Head on over to the page now to add us to your Google+ circles, and while you’re at it, you might as well click on that +1 button and share the page with your friends too. Cheers!

Our other social media pages:

AddictiveTips on Facebook

@addtips on Twitter

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1. AddictiveTips v2.0 Brings Better Usability, Focuses on Content
2. Google Launches The First Google+ APIs; Opens G+ To Developers
3. Get Email Alerts In Google+ With Native GMail for Google Plus [Chrome]

Should you face any issues in accessing the website, feel free to drop us an email. Meanwhile, enjoy your visit, and stay addicted!

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2. AddictiveTips Mobile Is Back – Alive & Kicking!
3. Nuance Brings Its Voice-Controlled Search Engine Dragon Go! To Android

Just head over to www.addictivetips.com on your mobile device’s browser, and enjoy a more enhanced and even better mobile experience. Should you face any issues, feel free to drop a comment below, and we’ll sort it out. Stay smart, stay Addicted!

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1. AddictiveTips Mobile – Covering The Best News, Tips, And Hacks
2. AddictiveTips Is Looking For Desktop Application Developer [Jobs]
3. Free Nokia Mobile Antivirus Software Symbian ESET Mobile

Unfair as it seems, you will have to cough up $2.99 to play a game that is otherwise free to play on Facebook, but if you have an uncontrollable urge to learn lots of words and spell right, this might be an investment to your OCD.

Jokes aside, Words with Friends is one among the top 10 popular games on Facebook, and when you compare it with growing virtual farms or killing imaginary mobs, the game is not only great for learning, but also a better way to kill time. An official Twitter app also seems to be on its way to the Nook Store; until then, spell better and impress your friend with the 7 letter word “aigrets”.

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1. Official Windows 8 App Store With Metro User Interface Confirmed
2. Official: Start Submitting iOS 4 Apps To iTunes App Store
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Today is my last day at AddictiveTips.

After founding AddictiveTips and running it for a little more than 3 years, it is time for me to step down from the role of Editor-in-Chief. Aatif Khan will be the new Editor-in-Chief and Usman Javaid will be the Associate Editor – a new position to make sure the quality of articles meet the standard that readers have come to expect.

When it all started back in 2008, AddictiveTips was meant to fill a gap in the blogosphere by becoming the voice of budding developers and at the same time, helping readers discover the best tools. With every passing year, I have kept a higher goal for AddictiveTips and strived to complete it with the help of a great team. This continued persistence by the team is why AddictiveTips has become what it is today.

There is a solitary reason for why I am stepping down; I am an entrepreneur whose focus is solving problems that common users face, that was why I started AddictiveTips, to help developers and users alike. Now it’s time for me to move on to try my hand at other things, the most important being to disrupt the file sharing space with Jumpshare – a new startup that will launch in Spring 2012.

Everyone is changing the way we share files, some are making it faster, some making it easier, few supporting large files, etc, but the concept has remained unchanged for the past decade. File sharing has always been boring. We plan on changing that with Jumpshare and we promise that you will love it.

But that is not why I am here; I’m here to talk about the future of AddictiveTips.

Now that I am stepping down, let me assure you that nothing will change at AddictiveTips; the vision, the quality and the content will be what it has always been. You are going to hear from the new Editor-in-Chief shortly, and as he is bound to tell you, the quality of posts will maintain its ascent. My thanks goes out to every member of the team. I would also like to thank PressLabs for their awesome hosting. Lastly, I thank you, the readers, for being part of the AddictiveTips community.

I am sad to leave this position and will miss the days that I spent with the team but the show must go on.

Farewell!

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1. Snapify – Search Selected Text On Popular Sites Without Leaving Tab
2. Ask The Readers: Do You Want Us To Cover Paid Apps?

The most important question for us this year is a simple one, to cover paid apps or not? After taking feedback from our readers and discussing internally, we have all agreed to cover paid apps but only occasionally. Our primary goal has always been to find and cover free apps (for all platforms) and we will stick to it. This is our mission and an important one.

The world as we know it is moving towards App Stores and Marketplaces. Developers today have more opportunities than ever before to showcase their applications to millions of users. Those who develop great apps deserve to get paid for their time and effort. It’s natural that paid apps have better support since the developers generally put more effort into such apps, releasing constant updates to satisfy end users like you and me.

However, App Stores and Marketplaces can get cluttered too with thousands of paid apps, more than half of which are unworthy. The question now is, which apps to purchase and which ones to stay away from? With free apps, it is not much of a problem since one can always uninstall them and try another ones. But with paid apps, users are usually left in the dark. This is where we want to help by recommending the best ones to you.

A new category called “Paid Apps” will be added, replacing the Hardware category which has been barely used. AddictiveTips is a blog about software and that is what we plan to focus on.

Occasionally, we come across paid apps that are too good to miss and there are no free alternatives available. Some of these apps are extremely cheap too, with price tags ranging from $0.99 to $4.99. There are quite a lot of users out there willing to spend a few bucks on a deserving app. Covering such apps is a win-win for both developers and our readers. Once again, our primary focus will remain freeware. Paid apps will only be featured occasionally. Some readers raised the point of accepting payment to cover paid apps, this is against our blogging ethics and we will never do this.

All paid app reviews will be clearly marked as paid (within the title) so that readers who are interested only in free apps can easily skip these paid apps.

In the end, we would like to thank all for chiming in with your feedback. Remember, it is you, the readers, who determine which direction AddictiveTips goes in. Thank you!

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If you’re about to reinstall or reset Windows 8 Consumer Preview, then you may need to enter product key released by Microsoft.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview Product Key: DNJXJ-7XBW8-2378T-X22TX-BKG7J

Windows 8 Developers Preview Product key: 6RH4V-HNTWC-JQKG8-RFR3R-36498

Windows Server 8 Developers Preview product key: 4Y8N3-H7MMW-C76VJ-YD3XV-MBDKV

It must be noted that the product key will expire on January 16th 2013, the expiry date of Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

To learn how to get Windows 8 Consumer Preview Product Key, go here.

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The wait is finally over, as Google has just announced the launch of the first Google+ APIs, opening the doors to developers to integrate Google’s social app into their apps. What this means for the end users is a more integrated experience with applications that till now offered integration with and authentication via Twitter, Facebook and other social networking services but had Google+ missing from the picture. Read on for our coverage of the press release..

The announcement just came from the Mountain View just moments ago via a tweet from Google’s official twitter account @google by Google Blog editor Emily Wood. Here is a screenshot of the tweet:

So all of you who had been waiting to use Google+ instead of Facebook or Twitter to log into other services or to integrate their Google+ streams into their websites, the wait is finally going to be over. Heck, these are just a couple of examples from limitless possibilities, and yet this is only the beginning. However, you will have to wait till developers actually build apps utilizing Google+ APIs, or add their functionality into their existing apps.

For developers, it means adding another way for the users of your apps and services to interact with them and each other. While the just released APIs allow access only to public data of users, this is clearly only the start and more APIs will be rolled out soon.

Now lets get down to the technical details, for those who are interested. These APIs use methods that are RESTful HTTP requests, returning JSON responses, with OAuth2 implementation for security and standard syntax payload formats for making this streamlined for developers as per industry standards.

To learn more about implementing Google+ APIs in your applications or just to read the full press release, visit the Google+ Platform Blog post.

[via Twitter and Google+ Platform Blog]

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There is one topic that we have been debating internally for a while and we need feedback from our readers for that. We would like to know what you think about AddictiveTips covering paid apps?

We are known for covering tips, and apps that are freeware. Lately, we have focused more on covering free apps since there are plenty of them around and nobody else seems to be covering them. The rate at which free apps are released every day for all platforms leaves us no choice but to cover them. However, there are some instances where there are paid apps that are worth covering too. Apps that solve some serious problems/annoyances and make life easier for users. We have been ignoring them, simply because they are not free. As a result, we have avoided covering some very nice apps.

No, we are not talking about those ridiculously high priced $40 to $200 apps. We are talking about those apps which cost anywhere from $0.99 to $4.99 or maybe as high as $9.99. We want to make sure that we are covering apps that are affordable by our reader base.

AddictiveTips is synonymous with everything free. When our readers wake up every morning to read this blog, they know that all apps that we have covered are free. No questions asked. However, they are missing a lot of must-have paid apps too which they are not aware of.

Now the most important question is, do you want us to cover paid apps? If your answer is No, please provide a reason. If Yes, then which price point are you more comfortable with? What is the highest amount you are willing the shell out for a paid app?

Drop a comment below, we would love to hear from you. We are looking forward to providing the best experience possible for everyone.

Editor’s Note: All AddictiveTips authors are on a short vacation. We will be back on 5th September, 2011. Meanwhile, we’ll keep checking your comments.

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3. Free/Paid Ways To Unlock Your WP7 Mango Phone & Problems You Might Face

The main idea behind the development of this “phone”, Fujitsu claims, is to make the world’s smallest PC. That is quite a good reason to develop something like this, but sadly the battery life in Windows mode is just 2 hours maximum. So if you have to sit all day with your phone sucking away at a wall charger, then won’t you prefer to use your real desktop PC?

But that does not mean that the phone is all bad. It has a few positives too. Like an awesome display. Take a look at the overall specs.

Specifications:

So as you can probably see, the hardware is pretty good, and not at all something to laugh at. If the battery life is improved, there is real potential out there. And anyways, the idea is kind of cool and refreshingly new.

The phone is slated to be released tomorrow, 23rd July(in Japan only) with $900 being a tentative guess at its price.

[Source: Fujitsu Official Site]

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Are you a geek who loves to develop applications? Do you want to develop some apps this summer but are out of ideas? Why not develop applications based on our ideas and earn some bucks  (lots of them) along the way?

After years of covering applications for Windows, Mac, and Linux, we are looking to releasing some of our own. There are problems for which no solution exists yet and we are aiming to release applications to solve them. The applications will be available to everyone for free.

AddictiveTips is looking for talented application developers for Windows only. You must have strong knowledge of Windows 7 with good design experience. We want to start with Windows and move to other platforms later.

Do you think you are the perfect fit for this job? Please send us an introduction with a link to your developed application(s) at jobs@addictivetips.com.

More information will be provided via email.

Stay Addicted!

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With Touch BIOS, you can interact with the BIOS settings in a more intuitive way, in fact, it is as easy to use as any common application. Some of the main features of GIGABYTE Touch BIOS include:

• GUI-Based BIOS: Users can change voltages and CPU ratios using the Overclock icon, or can monitor their system using the PC Status button.
• Easy To Navigate: Touch BIOS displays touch-friendly features such as large iconed buttons, easy-to-read fonts, enlarged navigation panes and wider side scroll bars to easily modify BIOS settings.
• Customization Options:

One of the main benefits of Touch BIOS is that you can customize the BIOS main page according to need. Users can easily rearrange icon order and use frequently used icons and delete unused ones.

• Access BIOS From Within Your Operating System:

Users can now access BIOS settings from within their native operating system to perform all the required configurations. The changes are applied at next system logon or a system reboot, which saves time and ends the inconvenience of configuring BIOS from the dull and complicated default settings.

Touch BIOS makes it easier to play around with numerous settings. Like all GIGABYTE motherboards, the Z-68 range is designed to have two BIOS chips, including a backup chip. In case you mess up your BIOS settings which can cause system issues, the system will automatically reboot and revert to the backup BIOS changes. For more information regarding the use of TOUCH BIOS, check out the below video.

Download GIGABYTE Touch BIOS

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This brand new newsletter is part of our goal to make browsing and reading content more easier. If you have any feature request or bugs to report, do not hesitate to contact me at nakodari [at] addictivetips.com

Meanwhile, if you have not subscribed to our newsletter yet, you can do so easily from the Daily Newsletter signup box on the right sidebar of our website or by clicking here.

Below you can see how our email newsletter looks like.

Enjoy!

Related Articles:

1. Introducing AddictiveTips Forum
2. AddictiveTips Has Moved To SliceHost
3. AddictiveTips Has A Brand New Re-Design

People suffering from eyes diseases such as amblyopia or lazy eye cannot see movies in 3D. However, that is the least of the vows of people suffering from headaches, nausea and dizziness after watching 3D. As this technology enters the cinemas, games and even our TV sets, we look at the implications of 3D technology and possible health hazards that it may cause.

Although there is news that the first installment of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows may not be released in 3D, however, it is quite likely that not just the next part of Harry Potter (Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows  2) will be released in 3D but also many other mainstream movies in the near future. People are already divided in two opposing segments comprising the fans and haters of 3D movies and technology. It is a well known fact that people with eye problems can not only find it difficult (if not impossible) to watch 3D based imagery, but also suffer from health issues.

A few weeks ago Samsung posted a warning on their Australian website, saying that, “Some viewers may experience discomfort while viewing 3D TV such as dizziness, nausea and headaches. If you experience any such symptom, stop viewing 3D TV, remove 3D Active Glasses and rest. A responsible adult should frequently check on children who are using the 3D function. If there are any reports of tired eyes, headaches, dizziness, or nausea, have the child stop viewing 3D TV and rest”.

It has also been learned that watching 3D for some people can even lead to Photosensitive and Epileptic seizure. While a list of other possible side effects associated with watching 3D for a long period of time include:

Eye or muscle twitching, headache, vomiting, nausea, cramps, disorientation, loss of awareness and sleeplessness. Among the horde of large corporations cashing in with 3D technology, Samsung has indeed made a brave and praise worthy move of warning people regarding possible health hazards of watching 3D TV.

As we get swept away by the wonders of watching mind blowing 3D imagery in cinemas and now at home, it is worth asking the question about the nature of problems that it may bring along with it. On a personal basis I find the idea of 3D to be quite discomforting as there is no telling what effect it might have on the human brain itself when it is exposed in a state of self inflicted “ecstasy” of imagery. One question that I have not seen anyone ask as yet is the effect of such technology on people with mental illnesses and the possibility of ending up the same road due to 3D addiction. I don’t mean to jump to conclusions, however, I believe that there is extensive research necessary into the effects of this technology before we start embracing it freely and allowing vulnerable minds of our children to be exposed to it.

[IMAGE CREDITS FOR HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS AND 3D Cinema GOES TO Flickr users Subarunio AND Eirik Halvorsen]

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It has been nearly three decades since Jeff Bridges played the protagonist hacker Kevin Flynn who attempts to hack into the ENCOM mainframe only to end up being transported into the digital world itself. As the sequel to this cult classic hits the cinemas, we look into the possibility of the science involved behind the idea of Tron and Tron Legacy in the wake of modern technology. We shall discuss the efforts of  scientists who are working to explore the opportunity to export human consciousness and how this science fiction is fast becoming a scientific fact.

The idea of exporting ones consciousness is widely seen in movies, books and TV programs today. One of the latest inclusion to this concept are movies like Inception. However, little do people realize how close we have actually come to being able to simulate ourselves and our conscious mind with the help of modern technology. If the continuous distraction from the internet, mobile phones and the like was not enough to glue people to the screens that depict the virtual world. Motion control games has added fuel to the fire. For example with Nintendos wireless motion Wiimote controllers people are already exporting their active selves into a gaming console. Sony and Microsoft too have vowed to win the motion control gaming war with their motion-sensing game controller Move and Kinect for PlayStation 3 (PS3) and Xbox 360, respectively.

Many people may not be aware of the fact that the depiction in  movies such as Avatar and Inception of exporting ones consciousness is older than they might think. I still remember Steven Soderberg’s Solaris that blurred the lines between the real and unreal in 2002. A more direct approach was taken even earlier by Producer Chris Carter (producer of the X-Files) in 1999 with his short lived TV series called Harsh Realm. In the series Lieutenant Thomas F. Hobbes (Scott Bairstow) is tricked by his military superiors into a virtual world where human consciousness is simulated in a post apocalyptic virtual game. It is worth mentioning here that The Human Consciousness Project (an international consortium of multidisciplinary scientists and physicians) is already looking into the possibility of the potential of exporting the human consciousness.

Coming back to technology, the lack of awareness of our surroundings being caused by Television, the internet, mobile phones, etc is already a form of virtualization of connecting human beings to an unreal world. It is quite frustrating that people are becoming more and more absent minded while using their portable devices. I’m sure many of you might have been in the situation where you failed to get a response from someone watching a HD movie or using a smartphone (such as, Android, iPhone, WP7, etc). It reminds me of the X-Files episode called “Kill Switch” in which a scientist exports his conscious self into the virtual world before dying.

Interestingly the Blue Brain Project is working on creating a synthetic brain by reverse-engineering the mammalian brain right to the molecular level. Such technological advancements render not only hope for people to be able to acquire what they perceive as immortality but also an attempt to become closer to the  simulated world. I strongly believe that as people begin to play games, use the internet, stream Television programs and movies, they will begin to want more and more from the virtual reality than from real life itself. I would admit though that the theory of Tron to molecularly transport a human being into the artificial world seems a little too far fetched. As it is not a reasonable assumption to digitize real life matter and scan it into the computer world for deconstruction at the molecular level for re-assembly. The reassembly cannot take place with the same unique atoms and such a notion simply defies the laws of science and nature itself. Having said that, it is worth mentioning here that the want of virtualization is becoming uncontrollable and it is only a matter of a single break through in scientific technology that more and more people will be willing to jack themselves into a machine at the conscious level to play games and take part in perhaps virtual chat rooms. As the idea of uploading ourselves via You Tube, Facebook and the like becomes worn out, the hunger for simulation will lead mankind into an unchartered territory, the negative effects of which cannot be anticipated.

[Image Credits for Tron Legacy Movie Wallpaper, Xbox Kinect Floor Stand, and Avatar Based Marketing goes to Flickr users fesiyal_2011, Xbox Kinect Bundle, and John E. Lester respectively.]

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After months of designing and tweaking, AddictiveTips v2.0 is now live. Overall the theme is complete, just some bugs left to be ironed out. It will be optimized over the next week and more features will be added over time. Thanks to Reflection Media for the hard work on the development and Saad Sadiq for the awesome banners and icons.

So what’s new? Take a minute to navigate around. If you are new to AddictiveTips, head over to our updated About page.

In this redesign, more emphasis has been given to upcoming posts, featured articles, topics (categories), search, and social services. Finding all previously featured posts and archives is also easier. The width of post area has been increased from 600px to 665px so more focus can be given to the content and clear screenshots can be added. The rest of the design is UI overhaul to look more appealing and easy to navigate.

The comment section has also been improved, hopefully this will reduce the number of spammers. Let us know what you think about this redesign.

While you are at it, you can also Like our Facebook fan page, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to our YouTube channel (weekly video roundups and reviews coming next year).

Visit AddictiveTips v2.0

Enjoy and don’t forget to share!

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We are happy to announce the launch of our Facebook page. At the moment, you can also use RSS Feed and Twitter to stay up-to-date, but Facebook provides a community platform where everyone has the freedom to share and discuss.

Most readers will remember that we launched a forum not long ago but was quickly taken down due to uncontrollable number of spammers. We plan to use our brand new facebook page to interact with our genuine readers, like you.

So why exactly should you join? Some of the reasons have been listed below:

• Behind the scenes photos and videos
• Small bonus & miscellaneous tips which are useful but are not covered on our homepage
• 5 free T-shirts every month
• Yearly “Who makes the best open source software” competition (with prize money being awarded to winning person or group)
• Giveaways!
• and much more…

So what are you waiting for? Head over to our Facebook page and become a part of the growing community!

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There are some interesting changes coming in the next redesign which will go live in 2nd week of October (if everything goes according to the plan) so I will hold off the surprises for now.

You can, however, take a peak at small portion of our upcoming redesign, below.

Sorry for ruining your excitement but adding explosion effect makes our readers more curious about the image, according to recent survey conducted by AddictiveTips Team. The team showed two sets of five images each to highly trained monkeys – original (untouched) and blurry (explosion effect).

The results were astonishing!

The average time spend looking at original images was only 10 seconds before being torn apart, while in comparison, the time spend looking at blurry images was 2 minutes, after which, the monkeys collapsed.*

Talking about the next redesign, the whole interface will be revamped up. If there is anything you wished our website had but never got a chance to tell us, now is your time! Let us know in the comments and we will respond.

* There is no way of confirming if the survey is real. Welcome to the internet!

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Motorola’s love for Android seems endless as we have a new device emerging which is rumored to be named as Motorola MB250 Kobe/ Diablo.

Phandroid claims the device to be in AT&T’s bag with following initial specs:

• Android 2.1 Eclair OS
• Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth
• Motoblur UI
• Underclocked TI OMAP 3430 Processor [We wonder why they would under-clock this one?]
• PowerVR 540 GPU
• 256MB RAM
• 512MB ROM
• Dedicated Home And Return Keys
• MicroSD Card Slot [Rumored but we don’t see anything Android without it though!]

There is no estimated time of release connected with this handset. The initial Engadget source allegedly confirms that this phone will be heading to AT&T with codename Motorola Diablo. From multitude of codenames available for this handset, we can speculate it to be named as Motorola Diablo for AT&T users while the rest of us might have to live with something less attractive as MB250 or Kobe. There is no tip on the exact price of this handset but we can speculate it to be approximately $99 with bi-annual agreement.

As this handset will carry Android 2.1 Eclair with Motoblur so it is also possible that Android 2.2 Froyo upgrade will roll out soon following official launch. Please note that the specs and features of this handset are based on leaks, rumors and speculations so nothing can be termed official for now. We will update this post once we get more insight into details so stay tuned.

Picture Credit: Engadget

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If you survive the Zombie infestation, email me at nakodari [at] addictivetips [dot] com and write a report on what you see. Your feedback will help us minimize the downtime.

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The giveaway includes Flip Ultra HD Camcorder($199), Seagate 1TB FreeAgent External Hard Drive ($109), and Microsoft Office 2010: Home and Business ($279). Bringing the total worth of goodies to $587.

Note: This giveaway is for US residents only. According to the Microsoft’s representative they cannot ship internationally due to certain restrictions.

How To Win The Giveaway?

Step 1: Share With Friends & Co-Workers

To win the giveaway you need to either tweet about it or share it on Facebook.

Step 2: Answer The Question

Watch the video below and answer the following question:

Office 2010 web applications were designed to work across various platforms. Which platforms specifically are mentioned that support the 2010 web applications?

Since the answer to this question is hidden inside the video, you will have to watch the complete video.

Conclusion

The reply in comments should be in the following format:

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Editor’s Notes: Getting bored on Sunday? We will be holding open discussions every week on different topics. If you want to suggest something new, Forums is the place for it.

Forget Rapidshare, Megaupload, and every other file hosting service out there that comes with annoying pop-up ads, time limit, and file size restriction. Even though the restriction of file size is 250MB in Google Docs, there is no download restriction and the speed is blazing fast (since everything is hosted by Google’s servers).

All users get 1GB of free space but more space can be bought for $0.25 per Gigabyte per year. When compared with popular service like Dropbox where you get 50GB of space for $99/year, you can get 396GB of space in Google Docs for the same amount of money. Or 400GB for $100 per year.

Ofcourse you won’t find the fancy Dropbox features but it is useful for hardcore file sharing geeks (like me) who want more space than features. Developers and webmasters who are short of cash, can take full-benefit of this free storage to share files with the public. By default, all uploaded files are made private but can be shared via the link.

There is however one downside if the majority of users start using Google Docs more like a file hosting service for illegal purpose. Suppose lets say users start sharing a 700MB DVDrip movies, sharing songs, etc. Will it mean another big lawsuit flying towards Google? If yes, then will Google shutdown the “upload-any-file” feature for good or try to defend themselves?

When small file hosting companies are sued, they have no option but to bow down and comply but how will Google respond is left to be seen. Personally I have witnessed a few group of people using Google Docs for exactly this purpose and surprisingly Google hasn’t blocked their account because they have no way of knowing it.

If Google does find out about it, what will be the reaction of privacy advocates? It would certainly freak out most users who are very vocal of their privacy. What are your thoughts? Have you ever used Google Docs to share files?

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While we are not writing articles, you will find us busy answering queries in the Forum. Want to ask, post, or share something, the AddictiveTips Forum would be the best place for that!

To formally inaugurate the forum, we will be holding a huge giveaway for members only. If you haven’t joined the forum yet, become a member now! (Takes less than 2 minutes)

Starting today, you will be seeing weekly forum roundups. Below are some threads which you might find interesting.

General

• Why Microsoft did the right thing in ditching XP for IE9.
• New Google Interface is Awesome!
• Microsoft lies again about their browser

Windows 7

• Keep DirectX up to date on your windows machine
• Your Favorite Apps in Windows 7
• Everyday use for Powershell?
• Remove 3rd Party Apps By Asking Yourself A Simple Question
• Interesting Tweaks!
• Nirsoft software
• Is anybody actually using Homegroups?
• Windows 7 Problem: Some files aren’t shown under some views
• Embedding Powershell in C#
• For those interested in the command line and such

Linux

• A couple of Linux Distros that work with Linux Live USB Creator with Persistence.
• Super OS
• Specialized Linux distro’s

Outlook 2010

• Help!!! How do I get emails from 2007 to 2010?
• Adding Custom Properties to your Word Document
• Sent Items for the same SENTBOX in Outlook 2010

Software

• Sunbird stops standalone development, moves completely to Thunderbird addon
• Firefox about:config tweaks
• Firefox 3.6.3……….update now!
• Social.com bookmarklet
• Defraggler v1.18.185
• DNS Benchmark software

Graphics & Design

• Why you should use Silverlight for Streaming instead of Flash
• Reducing image filesize, lossless

Security

• Prefered Anti-Virus & Anti-Malware?
• Google’s Chrome now silently auto-updates Flash Player
• Which executable to use when selecting MSE for scanning downloaded content.
• Now available: Microsoft SDL version 5

Computer (Hardware)

• HDD bad sectors
• A question about L2 Cache

Pretty big list, eh? Stay tuned for more…

Related Articles:

1. Introducing AddictiveTips Forum
2. Access Any Website Or Forum Without Registering
3. Manage Redundant And Recurring Email & Forum Replies With Copy Pasta

Please note that the Forum button is not yet added to the main blog, we are testing various features and would love to have some members on board to help in beta testing the forum. Please feel free to post about anything you like, perhaps introducing yourself, asking questions, participating in discussions, running a poll, and so on will help.

We plan to hold a huge software contest by Q4, 2010 which will be held in the forums. Software companies hand out licenses to us which we will be giving away on forums as well. Limited time offers will also be posted regularly. Note: Only registered members will be able to avail the offers.

Got any fresh ideas for this forum, let us know. Jump directly to the Welcome Thread.

AddictiveTips Forum (forum main page)

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It has surpassed all previous records and most importantly 9 out of 10 users feel satisfied with Office 2010 beta and consider it a great improvement over Office 2007.sui

Office Home and Student will cost $149, Office Home and Business will cost $279, Office Professional will cost $499, and Office Professional Academic will cost only $99. The price of Product Key card differ, refer to the chart below which outlines the cost of each version.

….

Office Home and Student will include the following apps:

• Word 2010
• Excel 2010
• PowerPoint 2010
• OneNote 2010

Office Home and Business will include the following apps:

• Word 2010
• Excel 2010
• PowerPoint 2010
• OneNote 2010
• Outlook 2010

Office Professional and Office Professional Academic will include the following apps:

• Word 2010
• Excel 2010
• PowerPoint 2010
• OneNote 2010
• Outlook 2010
• Publisher 2010
• Access 2010

Microsoft plans to officially release Office 2010 to the public in June, 2010.

[via Office 2010 Engineering Blog]

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2. Microsoft Office Goes Online As Office Web Apps
3. Microsoft Office Word 2010 Tabbed Browsing

AddictiveTips was born in August 2008, but it was not until January 2009 that I laid down the plan for the future of this site. At AddictiveTips we aim to review every free software out there, encouraging freelancer developers, covering Operating System tips, productivity tips, and all sorts of tips related to computers, software, and hardware. Below I have outlined the plan for AddictiveTips for the year 2010.

More Authors

AddictiveTips has two authors, one full-time(Nakodari) and one part-time(Aun). We plan to hire two more full-time authors in the coming months to expand even further. This will help us in achieving more goals and allow us to post tips on Blogging, Hardware, Mac, Linux, and other important categories.

More Posts

The average post rate of AddictiveTips is 6 posts/day and will be increased to 12-15 posts/day in the coming months. We want to make sure that no tip or software is missed.

Community Forum

As the community grows there comes a dire need for a forum where everyone can post tips, ask questions, find bugs, discuss software, etc. We plan to open a forum sometime in Summer 2010.

Software Competition

This will be held in late Q3 or early Q4, 2010. The price money will not be disclosed at the moment but is going to be enough to fuel competition from every freelancing developer out there.

Mobile Version

We plan to release a mobile version for iPhone/Android/Windows Mobile/Blackberry handsets out there, making it easier for users to read the blog while on the go.

Re-Coding From Ground Up

The blog will be re-coded from ground up, making it load faster and giving it a fresh look. Keep in mind that the design will not change except some minor changes and additions.

A Lot More

There is a lot more going to happen in year 2010 with the help of awesome readers who keep coming back to read this site. Thanks to everyone out there for making AddictiveTips an awesome place that it is today. A very Happy New Year!

Related Articles:

1. Introducing AddictiveTips Forum
2. AddictiveTips Completes 1 Year And Some Personal Opinion
3. AddictiveTips Is Now Open For Advertisement

Chrome’s official extensions gallery is just less than a week old and already contains more than 500 apps. What I have learned so far, in layman’s term, is that Google will not allow those extensions which it believes are not needed and those which it thinks are breaking the rules.

In Firefox you can easily find extensions that allow you to download videos from YouTube, but will Google themselves allow this practice to flourish? I don’t think so. Google rejected Easy YouTube Downloader which was developed by Deepesh Agarwal. All he did was to port this popular Firefox add-on to Chrome.

Google clearly mentions that they will now allow such extensions, in their TOS they state:

4.4.1 You agree that you will not engage in any activity with the Gallery, including the development or publication of Products or other materials, that [.….] enables the unauthorized download of streaming content or media.

So what does this all mean? Google is not so open after all.

Just because you cannot find an extension in Google Chrome’s official gallery doesn’t mean that you cannot install it in your Chrome browser. You can still grab the extensions from unofficial repository, such as, ChromeExtensions.org. This might turn off some people and keep them away from Chrome.

Another reason why some users are reluctant to migrate is because Chrome is still young and the type of extensions you will find in Firefox wont be available in Chrome any sooner. It might take a year for Chrome extensions to catch up with those of Firefox in terms of maturity. How? Let’s see an example. The developer behind an extension Tab Menu says,

Features we all wish we could have if the Google developers made it possible:
- Dockable tab sidebar
- Options to hide tab bar and/or toolbar
- Keyboard shortcut to open Tab Menu

All the features mentioned above are possible in Firefox. We can all hope that the final release of Chrome will be more open, otherwise extensions in Chrome will have a hard time competing with those of Firefox.

One reason why users love Chrome is because it assigns a separate process to each tab, thus not crashing your whole browser if one tab goes bad. Mozilla will implement the exact same functionality in the next version of Firefox which is to be released in Q4, 2010.

Firefox users have enough reason to stick with Mozilla’s flagship browser, the above two are just some examples. Is there something that is keeping you back from Chrome? What is your take on this issue? All opinions are welcomed.

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If you were left out the last time we handed out invites, you might want to try again today. To all those who are using Google Wave and have a few invites left to send out, leave a comment to help out others. It is all about sharing!

Update: Since the readers are contributing as well, there are more than 50+ extra invites to give out, come and get one.

Related Articles:

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2. Google Wave Notifier Extension For Firefox
3. Google Wave In Thunderbird 3 [Hack]

Download Thunderbird 3 RC2

Stay Tuned!

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1. Mozilla Thunderbird 5 Released, We Review The New Features
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We would like to apologize to our readers(mostly those who use Google Reader or other RSS readers). Over time various blogs(including sblogs) have started hotlinking to our screenshots, thus eating huge amount of bandwidth. I hate spam blogs(sblogs), who doesn’t?

Recently I added a small hotlink protection code in the .htaccess file, it was to show the following image if sblogs hotlink to our screenshots:

This was supposed to be the best weapon to save bandwidth from getting wasted. But as it turned out due to some reason our RSS readers were seeing the above image too. We immediately removed the code after one of our reader pointed out the glitch. Thanks Nicola, I owe you a drink!

Now back to reviewing awesome software!

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