Yearly Archives: 2012

How To Get iPhone Notification Center Widgets Without Jailbreak

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For everyone who has used SBSettings and other similar jailbreak tweaks, it is usually difficult to imagine having a convenient life on iOS without access to the famous Cydia store. Non-jailbroken iPhone and iPod touch devices do have weather and stocks widgets in Notification Center, but these just whet the appetite of iOS users, giving a glimpse of the full potential NC has to offer. On the other hand, jailbreaking your iPhone is sure to decrease the stability of your device, while also voiding its warranty. Won’t it be nice if there was some way of getting the best of both worlds and having widgets without jailbreaking? Well, Speed U is an app that offers the closest alternatives to NC widgets for all iDevices, whether they are jailbroken or not! Thanks to Speed U, it is possible to pin shortcuts for calling or texting anyone, launching an app, turning on your device’s camera LED so that it can be used a flash light and much more. Read More

Appy Gamer: A Sleek & Customizable News App For Gamers [Android, iOS]

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Being a regular smartphone apps reviewer, I feel absolutely blessed to come across offerings from some of the giants and recognized names in business. Looking at the events of the past three days, first it was team Root Uninstaller that came up with Smart Settings – a nifty solution to personalize and automatically switch between Android sound and system profiles. Then yesterday, OneLouder Apps introduced us to arguably the most innovative and feature-rich Twitter client for Android and iOS-powered devices in the form of Slices for Twitter. Today is the turn of MobilesRepulic – the creators of several intuitive news aggregating smartphone apps, such as Appy Geek, Glam Life, News Republic and Sports Republic – to unleash yet another gorgeous-looking, free news app. While Appy Geek was aimed at geeks and tech lovers, Glam Life had you covered with all the latest happenings from the fashion world, Sports Republic tried to attract avid sports followers, and News Republic covered news stories from almost all wakes of life, the team’s latest release, Appy Gamer, aims to be the hardcore gamers’ one-stop shop for getting daily doze of gaming news from virtually every known platform, including PC, mobile, Xbox, PS3, Nintendo and almost every reliable news source out there. Read More

Veeam: Free Backup & Replication Tool For VMWare & Hyper-V

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For IT professionals, Virtualization tools like VMWare and Microsoft Hyper-V hold immense importance as they allow multiple machines to function from within a host system, saving both time and resources. The significant nature of features like backup and replication are also rightfully needed for reliability and data integrity. Veeam  is a free, data recovery and integrity software that manages virtualized environments effectively while focusing on hardware or software failure prevention. For instance, if you were doing a high priority task on a virtual machine, Veeam would ensure that no technical failure takes place in the first place and if it does, it will put into effect all necessary recovery methods. With the free version of this tool, you can backup a single virtual machine using VeeamZIP files, and recover it using the same files whenever needed. Read More

Turn Off Or Hibernate Your Computer & Close Running Applications At A Specified Time

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Tools that allow you to automatically shutdown your computer are a good way to save up on your energy bills. If you leave your computer running for long hours, it is going to consume a lot of electricity and add up to your electricity bill. However, there are a lot of situations, where one needs to leave the computer running for some time. For example, if there is an on-going file transfer or download, you cannot turn the computer off if the process is not resume supported. You can always wait for the process to finish and turn off the computer manually, but sometimes, that is just not the option. In those situations, automatic shutdown managers are the best tools that can help you in shutting down the PC, even if you are not present in front of it. Previously, we have covered shutdown tools, such as DShutdown, a tool that lets you shutdown local, as well as remote computers connected through LAN, and Shutdown Schedular, an automatic shutdown application that triggers computer shutdown based on various scenarios. Today, we have an application for you called Auto Power Switch that lets you not only shutdown the computer, but also perform other Power functions, such as hibernate and sleep. Moreover, you can close multiple applications at a specified time by adding them to a list. Read More

Manage, Create & Discover Twitter Lists With twst For iPhone

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Lists are a part of Twitter that have hitherto failed to gain much popularity among the masses, but things might be changing pretty soon if you go by the kind of apps being released these days. Just yesterday, we covered an Android/ iOS app "Slices", which was a Twitter client focused on lists. That app could be used as a complete replacement for the official Twitter client for iOS, as it has got everything you will ever need for tweeting. twst is an iPhone app that is not strictly a Twitter client, and deals exclusively with lists in your account. Even if you do have twst, you will still need a proper Twitter client for viewing your feeds and tweeting, as the app’s main purpose is to let you manage your account, and specifically lists. Not only can you create, delete and edit all the lists in your account, twst is also perfect for discovering new lists you should follow. Read More

To-Do DeskList Lets You Manage Tasks In A Collaborative Manner

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Imagine a situation where a thought comes to your mind and you automatically look for either a pencil or a pen to jot it down or an advanced task management software to retain the memory for later use. Many a times, these notes get lost either physically or in a huge jargon of information. To-Do DeskList is a user-friendly task management utility that organizes tasks on your desktop with emphasis on priority and flexibility. It is a small yet powerful utility boasting auto-arranged sticky notes on your desktop, global hotkeys, synchronization and sharing options equipping you to effectively manage varying workloads over time. The DeskList concept is based on user-friendliness, achieved through accessibility from the desktop. With a comprehensive support document and window, managing life using notes and reminders could never have been this easy. Read More

Change The Notification Center Background In OS X Mountain Lion [Tip]

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Notification Center is one of the highlights in Mountain Lion, and it is a direct adaptation of the same feature from iOS. The execution is spot on, but you will see a rather familiar background in Notification Center; the very same grey linen background that was previously used in Dashboard, and is still used in iOS. Not many users felt enthusiastic about the said background in Dashboard, which could easily be changed with tweaking tools or from within the system files. It might not have mattered much though since the Dashboard can be disabled and few people use it; however, the Notification Center is an entirely different story. It can’t be disabled, and it’s also incredibly useful, which means you will be using it even if bleeding kittens are in the background. This post describes how you can change the Notification Center background easily for one that appeals to you. Read More

Quickly Paste From Multiple Clipboard Snippets via Keyboard Shortcuts

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One of the most frustrating things in Windows is that it only holds one item at a time in its clipboard. There is absolutely no knowing whether this would be sorted out or not in the future iterations of the operating system, but as of now, chances are slim. Having a stack of clipboard items that can work in conjunction has its own good reasons. For instance, one simply doesn’t need to copy an item every time they require its use. This can especially come in handy in situations where you are working on a document that demands copy and pasting various text snippets multiple times one after the other. This is where third-party clipboard managers jump into the scene. Whether it’s an email, a project report, an important assignment or a wonderful story you’re writing, clipboard utilities can save you a lot of time. We have covered some of the very best clipboard managers in the past, each with their own merits and demerits. Another one new in town is Extended Clipboard 2, which, according to the developer, is a revamped version of Extended Clipboard Classic. One of its keystone feature is FastPaste menu. This menu (which can be triggered via Alt+V) helps in instant selection among the copied items. The utility archives all the items you copy into an integrated database and there they remain, unless you manually delete them. Furthermore, when active, it keeps items in memory for an even faster access. Read More

Chrome 21 Stable Release Brings Camera APIs And Retina Support

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Chrome 21 was released for the stable channel a few days back, and there are three noteworthy additions to the otherwise uneventful launch of the new version. Specifically; Chrome 21 has Retina support for the new line of MacBooks, it allows HTML5 apps to use the getUserMedia JavaScript API and connect with your webcam, and finally, it adds support for the Gamepad API. For now, this is good news for developers. Users will be able to benefit from this in the long run when there is better support in the form of online games and web apps. The Retina support is what users will get to see first hand immediately, and while it isn’t a feature (so to speak), it nevertheless means something for Mac users. Read More

Immersive Explorer: Metro-Style Alternative To Windows Explorer

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Although the new Metro User Interface (introduced through Windows 8) didn’t have a love-at-first-sight experience with the loyal users, its fan following is increasing day by day. People have started to realize that the new interface may be different than anything Microsoft has ever incorporated in earlier version of Windows yet these changes are for the better keeping in view user-friendliness, touch-friendly interface and an organized, vibrant layout of resources. Immersive explorer is a metro-style navigator serving as alternative to Windows Explorer. The aim is to focus more on the content rather than opening multiple windows and switching from one to the other. Images can be viewed and zoomed easily using this application with basic file management features appearing at the bottom. It is not in any way a replacement of Windows Shell and doesn’t require any installation granting immediate access to the attractive interface without admin rights. Read More

Time Zone Master: Feature-Rich Clock Application With History Logs

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You know why Marshall McLuhan called our world a global village? Because we are living in an age where everything’s connected by technology. It no longer is the case that you’re residing in Sydney and you’re completely oblivious about the happenings in New York. Same goes for the internet communication, which is what has driven people on our planet closer to one another. One factor that is inherent to this concoction of bringing countries nearer to each other is time. Time differs from country to country, and keeping an eye on different time zones can do wonders for you. You don’t want to wake up your boss on the other side of the earth to discuss a regular meeting in the middle of the night. Your spouse may also get pissed, if you didn’t arrive on time at the airport to pick her up from her trip abroad. Likewise, if you’re an international trader, you must know about the time in the country where you’re trading your goods at. Unluckily, Window’s integrated time zone feature isn’t as feature-rich as it should, and most of the third-party clocks you download follow Windows time zone database, which doesn’t get updated frequently. To cope with this annoyance, you can try Time Zone Master instead. It comprises of a comprehensive database of time zones of about 200 countries and 45,000 cities and towns, which always remains up to date. You can also use its historical data to perform various heuristic analysis in your research projects. Other than that it tells accurate sunset/sunrise times, moon phases, UT, solar and lunar calculation, as well as multiple clocks at the same time, and so on. Read More

OneLouder’s Slices: One Of The Best, Most Innovative Twitter Apps For Android & iOS

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OneLouder Apps have a thing for smartphone apps based on social networking, as can be seen with almost all their previous releases, including BaconReader, 1Weather and SportCaster. Oh, and did we forget to mention Friendcaster and TweetCaster, their biggest offerings to Android and iOS users in this regard? Of course, not. With a truly powerful and intuitive unofficial Twitter client already under their belt in the form of TweetCaster, you won’t back too many companies to dare release another candidate, especially when the market is already brimming with all sorts and sizes of third-party Twitter apps, and more importantly, when your own existing offering is raking rich accolades from Twitter-maniacs from all across the globe. That’s not the case with OneLouder Apps, though, as they’ve released to the Google Play Store, Amazon Appstore and the iTunes App Store one of the most feature-laden, aesthetically appealing and innovative unofficial Twitter app by the name of Slices For Twitter. Besides being one of the most complete Twitter clients for Android and iOS smartphones and tablets, Slices brings to the table several handy feature that had, so far, been missed quite badly by impulsive tweeters. These include slicing down your Twitter Timeline to view all content under various categories (referred to as Slices), extensive pool of categories to explore, pluck and follow content from, thorough search across the Twitter network to find and bookmark content of interest, way better in-app navigation and content filtering to instantly access the required Twitter sections, sneak peek into your Twitter world via detailed statistical analysis, and lots more. Read More

FlicFlac: Lightweight And Super Speedy Audio Converter

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As technology convergence takes place rapidly, file conversion is becoming more and more essential for users relying on smartphones, tablets, PCs and other handheld devices. Often you end up with limited rights barring you from installations in places like your office. In the meantime, you find a track that must be admitted to your playlist in your MP3 player or phone, immediately. In situations like these, FlicFlac guides you to the solution. It doesn’t require any installation, downloads instantly and operates easily. Moreover, it supports FLAC, WAV, MP3, OGG and APE formats with custom bit-rates and quality. A simple user interface supporting drag-and-drop and audio file selection for conversion equips you with all the necessary resources required to fulfill your needs with a click. Read More

Pocketory: Collaborate With Friends To Create & Share Inventory Lists [iPhone]

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Even if you are not a hoarder, chances are that you have got plenty of stuff that isn’t really useful, but is still lying around your room, or in your closet, for the fear that if you put it away somewhere else, you will never be able to find the items again. However, things don’t have to be that way, and you can bring order and neatness to your life with a small effort. All you need is a few spare minutes, and an iPhone app like Pocketory. Pocketory might appear to be just another list-creating app, but it lets its users do a lot more than merely creating lists. For one thing, Pocketory is image-based, and you can attach a photo with each item in your list. Other than that, the app supports collaborative maintenance of your “pockets” (that’s what groups are called in the app) and you can invite anyone to view and edit the inventory lists. The methods for adding new items to pockets are numerous in the app, and you can add new stuff via internet searches, scanning barcodes or by uploading images from your iPhone’s camera roll. Read More

RadioZilla: Listen To Internet Radio & Download Streams To Your PC

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Listening to music is a good way to relax while working. However, in order to listen to music, you have to have some good songs stored in your computer. Even though there are lots of online services available that allow you to listen to music without downloading it, some good songs should be available in your hard drive in case you lose the internet connection. You can download songs to your computer from various sites, but how do you know which track to get? Randomly downloading songs hoping to find something good is obviously not the way to go. To find good new songs, what you can do is listen to the radio, and then if you like a song, download it to your computer. Again, listening to a song on the radio, searching for it on the internet and then downloading it seems too much trouble to just create a playlist. Today, we have an application for Windows called RadioZilla that allows you to, listen to a wide variety of radio stations, and directly download the currently playing songs, without having to use any third party application to complete the process. Keep reading to find out more about RadioZilla. Read More

PowerDown Enhancer: Disable Or Reconfigure iPhone’s Power Off Menu

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The idea of preventing unintended shut down of iOS devices is nothing new, and Cydia tweaks like Archangel make sure that your iPhone doesn’t get powered off in case you are using Gevey SIM or are on a tethered jailbreak. There are many scenarios in which you might wish to keep your device powered on for good, and even if your memory is good enough to never betray you, someone else might grab your phone and shut it down when you are not around. PowerDown Enhancer is a new Cydia tweak that offers about the same functionality as Archangel, but with a few bonus features. Thanks to this tweak you can disable the Power Off menu completely. No matter for how long someone holds down the power button, nothing will happen. If you want to put the menu to good use, rather than just doing away with it completely, it is possible to configure it for options like respring, discreet respring and initiating safe mode. Read More

Top Windows 8 Features For Businesses And Professionals

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Although Windows 8 has managed to attract criticism from every corner of the globe, its revolutionary new look and feature-rich environment promises to win the hearts of the users, in the long-term. Casting the traditional boot management interface and start-menu away, Microsoft has decided to set the trend for the future. Ease of access, cloud-connectivity, widespread device integration, secure and privacy ensured are the buzzwords associated with Windows 8, if analyzed beyond the smokescreen. The recent unveiling of Microsoft Office 15 is only an affirmation to this cause. Undoubtedly, the new Metro User Interface allows a fast, neat and organized operating experience with everything (except the power options) accessible with a single click. In this post, we set our perspective straight and relevant for businesses. Why should a firm, business or organization look towards Windows 8 when they are already satisfied with the ever-popular Windows 7? Shifting to a radically new operating system, apparently just an upgrade, may require blanket time for adjustment and coordination within and beyond functioning teams that may hinder efficiency, at least in the short term. With this concern in mind, a conscious manager or team lead would think twice regarding the incentives Windows 8 has to offer in achieving the goals of the organization. From the network administrator to the IT manager, the executive to the worker, the accountant to the operator, we present a critical analysis that would empower you in making the move to prosperity, keeping in view the goals of efficiency, productivity, network management, user controls, security and data backup. Read More

Hygeia Lets You Effectively Automate Everyday Tasks

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Why waste time on recurring tasks when you have automation software available. Yes, cost may be an issue, but what if you could automate everyday tasks effectively. Reclaim control over your data by applying various actions on files and folders while performing tasks like copying, deleting, moving, extracting batch files, quickly. Rather than using multiple applications to organize everyday activities like your music while surfing online, we recommend Hygeia, a free software that is bound to save your time. You can upload photos to your Facebook, effortlessly and create custom rules and actions in accordance with your needs. Quite often you would want to organize folder components based on priority due to their relevance to your activities. Instead of monitoring the information yourself, let Hygeia keep watch on things that hold value for you. With bulk renaming, file management, Facebook integration, mp3 tag support, and more, life could never have been this simple.   Read More

Formvote Brings Its Vote & Discussion Based Q&A App To Android

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Curious about who’s going to win the most number of gold medals at the London Olympics, and who’ll have to make do with the wooden spoon? Want to get the general public response about the best vacation spot in the world? Itching to find out which smartphone OS is better between Android and iOS? As long as you’re content with getting just plain text-based answers to all your burning questions, you can resort to a variety of online services, such as Ask.com, Yahoo! Answers and Answers.com, but if you’re looking for a Q&A based platform that blends the elements of crowdsourcing with socializing and interactive vote-based answering, then you must give Formvote a try. Using this user-friendly platform, you can post your own questions, supplement them with images, videos and all the available choices for answers, and get the opinion of worldwide users. Similarly, you can view a live feed of questions posted by users from all across the globe and help them with finding the answers by voting on their posts. Formvote also lets you follow other users’ posts, make friends with them, share private messages with them, and indulge in discussions on any post that requires some sort of argumentation to help you reach to a better conclusion. How about posting and voting on questions on-the-go right from your Android smartphone? That’s right, the official Formvote app for Android and iOS has just recently been released to the Google Play Store, as well as the iTunes App Store, and we’ll be reviewing it for you after the break. Read More

Transform Windows 7 Into Android 4.1 Jelly Bean With This Skin Pack

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Changing the look of your computer after some time allows you to keep the appearance fresh and not get bored by looking at the same screen again and again. Changing the wallpaper of your desktop is one way to keep the interface fresh and new. Previously we have covered a lot of applications that automatically change the wallpaper after the specified time interval. Even the default Windows Desktop Background feature lets you change the background image after a fixed interval. However, if you are not satisfied by just the wallpaper change, you can go one step further and transform all the elements of your operating system by applying a skin pack. Transformation packs allow you to change the complete look of your computer. For instance, if you want to change the look of your operating system to that of Mac OS X Mountain Lion, you can follow the guide by Zayed that allows you transform Windows 7 and Windows 8 into Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. Recently, Android released the latest version of its mobile and tablet OS, the Jelly Bean, and if you want the look (and feel) of Android Jelly Bean on your Windows 7 desktop, try the Android Jelly Bean Skin Pack for Windows. Read More