set of guidelines. Please note that the GPS Bites website contains articles on all brands of GPS including Garmin so use the links near the bottom to visit them today for the best advice on how to update your product (also includes Navigon and Magellan).

Author Credit: This “how to” article was supplied by the team at GPS Bites.  GPS Bites is an independent website that offers news, reviews, interviews, and opinions from the international world of GPS.  Check them out for more information. 

Facebook adds map to fb profile page

Now, your Facebook profile page is stuffed with a new interactive map feature. Which will have the geographic locations of-

• Places Lived
• Trips
• Life Events
• Photos

All of them will be marked on the map with different icons. Like a circle shaped icon having the number of photos tagged for that location. A balloon shaped icon having a home icon inside it for showing your birth place.

The maps are powered by Bing with simple interactive map features like zoom in and out.

You can also sort using the timeline feature on right side of map and easily take out the album and photos if you remember the dates.

Where have you been? Add Photos to Map and timeline contribute to easy navigation and a single place to interact with your map. So, no unnecessary time consumption.

5 Interesting Accounting Software For Your Business

Whether you run a small business, a medium sized enterprise or a multi national corporation, businesses of all sizes need to ensure they have robust and versatile software packages available that can handle all the accounting and bookkeeping needs of the company if they are to stay on top of their accounting. For small businesses and start up companies, this is even more important, as staying on top of your finances at this stage is critical if you are to survive in business. Being able to see at a glance where your income and expenditure is happening and having the ability to identify trends and opportunities in your sales is key to the success of any company. To help you select a software package that can do everything you need, here are five of the best as recommended by small business owners the world over.

1. QuickBooks

A mature and proven platform, QuickBooks is a popular choice for many small business owners. The basic QuickBooks Pro package has been specifically developed with the small business in mind, and offers an easy way to track income, expenditure and sales. It also lets users raise invoices, pay bills, manage taxes and perform payroll duties. Because it has been around for so long, there are many add ons and downloads available to tailor the programme to your specific industry, making it a great choice for a range of business types.

2. Sage 50

Largely a rebranding of the popular Peachtree interface, this is one of the oldest packages around, but with some of the newest features added on. With the ability to invoice, pay bills, manage inventories and manage job roles, this is an all round great package with the scope to grow with the business. One of the best advances with this new release is the addition of closer interfacing with your bank, enabling quick reconciliation of accounts on a regular basis.

3. Xero

This is one of the most popular cloud based packages so far. Designed with the small business in mind, its target market is companies with sub 50 employees. It does away with accounting language and instead talks in terms people from the real world can understand. The modern interface and attractive layout makes the programme easy to use, and it has the flexibility to handle everything from invoicing to payroll. It also has a great mobile interface, making it easy to keep on top of your accounts on the go.

4. FreshBooks

This was one of the first cloud based accounting software packages introduced, and as such has developed a loyal and sizeable following. It features an online billing service, which is ideal for sole traders and micro businesses, and even let’s you track time to keep on top of various projects and clients at once. With add on's for more than 70 additional apps or services, including PayPal, Salesforce.com and ExpenseCloud, this is one of the more versatile and great value for money, with management of up to 3 clients for free and then $19 a month for up to 25.

5. Outright

This is another great tool for freelancers and sole traders, as it combines the best of time tracking, project management and billing with elegant handling of your expenses and tax bills. The package automatically downloads and synchronises all your accounts, credit cards and bookkeeping entries on startup, enabling you to see at a glance how much time, money and resources you have available. Best of all the base service is free, and should you need the enhanced service the price is just $9.95 per month.

This article is provided for PHS Hadjizacharias and Co Ltd, an independent firm with Chartered Certified Accountants, providing Cyprus Company Registration , International Tax Planning and Global Accounting services.

Create app for free

1. appsbar- The platform provides you with a very easy to use user-friendly environment to create applications. A built in wizard called ‘Digi’ will guide you through the entire process of app creations in just three simple steps. The platform provides with a number of themes, icon, and backgrounds to choose from and if you still don’t find one you can upload from your system’s drive. So, you can have your own logo. Your app can have About page, links to Social media like facebook and twitter, Contact forms, menu, RSS feeds by providing your RSS feed link, photos, videos, etc.
After completing your app submit it. Appsbar team will go through it to make sure it meets Google’s quality standards. 10 to 15 days after submission, the app will be live in Google Play Store.


2. iBuildApp-  Not just a app building platform, it is CMS (content management system).
Submissions to Google Play store are free. You are allowed to update your app in real time after getting it published. Whereas, for iOS $299 is charged are for developer licence and distribution costs.


3. buzztouch- The best thing that buzztouch provides is ‘Buzztouch U’ an online mini university to let you learn. Membership ranges from unpaid to paid. But there are no premium features if you will upgrade, only the number of apps you can keep in control panel, server to host.


4. andromo- Helps you create native Android apps. You can embed your app with videos, maps, Flickr galaries, music player or RSS feeds.Free versions will have banners for advertising, but the good thing is the team shares with you 50% of revenue collected. Stiill if you don’t want ad banners you can pay one-time fee of $99. Also, you are allowed to sell your app on app stores after paying fee.


5. AppMakr- It lets you create apps compatible with iOS, Android or Windows Phone. AppMakr requires the link of the website for which you want to make an app and then automatically grabs images from the given link and displays for easy selections. But still you have an option to put it from another url or from your system's drive. You can also hire a professional directly from your dashboard.
The platform provides you with predefined sharing buttons, that allows the users to share the content to Facebook, twitter or email directly from the app. App creator provides with push notifications service, which is free for first 100 notifications afterwards you can opt to pay $50.
Here also there are two versions apps Free and paid ($79/mo to have full controls like charging for your apps and your own ad banners). Though for publishing your app for iPhone you need to have an developer account which is charged $99/year.


6. MIT App Inventor- Apps will be compatible only with Android devices. It requires Google logins. So, having a Google account is a necessary step. The platform is more complicated as compared to others. Although there are much more features available.
Appinventor has three sections Teach (Educator Resources), Learn (Information and Tutorials) and Invent (create mobile apps).
Appinventor do not allow direct submissions to Google Play store. Instead it alloes to download ‘.apk’ file to your system and the send it to your Android device. 


7. infinitemonkeys- Drag and drop app making platform. Pricing varies in accordance to membership starting from free to $499. Your apps will have small banners from Google which when clicked will help the team earn some revenue. If you don’t want those adds than there are pro versions of membership available. There are more features than only removal od ad banners. The apps compatibility is for Android, iPhone/iPad and HTML5 smartphones.


Basically all of these platforms works on same three step scheme-
Step one- Gather your content
Step two- Drag and Drop
Step Three- Publish.


NOTE-
1. iPhone would not approve any article with low amount of content. So, if you are including RSS feed make sure that your articles are good in length.
2. Publishing Android apps on Google Play requires an account on it's developer console which is charged $25.

Share Button Placement

The social media share buttons doesn't matter floating or not are of great value today. Specially in blog world or if you want to share anything that worth. Moreover, it is a good option to provides you with active traffic.
There are share buttons available free and paid, the difference in the number of site that it provides.
But these buttons negatively impact your site if not placed properly. Few days back I configured my buttons and found that they were far away from the content so I moved them close but what actually happened. They moved close in accordance to my screen but not every screen.

Notice, it is set to left:50px. That means 50 pixels away from the left border of your browser. So, the one using a small screen desktop and laptops will have the share buttons over the content area and the user will close your weblog or website the very instance they opened it, increasing the bounce rate.
So the best is to put the value 1px or 0px.

Transfer Documents to Kindle via Email

Image from Kindle Website

Second generation Amazon Kindle have built-in PDF reader that allows you to read in the PDF formatting without converting.

Now, if you want to  transfer PDF or other Office documents from your desktops or laptops to your Kindle device just connect your device to your system using the USB cord provided.

Kindle device will now appear as a separate drive in “My Computer”. Send your file directly from the right click menu or use drag and drop.

Email your documents to Kindle

All Kindle users get a unique email address in the format name@free.kindle.com. Any files that you send to this email as an attachment will auto-download to your Kindle while you are in a Wi-Fi zone. When you mail you documents put the subject convert and your document will automatically get converted to Kindle format (.azw)

Where is my unique email address? Read on Amazon

Limitations

Maximum file size- 50Mb

Number of file attached in a single mail- 25

If Wi-Fi is not available, you may also download files to your Kindle over 3G or 2G connection but Amazon will charge you a fee per download. The fee is 15¢ per MB while you download documents to the Kindle over 3G in the U.S. or 99¢ per MB when you download documents to your Kindle anywhere else in the world via 3G.

Osaka Station City Water Display Draws with Water

Ever thought that water can be used in a way that it displays images and text by merely falling in a well defined patterns. Well of course not. And that is what makes this water display an eye catching and a must share. More over the one installed in Japan also showcases time and name of Osaka Station City.

The concept display created by Koel Industry and located in South Gate building in the Osaka Station City shopping mall in Japan.

Facebook adds reach in individual post

First of all What is Reach?

Reach measures the number of people who received impressions of a Page post. The reach number might be less than the impressions number since one person can see multiple impressions.

Previously a user was able to see the reach only through insights or the graphical overview on the Facebook fan page. But now with this new feature a user will be able to have a look on the reach just below the post.

Moreover, with the graphical insight overview a user can only have a look on the entire number of reach. That is, if you have updated your Facebook fan page with more than one post than reach will be shown as whole whereas with this per post reach a user will be able to see the exact number of people reached for every post.

Hovering or clicking on the percentage will show another graphical representation with the data.

Gameloft released Men In Black 3 for Android and iOS

Gameloft released MIB 3 for Android and iOS on 23rd. The premium quality game's best feature is that it is free of cost and available on respective app stores.



You can construct and run your own MIB agency. There are fun weapons included from the previous movie sequels. On completing various task you get money money, energy, experience points, and other things you need to build various rooms, heal your agent, recruit other agents, buy new weapons, and so on.

Download links-
iOS users
Android users

Avast free antivirus for Android

Toady my Avast free virus notification showed that now Avast fee antivirus is available for Android devices. And it is completely free.
This mobile version is stuffed with a good amount of features-

avast! Mobile Security

Antivirus

Performs on-demand scans of all installed apps and memory card content, as well as on-access scans of apps upon first execution. Options for scheduling scans, virus definition updates, uninstalling apps, deleting files, or reporting a false-positive to our virus lab.

Privacy Report

Scans and displays (grid) access rights and intents of installed apps, identifying potential privacy risks, so you know how much info you are really providing to each app.

SMS/Call Filtering

Filter calls and/or messages from contact list using set parameters based on day(s) of the week, start time, and end time. Blocked calls redirect to voicemail, while blocked messages are stored via filter log. Also possible to block outgoing calls.

App Manager

Similar to Windows Task Manager, it shows a list of running apps and their size (MB), CPU load, used memory, and number of threads and services – with an option to stop or uninstall.

Web Shield

Part of the avast! WebRep cloud, the avast! Web Shield for Android scans each URL that loads and warns you if the browser loads a malware-infected URL.

Firewall

Add a firewall to stop hackers. Disable an app's internet access when on WiFi and 3G and roaming mobile networks. (Works only on rooted phones.)

avast! Anti-Theft

App Disguiser

After downloading avast! Anti-Theft, user can choose a custom name that disguises the app (e.g. call it "Pinocchio game") so that it is even harder for thieves to find and remove.

Stealth Mode

Once anti-theft is enabled, the app icon is hidden in the app tray, leaving no audio or other trace on the target phone – the app is 'invisible', making it difficult for thieves to detect or remove.

Self-Protection

Extremely difficult for thieves to remove (especially on rooted phones), Anti-Theft protects itself from uninstall by disguising its components with various self-preservation techniques. On rooted phones it is able to survive hard-resets and can even disable the phone's USB port.

Battery Save

Anti-Theft only launches itself and runs when it needs to perform tasks. This preserves battery life and makes it very difficult for thieves to shut it down.

SIM-Card-Change Notification

If stolen and a different (unauthorized) SIM card inserted, the phone can lock, activate siren, and send you notification (to remote device) of the phone's new number andgeo-location.

Trusted SIM Cards List

Establish a 'white list' of approved SIM cards that can be used in the phone without triggering a theft alert. You can also easily clear the trusted SIM cards list, to leave the one present in the phone as the only trusted one.

Remote Settings Change

A setup wizard guides the user through the installation process on rooted phones by either writing directly or by generating an update file. No command-line knowledge is necessary to install Anti-Theft rooted. Also supports upgrading the app.

Remote Features

Remote Siren

Option to sound a loud siren, which returns always to maximum volume if thieves try to silence. This siren sound can also be customized (e.g. record own siren sound or select siren sound from file).

Remote Lock

To protect your data, phone can be locked remotely and then cannot be accessed again without entering the password specified by the user.

Lock Phone Settings Access

Enables remote locking of the phone's App Manager and/or phone settings.

Remote Display

Remotely send a customized message to locked or non-locked phone display (e.g. with a reward for its return).

Remote Locate

Remotely locate phone via GPS, WiFi, or mobile network – for maximum accuracy. Can locate either once or continuously (GPS can be auto-enabled on all rooted phones or non-rooted phones from Android 1.6 to 2.2).

Remote Memory Wipe

Remotely trigger a full, permanent wipe of all phone data (e.g. contacts, call log, SMS/MMS, browser history, apps, email accounts), including reliable, physical wipe of all memory cards from Android 2.2 on (limited functionality on older versions).

Remote Calling

Remotely have the phone call you elsewhere with screen blackened, so that thieves cannot see it. This way you can listen to the phone's surroundings.

Remote Forwarding

Remotely activate/deactivate option to forward or copy call data and/or SMS messages to another device. Call data goes to remote device, but not the call itself. SMS messages, however, are forwarded in their entirety ("CC" copies also to original device).

Remote "Lost" Notification

Remotely send a "Lost" command to trigger same actions as SIM card change (e.g. phone lock, siren, or USB lock). "Found" command deactivates "Lost" command.

Remote SMS Sending

Remotely trigger phone to send an SMS to another phone. That way, if you forget the phone somewhere, you can reply nonetheless to incoming calls or SMS messages.

Remote History

Query the call log, contacts, and SMS messages remotely (with each forwarded as a separate SMS message, but able to be filtered).

Remote Restart

Reboot the phone by SMS command, which will lock the phone by asking for the SIM's PIN code. (Works only on rooted phones.)

Low Battery Notification

Phone is able to send low battery notification to a secondary device.

Remote Settings Change

All of the Anti-Theft settings can be changed remotely.

Operating System Supported-

1. Android 2.1.x
2. Android 2.2.x
3. Android 2.3.x
4. Android 3.x
5. Android 4.x

You can download it's user guide here.

Make a pro video with low budget

Every time any kind of multimedia is used from an image with text to slide shows and videos, average time spent increases and bounce rate decreases. So why not have a video for the next post. The concept is simple make use of every possible resources and the rest is creativity.

Use the room with carpet

Sound travels in every direction and has the property of being reflected. When the sound of your speech or the stuff discussed is reflected and the reflected sound falls on mic it causes unnecessary sounds recording. The only way to overcome is stop the reflection of sound. So use the room with carpet as carpet is a porous sound absorber. Moreover you can put wool stuff and fur teddy bear a small distance away from mic and out of frame. 

Aerated plaster, fibrous mineral wool and glass fiber also absorb sound. But all these will actually reduce the intensity of reflected sound. All sound will not be absorbed.

Background- 

Aiming a low budget how one can have a pro looking background. Choose a clear light background. White or a bit grey is the best. Now after recording video put your transparent logo (they are in .png format) in any corner of the white background using windows movie maker or others. For mac users iMovie is the best.

Or desktop with your logo or topic running full screen as a presentation but remember to turn off automatic screen turn offs.

At the best you can practice a symposium with a slide show running in background on your desktop’s screen or LCD.

In case you don’t want a logo you can use any clear dust free background like a bookshelf, etc.

Websites-

If you are dealing with any video featuring tutorial or feature of any website. The best way to look pro is 3 simple steps-

1. Open in new Tab- Rehearse your tutorial and open every new page in a new tab. Problem may occur only if you are dealing with flash. Right click in flash shows zoom in and out menu rather than the usual which has open link in new tab.

2. F11- Use this key to enter full screen mode. Now you can cover the website instead of covering the web browser’s window and menus.

3. Ctrl+Tab- Use this key combination to switch between the tabs you will be able to shorten the length of the video. If you have a slow connection then this works way too good. And even if you have a higher speed even then there is some time spent in loading and processing, you will save it.

Energy-

1. Keep energy balance- Your video must not have you looking dull you must show some energy and brightness in eyes. But this doesn’t mean you start with energy and end dull or vice-versa.

2. Never smash the table it looks way too much weird. Well I have been watching since high school and recently I discovered one video on YouTube too.

Your position-

Stand- Generally this is the best positions for full frame and till shoulder frames. People tend to change their postures more in case of sitting than in the case when standing. Though, it is necessary if you are running a food blog.

Sit when reviewing a product- So, if you are creating any hands on review video than you must have seat and a table. The main reasons are product comparison and taking the entire product in frame for a small amount of time.

Some other points

Put a heap of books on a well surfaced table it will act as a tripod, if you don’t have one.

Do it in morning the natural lights work best.

Switch off your fan- Technically speaking the sound you hear from your ceiling fan is not the sound of the fan, it is the sound of the air.

Maintain some distance from the mic. It will help you reduce your breath sounds.

Be well dressed as if going for a job interview.

10 Most Exciting TV Technologies to rule 2012

TV has been around for decades, but what really have made TV thrilling are the new technologies that are being released in 2012. Remember the days when TV first came out? Only a couple of channels were on TV and everything was in black and white, then came the days of colored TV, more channels, and then smaller and flatter TV's. Were now in a world where there are greater technologies that surpass just making a TV more brilliant in color, adding more channels, or making the TV thinner. 2012 is the year of the TV and it's only going to get better from here. The rising star of TV's in today's market is the LED TV.

1. Streaming from PC's

A technology that is fairly new to the TV market: PC Streaming. Although the technology existed quite some time ago for gaming consoles, the technology is new to TV's. Having the feature of streaming options built into the TV allows TV customers to stream live data including pictures, music, videos, and more straight from their personal computers directly onto their TV screens.

2. Blu-Ray

Blu-Ray has been out for some time but for TV's to come standard with the technology built in is quite new. Blu-Ray has picture quality that is outstanding in comparison to DVD's and the discs hold much more data for more video and bonus features many DVD movies could not offer.

3. SRS TheaterSound

This new technology optimizes all audio output directly from the TV and out into the environment. The hardware is built to reduce inconsistent volume, audio issues that may come along, and dimensionless sounds. This establishes a more realistic and entertaining environment for the TV customers.

4. LED Technology

LED TV's have been around for a while but the technology has been greatly re-mastered. With new black levels more vibrant, color production at its prime, and shadow details that are eye popping, LED TV's have the leading edge on the TV competition around the world.

5. 3DTV

The new crave in today's TV world is 3DTV. By wearing specially designed 3D TV glasses, customers can watch their TV in full 3D. With objects more realistic, colors deepened, and a more dimensional visual experience, 3DTV is taking over the TV world, especially for LED TV's.

6. Local Dimming

A new feature for 2012, local dimming has been created by top TV production companies to specifically lighten individual objects within the picture to create a more realistic environment. As normally with TV's, the entire screen is lit at the same temperature. This new feature creates almost a life like experience that is new for customers.

7. Intelligent Sensor

This feature automatically adjusts colorization and optimizes tones of the picture in a TV. All depending on the current light environment in the room the TV is located in, the Intelligent Sensor determines the best picture lighting for its viewers by being "smart" about its surroundings.

8. WiFi Connection Capabilities

WiFi has been around for many years, but its recently been implemented into the latest and greatest TV's of 2012. Having a built in WiFi TV enables its users to access multiple portals such as the internet, accessing information from other devices, and even downloading content directly to the TV.

9. Battery Operated 3D Glasses

Regular 3D glasses are no comparison to the new battery operated 3D glasses. These new glasses are specially designed to connect with the TV brand they are associated with and provide the most outstanding 3D experience for its users.

10. Updated Screen Sizes

55" step back! New LED TV's and other types of TV's are coming out with even more diameter measurements for their TV's for home use. Some TV's being released in 2012 are 73" or bigger!

Kathleen Hubert is a blogger who writes on a variety of different sites. Check out more of her work at ledtv.org.

Edit scanned documents

Whenever a document is scanned the digital image file produced has a lot of imperfections. The text of the document is grayish rather than black and the white paper appears yellowish.

Scan Tailor is a freeware that can help efficiently in removing many of these imperfections. You have to supply the scanned document image in a folder. It won’t accept image file directly. The out put can be taken in three different formats black & white, color / Grayscale and mixed. The software may sometime get confused between image and text, that is, it may pick up text as an image and will not make the required changes. So, the freeware come with a kind of pen tool that enables you to manually select the colored area and no changes will be made in it. This functionality will work only in mixed mode. Moreover you can change the DPI of output file as per your choice.

Original Scanned Document

After editing with Scan Tailor

You can download the freeware for Windows and Linux based operating systems. This is a open source freeware so even source code are available for download.

Download

The version (0.9.11.1) was released on February 27, 2012.

We provide Windows binaries and the source code to build both Windows and GNU/Linux versions.

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Check official site of Scan Tailor for latest versions and compile your next version with scan tailor and be better than ever.

Mechanism of email- The Story of Send

Ever wonder what happens every time you email via gmail. What is the actual path the mail follows? And it is not as simple as-

1. You send a mail
2. It gets converted from digital to analog signals in modem.
3. It reaches exchange or the server.
4. The recipient receives it.

The actuall process is different. To let the users know it Google has created The Story of Send. A website that will take you through the depth of gmail in 9 steps that actually features the path followed. The website is stuffed with photos and videos also which will show more insight into the process.

Steps-

1. It Starts With Send
2. Over to Google
3. Safe and Secure
4. Smart Heat
5. Clear Instructions
6. An Efficient Server Floor
7. Hard Working Machines
8. Clean Power
9. Instant Delivery

After going through these nine steps you will discover how hard Google plays to get you the service. How secure it is?

Videos features-

1. At the Data center- See Google's security measures in action in this video tour.
2. Efficiency Pays Off- Hear from expert engineers on why they decided to turn up the heat in Google's data centers.
3. Industry Recognition- Get the inside scoop on how Google became the first major Internet services company to gain external certification for our high environmental standards.
4. Smart Water Use- See how Google cooling system in Douglas County conserves water and help Google do their part to keep the local Chattahoochee River clean. 
5. Better Electricity- See how electricity travels through Google's equipment in the most efficient way. 
6. Staying Cool- Learn all about how Google use seawater to cool Google's data center in Hamina, Finland. 
7. Making a Real Difference- Find out about a few projects that help Google reduce carbon emissions outside of Google and eliminate Google's impact on climate change. 
8. Greening Our Grid- Learn more about how Google's clean power purchases benefit the renewable energy industry and the environment. 

Convert pdf and images into word

What’s your opinion about extracting text from pdf as well as image files?

I am going to make a PowerPoint presentation. I have got an image and a pdf supply with all the text I have to input in both image as well as pdf. This job is really a time consuming and will definitely cause pain in your back.

What if you could extract text from the image? All the work would go easy.

1. Extract text from image (Free OCR)- It is now possible to get text extracted from image with Free OCR (Optical Character Recognition). The service is free of any charge. You don’t even need any registration or email address. So no worry thinking that you will get spammed.

The service is compatible with JPG, GIF, TIFF and BMP.

NOTE- Text extracted is not exact entirely. So there is a need to go through but still some job is done. You can do the work in lesser time and less pain. But the accuracy depends on the quality of the image file supplied and the kind of text on the page.

Look for the difference in two images below-

Original Screenshot

Screenshot of the text extracted

2. Extract text from pdf (ExtractPDF.com)- This service is available on a number of websites. But this one outstands them all. And it can extract text, images and fonts from the pdf supplied or you can directly enter the url to the pdf. Fonts detected can be downloaded in .zip format.

Unlike other services there are no limitations on the number of times you can use the services. 

So now you can even take photographs of printed pages and upload to get your work done easily. 

Use a single password securely on all websites

If you have an access to internet then, it only takes a year to have a hundred accounts. It is recommended to use a unique password for every site. So, that if one got hacked even then all others are safe. But human mind cannot remember more than 5 different passwords. So, you have strong passwords than you won't remember even 3 of them. Sometimes you don't even remember the sites in which you made your account. You come to know it when you are busy creating a new account and the website replies that an account is already associated with this mail address.

Now, a strong password means minimum of 8 characters in length and contains at-least one capital character (upper case), one small character (lower case), one special character and one numeric character. This is common sense in online world these days.

Wish we all could have a single password for every site without remembering and saving it. But today this is possible with a website called Password Chameleon.

With this service you need to remember only a single password.

Put your secret password and site address for example gmail.com, facebook.com, etc. It will automatically generate a strong password. And will generate the same every time you use it so no need to save it in a secure location.

NOTE- Remember site address must be exactly the same every time you enter. For example, if you entered gmail.com then next time also put gmail.com if you will put www.gmail.com or with http or https then same password will not be generated. Even the end slash will generate a new password.


Apps are available for Android phones, Windows Phone 7, Windows Desktop and chrome browser.

Promote blog in 10 steps

Promoting every blog is a basic need for every blog to survive the tough competition that online world sets up for you. Though stumbleupon, twitter, facebook, etc are the top list to do so but that never means to let any other service ignored you can use Digg too. Though dig don’t lets a heavy amount of traffic in but still it proves itself as an important tool for covering search engine searches.

Why to promote?

Let’s say you have a nice thought in your mind. You jotted it down and then things start flowing. Now that article is an outstanding article. But still it is of no value if it remains in the pages of that notebook which is now on your shelf.

Now, if you really care to know it’s value you need to get that article published in a magazine or newspaper. But which one. Now, where your article will actually get published, will decide the true value of your article. If you want to select the newspaper you go for the one with largest circulation so that it gets to maximum possible readers around the globe.

Don’t be shy.

Some people are shy of their creativity because it is not too good to get acceptance. And they don’t want to appear as a dumb in front of a global audience. But you must know one thing a good post may make the user want to know you and when the user don’t find you they get disappointed.

Use your own social platform

When you are decide to set a brand page on facebook or twitter. You feel like going a high-profile way. A new mail id, a new twitter and facebook account. That is not what you need to do. Go the simplest way or you will get cluttered with id’s and passwords.

Don’t get yourself cluttered by making a new account for you blog.

Research the net

 Ultimate source of knowledge is the internet. The thing is simple see the best to be the best. You need to know some rest is your creativity and power to express. You to know the basic the pro is in you, just let your thoughts flow to the maximum extent. Though sometimes you are not able to find what you are exactly searching for because you are searching the wrong way by using the wrong words. The exact term to use is basically called the keyword and it helps to get searched more easily.

Single Output

Blog promotion serves as the first single output to the global online world. Doesn’t matter if you have a single subscriber or a thousand, it is always a good option to keep an additional gateway open to get new users landing up on your page all the time. Though, the thing is some user accidently land on your page and this causes a higher bounce rate. This basically happens when somebody is randomnly stumbling upon but don’t worry about that. It has always been said something is better than nothing.

First Impression- Ignore if you don’t have any other option

It is a thing that makes maximum free users feel down. There are two things in the world of blogging that makes the first impression-

1.       Domain name- This is not the actual problem. Though, some users won’t ever open you blog because of a free domain name. And if you are worried about that thinking that free domain is a hindrance in your blogs success. You are absolutely wrong. Google itself has its blogs running on blogspot domain, and still it ranks high. Try searching technorati for bloggers official blogs ranks.

2.       Your theme- This is somehow a problem you can’t get rid off easily. And practically speaking this is a the basic thing required for somebody guest posting on your blog. The rest of the blog depends upon the quality of content and that’s in your hands or basically in your keyboard.

Avoid and don’t expect

If you are up and ready to share your facebook and other social media pages with your friends, then there is one simple thing to keep in mind. Don’t ever thing to get maximum likes from your friends, some of them don’t even open the page. Sometimes they don’t know or they don’t care.

If you are high on expectations then it will get to your nerves thinking your friends were good till they were in the side list. I myself had over 100 friends I send request to them all and successfully received 14 likes. Funny!

Twitter- takes time

If you feel like blowing up twitter, you are again wrong. Twitter takes time to get some genuine followers who feel like having a look on what you have to say. Though you are fully allowed to use platforms like twiends to get additional followers but that won’t work. The followers you will get through twiends are interested in promoting their own content rather then peeking into yours. Or you can say they all are there for what you are.

Retweets

Retweets are more important than tweets. And they only come from somebody actually interested in your blog or its content.

Now, if you know about the twitter search. Then you must try it too. I tried searching for my blog on twitter and there were two or three retweets that too from platforms like digg. So basically my own tweets were actually a waste but still I tweet and even you must because neither retweet means your page in accessed, nor it means that they are the only ones.

Pinterest-

A new way to share and get traffic. The concept and features are awesome. But blogger users who are using dynamic views may find problems. You cannot add a pin because pinterest is unable to track down image from a dynamic view enabled blogger blog. Though you can still upload but that is a hectic job to upload an image.