It is very common for a user to have several online accounts consisting of email, blogs, social media sites, screen names, etc and to use same password for all those different accounts as it is much easier to remember a single password. It is nevertheless not a good idea!

If you can’t remember your passwords or having difficulty managing your accounts; you need a password manager like Pastor. It is small, quick and easy to use. It allows you to add unlimited number of usernames/passwords, web logins & serial numbers for storing without having to worry about safety matters since the file you added is RC-4 encrypted and password protected which means you only have to remember one password.

You can store the URL of a website along with the username and password. This tools comes with a built-in password generator in case you can’t think of a secure password yourself.

Latest 1.8.1 version comes with extended password generation utility and “find as you type” features.

Requires Mac OS X 10.2 or later.

Download Pastor

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It lets you organize your media files by allowing you to sync files from various desktop and handheld devices. Supported platforms include Android, Windows Mobile, Blackberry and Symbian OS. The device is intelligent at recognizing the devices and quickly detects any attached ones. Other than that, it promises a smart search option, which means you can find the media files you can’t spell and remember the name. It does that by offering ”Fuzzy” search option, which finds you all the files matching your generic search.

With smart shuffle, you can create a personalized experience by playing back the media you most frequently listen to.

Library management has been made very simple to use. The crisp interface allows one to separately manage songs, artists, albums & playlists.  Under the Sync tab, you can see any connected devices, where you can sync your library with the device with one click, and also view the available space. The screenshot below shows our test unit, a Samsung GT-I5700 Android phone, connected and ready to be synced.
Like most media players today, it too has connectivity options for downloading media online and for sharing your files with others using Facebook & Twitter.

In a nutshell, Instinctiv Music Player is a simple yet useful application for Mac users specially the ones already scratching their heads on iTunes!

Download Instinctiv Music Player

Read Synchronize Music With Android, Windows Phone & Blackberry [Mac] by Ali on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

Today, Google has made the task translating your website content into 50 languages even more easy. Google has introduced website translator gadget powered by Google Translate. This makes your website content available in 51 different languages. Now if a visitor having a different language -as decided by the browser- than your website than a banner will be prompted to translate your site content into their local language.

The visitor just needs to click the button and all the content will automatically be translated into his local language, making your task easy.

It is very easy to install, Google provides everything you need, just visit Google Translate homepage and click on the “Tools” tab. You will see a code snippet, you just need to copy and paste this code into your webpage. This is all you need to do to present your website into 51 languages.

Although Google Translate is not a true alternative to professional translation but with the passage of time different language support is becoming natural and reliable and soon Google Translate may replace even professional translations.

Read Google Translator Gadget: Easily Translate Your Websites by Ali on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

The light weight Office Web Apps will empower user to virtually access office documents from anywhere if they have an internet connection. It’s yet to see how Microsoft Web Office Apps will compete with the already present online office solutions, and the best competitor is none other than Google Web Apps.

This technical preview will give customer feedback prior to the official launch of the service. “After this Technical Preview milestone, which is focused on consumers, we’ll continue to update the Office Web Apps, leading up to the broadly available beta and the official launch next year, and frequently update the service based on new user feedback after that.” says Michael Schultz, director of marketing for Microsoft Office Services at Microsoft.

The beta testers will view, edit and create Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentation and Word documents, moreover they will be able to share them with others. Microsoft believes that its Web Office will be unique in the sense that half a billion people use Microsoft Office and the Web Office Apps will be no different than the desktop Office. Additionally, the office will be available on PCs and Macs and on all popular browsers as well as on mobile phones. This gives consumers the flexibility to work on the go.

Microsoft also declares its future plans regarding Web Office. Office Apps will be officially available in the first half of 2010. First Windows Live customers will get access to Office Web Apps on Windows LiveSkyDrive . Second, it will be available to Office 2010 volume licensing business customers and then finally businesses will get access to Office Web Apps through Microsoft Online Services.

It is certainly a great news for Microsoft Office enthusiasts, and they will certainly be looking forward to a great online office experience.

Read Microsoft Office Goes Online As Office Web Apps by Ali on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

In the last couple of years PC gaming market has increased many folds especially in the year 2008 in which the growth is recorded as 18% higher than the year 2007. Keeping in view this mammoth increase in the gaming industry, Microsoft has announced that it is revamping its Games for Windows Program. According to Microsoft, this revamp includes new technical guidelines which will help in creating easier game installation, support for 32-bit and 64-bit platforms, game titles populated in the Game Explorer, parental controls, stability, security and computability against commonly known issues.

The new technical specifications will encourage game developers to build better games that will give the gamers high-quality gaming experience. The new specs will also help developers to take advantage of the features offered by Windows 7. Some of the improvements are launched today with Games for Windows – LIVE titles. When you install the Games for Windows – LIVE 3.0 client on Windows 7, Games for Windows – LIVE is added to Game Providers in Games Explorer.

Windows 7 Game Explores right-hand pane will update you about latest news on a particular game directly within the Game Explorer. For example, if you click on on Street Fighter IV (which is a Games for Windows – LIVE title) you will see whether or not the game is up to date directly from Games Explorer.

So download this new client and enjoy the high quality gaming experience.

Read Games For Windows Live Gets Updated by Ali on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

If you want to share your blog stuff with others or keep a hardcopy with yourself, then you should avail this service. You can publish some or all of your posts and photos as a professionally printed, full color book. You can choose from soft cover or hard cover for your blog book, you can also make books by season, by year, by event or even by theme. You can customize this book and add more photos and selected comments.

Simply go here and enter your blog URL, choose the range of blog posts, modify the cover background and customize the book as per your liking and there you go, you Blog Book has been created.

Best thing is that you only pay $14.95 for soft cover book. The base price includes 20 pages, and more pages can be added at a cost of 35 cents each.

Read Blogger New Service: Turn Your Blog Into A Book With Blog2Print by Ali on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

Its now possible to video chat with all of your friends inside Orkut. You can keep in touch with your friends face to face and no need to shuffle different browser windows, just stay inside Orkut and enjoy the video chat.

You need just a webcam connected to your machine and take a few seconds to download video chat plugin, install it, and you are set to go.

If you use Gmail, you may have seen this plugin in work, if you see a little green camera icon next to your friends name in your chat list. The same goes for Orkut, you will see the same little icon next to your friends name and it tells you that the friend is ready for a video chat. Just click on the friend name, open chat window and click on “Start video chat” link in the “Actions” menu.

This is all you have to do to enable video chat in Orkut. So download the plugin and enjoy video chat with your friends.

Read Video Chat Comes To Orkut by Ali on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

The best thing about Widgetbox is the impressive collection of widgets available on it, as well as the ability to create your own. It’s remarkable how easy it is to make a widget of your own in Widgetbox. Furthermore, when the ease of embedding the widget you have created or chosen into your site is a breeze too. With the new Blogger integration, this is a completely automated process.

You don’t need to manually write or maintain any code; this widget takes care of the blog updates itself. This widget can help your blog getting easily discoverable across the web. The widget will showcase posts, images and branding etc.

Here is a widget that is created in seconds for the Google Blogger official Blog.

Widgetbox let you build your blog widget easily and within seconds. You can customise the widget as well. For example, you can change the default colors and background with the help of themes and patterns provided by Widgetbox. Your widget will be automatically updated as you create a new post. Another benefit is that you can put this widget on different sites that will eventually drive more traffic back to your blog.

As you can see in the screenshot above, making a widget of your own requires only your blog’s URL or feed address. All the rest of the customization is optional. Once you have made the widget, you will get a line of code that you can simply copy and paste into the HTML of any website or web page that you want this widget to appear on. This is probably the only technical aspect to it, and even this doesn’t involve any code editing on your part.

Ready to put Widgetbox to work for your Blogger blog? Simply visit this link, provide your blog feed address, update the look and feel to your taste, publish the widget, and start getting more traffic. Don’t let us know of your experience in the comments, and also feel free to share any alternative widgets or similar tools you know of that you use and that you have found to work well for you.

Read Create A Widget For Blogger’s Blog With Widgetbox by Ali on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

Update: Google Fast Flip project has been discontinued.

Google noticed this problem and today Google Labs has got a new toy in the form of Google Fast Flip. Google Fast Flip ensures the best possible experience that a reader can get. Reader can flip through the news and articles as you can flip the pages of a print magazine. You can browse sequentially through News, headlines , popular articles and feeds.

On the home page you can get all kind of information and News under different categories. You can flip through the pages like a print magazine until you find something useful. Moreover, you can share the content with your contacts. Fast Flip acts as an aggregator, you can search for News over many top newspapers and magazines.

To make this products successful, Google partnered with many top publishers like New York times, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, Salon, Fast Company,ProPublica an Newsweek. These partners will share revenue earned from contextaullay relevant ads.

A mobile version of Fast Flip is also available with tactile page flipping for Android-powered devices and the iPhone.

In short, you can fast sequential browsing in natural magazine-style navigation with recommendations from friends and community and acentralized place for a selection of large amount of information.

Read Google Fast Flip: Read News Fast by Ali on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

Those of you unfamiliar with Google Voice, here’s an introduction. Google Voice is a VoIP service offered by Google. In essence, it is the rebranded and revamped version of GrandCentral that Google acquired. With Google Voice, you can manage your communication with a unique Google Voice phone number that rings all your existing phones. People call at your Google Voice phone number and you choose where it should ring, your home, office or mobile number or all of them or get it as a voicemail message. You can listen the phone calls from your phone or online voicemail inbox or read them as automated transcription.

Other features include blocking calls from certain number, send,receive and store SMS and lots of other features. Google voice is currently available via invitation only. Go here to get yourself an invitation.

If you get a voicemail message, you get an email notification after sometime and you can click the “Play message” link to listen the message. Before today, “Play message” opened a new page in your browser. But now Google Labs have introduced Google Voice player, enable this player and the player will automatically appear right below the voicemail message itself. This enables you to play the voicemail message directly from Gmail.

Once you have played the voice message, the message will appear as read in Google Voice inbox. If you don’t have a Google Voice account sign up today to get one and enjoy these handy little features.

Once you have signed up for Google Voice and have it activated, you can easily enable the Voice Player from your GMail Labs. To access GMail Labs, go to your GMail settings and then click ‘Labs’. You can alternatively click the green ‘Labs’ icon in the top navigation links to get directly to the labs.

Once in GMail Labs, scroll down till you see the ‘Google Voice Player in mail’ option. All you have to do now is to simply enable it and save your preferences, and you will get the ability to listen to your voicemail right from your GMail inbox. It doesn’t get easier than this, does it?

Read Google Voice: Play Voice Messages In Gmail With Voice Player by Ali on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

In the last release of Google Earth, a pack of different and innovative features were introduced; for example, historical imagery from around the globe, explored ocean floor and introduced simplified touring with audio and voice recording, Moon and Mars exploration and many more features.

“we’ve realized that one of the most important features of all is speed. One of our key design principles is “fast is better than slow.” So for the newest version of Google Earth, we’ve been hard at work making it faster” says Google.

Lots of adjustments have been announced to make Google Earth fast; for example, better utilisation of memory, smoother experience and using compression technologies so that less memory and graphic resources are used. The start-up time has been improved by 25%. The Google Earth API calls have also been made significantly faster.Another exciting change is that browser plug-in is automatically installed when you install Google Earth( PC-only for now.) which means you can explore exciting Google Earth sites without any other installation.

Read Download Google Earth 5.1: Get Faster Earth Exploration by Ali on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

Today Blogger proudly announces the Jump Breaks.

This feature is already present in many other blogging platform. It helps you to show only a snippet of your post on the index page. Blogger will insert a “Read more” link that will lead the reader to the full post page.

This feature is available in the Updated Editor. Enable Update Editor feature under Setting | Basic | Global Settings.

There are several ways to insert the “Read more” link in your post. Notice the “insert jump break” icon in the updated editor. Insert this jump wherever you like in you post.

If you don’t want to shift to the updated editor, you can still insert the break manually from HTML. Add <!– more –> where you want to position the jump break.

So Blogger users have got the long awaited feature, use it and make you blog home page more convenient to read.

IMAGES VIA  BLOGGER BUZZ

Read Finally, Blogger Introduces “Read More” Feature by Ali on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter