Thursday, October 28, 2010

Add smileys and colors to your Facebook Messages

Facebook as we all know is one of the best Social Networking site but it lacks animated smileys and colors while updating status and comments.

Faceplus is a Google Chrome extension which integrates itself into Facebook and changes your Facebook experience. This extension adds 30 smileys and ability to add color and BBCode to your Facebook messages (Color, Bold Italic, Underline).

Download and install Faceplus for Google Chrome

Once installed, whenever you want to update your Status, you will see a Style panel using which you can add smileys and change the colors and BBCode of your message.

The messages containing smileys will be displayed as animated in your News Feed once this add-on is installed.


Conclusion
Faceplus is a nice addon to make Facebook more entertaining.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Zoom Facebook images on mouse hover

Everyone likes uploading and checking photo albums on Facebook. Whenever a new image is uploaded by your friend interests you, you feel like watching it zoomed. To see the zoomed images you need to go to the Photo album and check it.

Facebook Photo Zoom is an extension which helps you watch the zoomed images in your News Feed itself. It is a simple, light-weight extension that integrates directly into Facebook so you can see larger images of photo albums, profile photos and more whenever you hover over a zoomable image.

Facebook Photo Zoom integrates itself in Facebook making it simple to turn it On or Off. Simple click the toggle button at the bottom of Facebook page to toggle it.

Conclusion
This is a great extension to make Facebook more interactive.

Download Facebook Photo Zoom

Know what should be read in Google Reader with PageRank for Chrome

We subscribe to many RSS feeds and Google Reader is one of the best RSS reader used widely. We tend to subscribe to multiple RSS feeds getting lots of material to be read. PostRank Extension for Google Chrome helps you find which topic matters and should be read first. It aggregates engagement activity from social networks, ranks stories based on how much engagement each has received and marks their priority.

Download and Install PageRank extension for Google Chrome

After installation you will find a dropdown for PageRank on Google Reader from where you can select the Rank of posts to be listed and read them. By doing this you are sure about reading the articles which are being discussed the most by people over internet.

You can also enable PostRank for Google Search Results, Digg, Reddit, Hacker News etc from Extension settings.

Conclusion
PageRank is a good extension to save your time reading only the articles which are most popular and relevant.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Set image as wallpaper for Google Chrome

Google Chrome has been missing the functionality to set the image as wallpaper on right click context menu. This is possible now using Set Image as Wallpaper extension for Google Chrome. Currently this is only supported for Windows machines and the support for MAC and Linux will be provided shortly.

Download and install the extension by clicking here
Restart Chrome for the extension to get enabled and start using it. Now, whenever you like an image on web and want to set it as your wallpaper just right click on the image and select Set image as wallpaper.

Clicking Set image as wallpaper starts up a new tab. Select whether you want to stretch, tile or fit the image in center of your desktop. Once done, click Set wallpaper to set the image as your wallpaper.

Additionally you can click Options to configure the extension.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Now explore and listen to Hindi Songs using Google

Google Labs has come up with Google Music using which you can listen to thousands of full hindi songs. Google has partnered with In.com, Saregama and Saavn which holds rights to thousands of Indian tracks ranging from old and new Bollywood hits to Indian Classical Music.

Users can search for a particular song, album or artists.

Clicking the results opens up a pop-up in which the song gets played.
Now there's no more search needed to listen to Hindi songs online. Google does it great way for us.

Visit Google Music at http://www.google.co.in/music

Screensaver scans your PC using Microsoft Security Essentials

I had written about Disk Defrag screensaver for Windows PC which was a great utility to utilize PC's idle time to defrag the disks. Similarly DevianArt has come up with a Screensaver which scans your machines for malware and viruses when the screensaver runs. It uses Microsoft's excellent tool Security Essentials to run the scan.

The screensaver has two modes: Graphical and Non-Graphical. In Graphical mode a Microsoft Security Essentials logo is displayed on the screen whereas in Non-Graphical mode a blank screen is displayed when the screensaver runs.

You need Microsoft Security Essentials installed as a pre-requisite to make this screensaver work. Microsoft Security Essentials is a freeware from Microsoft and can be downloaded at http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials

Click here to download the screensaver

The ZIP file contains Security Screensaver.scr (Graphical) and Security Screensaver NG.scr (Non-Graphical)  files. Just right click any one of the files depending on your choice and click Install to get the screensaver started.

Conclusion
This is a great Utility to utilize machine's idle time to get it scanned for Viruses and Malware. Today, everyone is mostly connected to internet increasing the chances of affecting with viruses and malwares and this kind of utilities are real help to protect machine from viruses and malwares.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Securely receive files to your Dropbox using DropItToMe

Dropbox has become an essential part to store, organize and sync your files between computers. If you are still not aware of what Dropbox is continue reading Organize, Synchronize, Share, Backup files using Dropbox.
With all the great features Dropbox has, one of its wonderful feature is integrity with 3rd party applications which gives developers a chance to build on applications to extend Dropbox.

Similarly an application named Drop It To Me has extended Dropbox using which people can store files in your Dropbox. It is completely secure as you need to supply the password for Drop It To Me application to your friends and not for Dropbox. Your friends can only upload files to that location but can never see the contents of that location which makes it secure enough.

The application can simply help us avoid sending emails with large attachments, pictures, videos, etc. and simply uploading them to friends Dropbox folder.

Start using Drop It To Me

Just type in http://www.dropitto.me/ in your web browser and hit Enter

Click Register to create an account with Drop It To Me and link it to your Dropbox Account.

Click Get Dropbox if you do not have a Dropbox account. Considering that you have a Dropbox Account just hit Register button to connect DROPitTOme to your Dropbox account. On the next screen after clicking Register provide your Dropbox login details.

 The application needs permission to connect to your Dropbox. Click Allow to grant permission to the application to interact with your Dropbox account.

Once you grant the permission, create a login id and password for DROPitTOme. Note the password and username can be different than yout Dropbox account.

You get a URL after registering with DROPitTOme which can be used to upload files to your Dropbox. Make sure you note down the URL so that you can share it with your friends.
You also need to provide the password for DROPitTOme account to your friends for them to upload the files using the URL mentioned.

Just navigate to your Drop It To Me URL and insert the password and hit Login.

Upon successful login, users can simply click Choose File, select the file to be uploaded and hit Upload button to start uploading.

A success message gets displayed once the upload gets completed. Do not close the browser window till you do not receive the Success message.

You can check the uploaded files using Drop It To Me in your Dropbox Account under DROPitTOme folder.


Conclusion
Dropbox has always been a great application to share, sync, organize your files and DROPitTOme adds on to its capabilities wonderfully. It just adds one more option to send large files to your friends instantly.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Fifa 2010 - Wear your team on Firefox - Firefox Cup

Its Football Fever and team at Firefox has been affected with it too. Firefox has come up with Firefox Cup where you can support your favorite team by wearing the Persona.



The team with the most number of fans (number of people wearing Firefox Persona) wins at the end.

So what are you waiting for. Log on to Firefox Cup and dress your Firefox with your Favorite Teams color.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Detect Blocked and Open Ports - Port Detective

It happens when you need to find out the reason behind things not working on your machine whose possible reason could be with the port being blocked. At such times we need to first make sure whether the port is actually blocked and if yes what is blocking it. Port Detective does this work simply for us.

Port Detective uses the latest in Internet technology when it comes to figuring out what ports on YOUR
computer or router are Blocked, In-Use or restricted. Port Detective is much different from other port
scanner programs. Typical port scanners are designed for scanning other peoples ports (Computers other
than your own), or they only tell you what ports are open on the local host (Your Local PC, Not your ISP too).

Port Detective gives you the Plain and Simple results on what ports are open, blocked or in use by your router or firewall. It can even detect what ports are blocked by your Internet Service provider!  This free service allows Cable modem or xDSL users to instantly get an idea on what ports their ISP may block, so they know what Internet Services they can run.

Starting with Port Detective
1. Download and install Port Detective (link below)
2. Once you have it installed, start the application and click Ok on the Warning message displayed

3. After clicking the Warning message, Port Detective automatically starts scanning the default ports and displays you with the results. You can additionally add a new port or start scanning for the ports again using the Action menu.


Conclusion
Port Detective makes it real easy for you to find out the ports issue by displaying simple result after great analysis.

Download Port Detective now

Friday, June 18, 2010

Fifa 2010 Live Score - Firefox Extension

GoodReflex has come up with a simple Firefox addon which displays live Fifa 2010 matches score right in Firefox. It adds a toolbar between bookmarks and Address bar where the scores are displayed. The extension is not yet reviewed by Mozilla but I haven't had any issue using it.

Its a good to have add-on when you cannot watch the match during office hours.

Click here to download and install the add-on for Firefox

Yessss Its Friday - I Love Traffic

Yes, its another Friday. The day when no one wants to work, everyone is bag packed before time to leave the office and have fun. So here's another game for this Friday to be more fun.

I Love Traffic is a simple game where you need to control the traffic using the traffic signals. The aim is to send all the traffic from all directions using the intersection avoiding collisions. Each level has a set number of cars you need to send off the intersection to proceed to the next level.


What are you waiting for... Start playing it now.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Fifa 2010 theme for Windows 7

Its Football fever so why not have a theme for your Windows 7 with all Fifa stuff. EA Sports has come up with a Windows 7 theme for Fifa 2010.


Click here to download the theme.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

IE 6 and IE 7 Vulnerability - Security Patch

Microsoft has investigated a new vulnerability in IE6 and IE 7 on public reports. The main impact of the vulnerability is remote code execution.

According to Microsoft  Internet Explorer 8 and Internet Explorer 5.01 Service Pack 4 on Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 are not affected, and that Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 on Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, and Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7 are vulnerable.

The vulnerability exists due to an invalid pointer reference being used within Internet Explorer. It is possible under certain conditions for the invalid pointer to be accessed after an object is deleted. In a specially-crafted attack, in attempting to access a freed object, Internet Explorer can be caused to allow remote code execution.

If you use any of the affected versions either upgrade or click here to know how to fix it.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Go directly to images in Google Image Search

Google Image Search is the best place to look for images whenever needed. But the way it works is irritating because you need to go through 2 pages to check the image you click. It first takes you to the website on which the image is posted and then shows the full image after clicking the link.

Using clickGOOGLEview extension for Google Chrome you can bypass the website where the image is posted and directly see the full size image after clicking it in Google Image Search.

See how it works

Before installing the extension
Open Google Image Search and search for image

Click on the image you are interested in

Click See full size image


After installing the extension
Open Google Image Search and search for image

Click the image you are interested in

Notice that the image opened in the new tab and was directly opened without going to the website from where the image comes.

To conclude, this is a great extension to fasten your image search.

Stop Buffering unwanted YouTube videos

It happens at time that you start watching a video on YouTube and pause it because you don't find it interesting. YouTube keeps buffering the video inspite of pausing it which utilizes your bandwidth unnecessarily.

YouTube has now rectified this by adding Stop Download to right click context menu of the videos. Clicking Stop Download stops buffering the video any further.


This is a small but very useful feature recently added by YouTube.

Related Posts

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Download You Tube Videos with Quality you need
Google Video adds Cartoons and Slideshows Search

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Hide YouTube Video Comments in Google Chrome

YouTube is a great resource for videos and the comments a video gets is sometimes fun but sometimes turns out disrespectful or useless. Now it is possible to hide all YouTube video comments using No You Tube Comments if you use Google Chrome.

No You Tube Comments is a Google Chrome extension which hides the comments for all the videos watched on YouTube.

See it working
Start Google Chrome and open any video on YouTube and you can see the comments below the video

Now install No You Tube Comments extension for Google Chrome and hit F5 or Refresh on YouTube window to see the change

The comments are hidden when you install and refresh your YouTube window.

To conclude, this is a good add-on incase you do not like to read the comments on YouTube videos.

Download and Convert YouTube Videos

YouTube has become one of the most visited website for videos and everyone wants to watch the videos whether they are online or not. Incase you are not online you can download the YouTube video's while online so that you can watch them later using YouTube Downloader.

YouTube Downloader not only downloads the videos but also gives you the ability to convert them to most major formats. It allows you to convert downloaded videos for iPod, iPhone, PSP, Cell Phone, Windows Media, XVid and MP3. You can enable/disable the sounds while converting the video.

Downloading file using YouTube Downloader
Open the YouTube video and copy the YouTube URL you want to download

Switch over to YouTube Downloader. It will automatically paste what's copied in the clipboard in Select Video File. Simply hit Ok to start downloading the Video

It will start downloading the video file from YouTube and inform you as soon as the download is complete

Converting downloaded videos using YouTube Downloader
Start YouTube Downloader and select "Convert Video (previously downloaded) from file and select the file to be converted from your computer. Select the format in which you want to convert the file in "Convert to" drop down and hit Ok

Now, select the Quality in which the video should be converted. You can even cut the video using time frames and set the volume for the converted video.

Once you click Ok, it starts converting the video to the selected format

To conclude, YouTube Downloader is a simple but powerful application for downloading and converting videos from YouTube.

Related Articles 

Download Facebook Albums to your computer

Album Downloader is a cool tiny application using which you can download your and your friends Facebook Albums to your computer. You can even choose to download only the pics in which you have been tagged.

Getting started with Album Downloader
Once you have installed Album Downloader it starts automatically. It will pop up a message saying it might need some time to initialize. Simply click Ok and wait for the application to start.

Provide it with your Facebook login details and click Login.

Once you are logged in, it displays you the list of your friends on Facebook. Simply check the albums you want to download, set the download folder and click Download Selected Albums.

If you want to download pics in which you are tagged, check (All tagged pics of me).

To conclude, it is a nice application in case you want to download bunch of albums from Facebook to your machine.

Read Popular Articles in Style - Google Reader Play

Google has released a new Product named Google Reader Play using which you can read Popular articles in an interesting interface. Google displays the contents over the web depending on the what you starred, liked or shared in your Google Reader articles to improve the recommendations.

Getting started with Google Reader Play
Go to http://www.google.com/reader/play in your web browser and click Get Started button

If you use Google Reader click Sign In and login using your Google credentials to get recommendations related to your likes, shares and starred items in Google Reader. If you don't use Google Reader you can still use Google Reader Play. Click the next arrow to move to the next recommendation or click any item on the filmstrip below to directly move to a specific recommendation.

You can click the title of the article to visit the homepage where the article comes from.

Google Reader Play by default does not show your subscribed articles in Google Reader, but you can check them using the URL http://www.google.com/reader/play/#stream

To conclude, Google Reader Play is a fun way to read articles and get recommendations.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Merge PDF files online

At times it happens that we have multiple PDF files which need to be merged and created as a single PDF file. A single PDF is easily to maintain instead of having multiple PDF files. Now you can merge 10 PDF files of 5 MB each into a single PDF file using http://www.mergepdf.net. It is a great and simple to use online tool to merge your PDF files.

Getting started with Merging a PDF
The UI is pretty simple with 2 buttons for picking the files which need to be merged and button which actually merges the PDF files.

Click Pick Files... to add files to the merge list and select the PDF files from your computer

Once you are done adding the PDF files to the merge list click Merge PDF ! button to start merging the files

Merge PDF displays you the status of the merging and the time remaining for completion. Once the merging is complete the you can open the file using PDF Viewer installed on your machine or save merged PDF file to your machine. Merge PDF automatically opens the Save File pop-up on merge completion.

Merge PDF does not store any PDF on their servers. All PDF's are removed once the processing is complete.

To conclude, it is a great tool if you want to merge your PDF files online.