Chrome apps to enhance your productivity

October 25th, 2012

Nivethan

Productivity has been a problem for everyone. We all want to stay focused and more productive but quite often we end up wasting our time on different things and become less productive. The main source of this problem is Internet, at least for most of the people. Particularly social networking, entertainment, etc sites take our time without making us realize that we are spending our time there. There are some cool plugins to help us to be productive by different means. After started using them I have become more productive than I was. They helped me to track the time I spent on different websites, strictly limit the time I spend on a particular website, schedule my tasks and finish them in a timely manner without being distracted,etc.

1. StayFocused (link)

2. Web Timer (link)

3. Task Timer (link)

Firefox also has the same plugins (or similar ones at least), if you use firefox search on firefox addons and get them.

uploaded.to not available in USA now

January 23rd, 2012

Nivethan

uploaded.to not available in USA now – Just another file sharing website uploaded.to has blocked its access from USA after MegaUpload has been shutdown by the US. It’s today another file sharing website FileSonic has disabled file sharing option for the entire world. What is going on with all file sharing websites? Obviously they are acting fast to protect their business and protect them from being sued and arrested. The steps taken by the USA department of justice does not sound good because such crack downs will still allow the people who live outside USA to continue pirating while reducing the piracy rate in the USA. But that’s enough for the Industries who are backing up these incidents since reducing piracy in USA will stop their 90% of their ‘loss’ since that is where most of the consumers who can really pay and buy live. Long life “the land of free”

uploaded.to not-available in USA now

Filesonic disables file sharing

January 22nd, 2012

Nivethan

Filesonic disables file sharing - After the crack down of Megaupload, today another big file sharing site Filesonic has disabled the sharing of files. The site now only allows the users to upload and download their own files that they uploaded. Obviously the File sharing sites have started to act fast before they face problem from US department of justice. It’s the entertainment industry that faces big challenges from those file sharing sites and it is not too long ago that it tried to get the notorious Stop Online Privacy Act passed. Fortunately it was withdrawn after the massive opposition from all giant Internet companies. The crack down of file sharing sites clearly meets some parts of the dropped bill SOPA. What does it speak? Don’t be surprised if sharing sites such as Rapidshare, Hotfile and even DropBox disappear in one night.

Filesonic disables file sharing

What is SOPA and PIPA? What are the real problems of SOPA and PIPA?

January 19th, 2012

Nivethan

What is SOPA and PIPA? What are the real problems of SOPA and PIPA? There are many many sources to give this answer but this video explains it way better than most of the SOPA videos around and comes right to the point without . Most of the videos and articles we see around are made merely as an anti SOPA propaganda and that makes it difficult for many people to get the right idea about SOPA. I was able to see this problem when my non-business friends sharing links about SOPA with their comments about it. Most of them did not seem to be having the right idea and when I did a little research I found that’s not only them but also most of people who are not much into the Internet and web technology business. I don’t want to give my own explanation anout SOPA because I can’t say it better than than this video.

How to take screenshot of a selected area in windows

January 2nd, 2012

Nivethan

How to take a screenshot in windows? How to take screenshot of a selected area in windows? – This is one of the most common question on the Internet and I want to make a blog post for this since I found that many people are not aware of a nice method inbuilt in windows. The conventional method is – press the “Print Screen” key, paste it on microsoft paint and save it. You can select the wanted area and crop it. The following method is an elegant way to take a screenshot of a selected area in windows.

Programs -> Accessories -> Snipping tool

Or Just type “Snipping Tool” as shown bellow

Snipping Tool

Now the mouse pointer will turn in to a cross shape. Drag the portion of the screen you want to capture and you can save it as PNG or JPG or GIF.

That’s it!

The social media business and marketing in 2012

January 1st, 2012

Nivethan

We are living in a world where many people spend most of their lives with the social media. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and all other social media and networks have changed our lives in a big way, ain’t they? Did we imagine the life we are living now before five years?, well even 5 years is too much, two years? Definitely we did not, because the internet has changed us and it’s keep on changing us a lot. We don’t want to do things in the way our parents and grand parents did because now Internet has obviated many of the difficulties existed in the previous generations. For instance, majority of us are not anymore buying anything visiting to shops except for some things like grocery stuff,etc. We just search online and order it from Amazon or any other online store and get it delivered in two or three days. This is just an example but you all know that you are using Internet for so many purposes and it’s keep on increasing. Human is a social being so we need to communicate with others and in the internet driven era where Internet has changed many things. We all have been dragged into a virtual life inside the Internet, this life within the Internet has started become a part of our real life and now the social media masterminds drag you more and more in to social media because that’s how they can make more money – obviously, you are the consumers of the core social media market. Some of you will not be able to live a comfortable life without facebook or twitter or youtube or any and when time goes the human obsession with social media is going to increase so, without any doubt, the business potential social media has is also going to increase.

Therefore, in 2012 social media will become more powerful than it has ever been and this is where the social media marketing and business is going to have a huge potential (We can even call it social media 2.0). Social media marketing has already replaced conventional marketing in developed countries and every company is trying to be successful in their business via social media marketing. However, in order to be successful in this high potential and of course high competitive social media space we have to remember one fundamental rule. “Build end to end relationship with humans” because no matter how complicated or big the social media is, you are only dealing with humans and social media is only a medium to reach those humans. All humans have their emotions and the when you use the right social media strategy to build your end to end relationship with humans (your customers or potential customers) who are not within your ordinary reach, you are the winner. Of course your competitors are also going to reach the market and you have to come with a better strategy to win the market. Always remember that the end points of social media are humans – you and your market. Research the social media and understand all possible ways to reach a market via social media and more over remember the market is made of humans like you, who can be won if you match your marketing with their right emotions. I am sure we all will get more success in the social media marketing business in 2012.

Google Music vs iTunes vs Amazon Cloud Player

December 18th, 2011

Shezy

Google Music vs iTunes vs Amazon Cloud Player – With the launch of Google music the biggest question that everyone has been asking is how it fares up against its biggest rivals iTunes and Amazon music. Well in short it doesn’t Google music as with most newly released services is plagued by a host of bugs that really need to be fixed. But more than the bugs the issue with Google music lies with its restrictions that Google has laid on itself by not fully utilizing. huffingtonpost made the following comparison chart of Google Music vs iTunes vs Amazon Cloud Player

Google Music vs iTunes vs Amazon Cloud Player

Its platform and instead making it a hassle to do the simplest of tasks. This is essentially the root of all of Google music’s problems Google has just not been able to fully utilize its resources when creating the platform. With Google music Google has failed to address issues that should never be in a product of a company like Google. A major reason why Google is unable to compete with amazon music and iTunes is that it doesn’t have Warner Bros music in its music library.

To make things worse both Amazon and iTunes have Warner Bros music and even some small time music stores have Warner Bros music in their music library. And even without Warner Bros music Amazon and iTunes still have a much larger music library than Google music. This has made Google’s endeavour in the music online store a crippled one as you cannot expect to be a major music store without have a major music company like Warner bros music in your library.

Yet another crippling blow to Google music versus its rivals is its major comparability issues that span from a mere simple interactivity interface to not having any support for some devices. Google music has a lot of issues with compatibility which is expected when your android platform is the biggest of any mobile device and when the devices with Google android are all do varied and different but that is no excuse.

For a company like Google who has more than taken their time in creating Google music. Especially for Google not to fully support their own android software but unfortunately Google music does not support a great deal of android devices which is appalling. That may be bad but what iOS users have to go through is much worse as they don’t even have a iOS app for Google music. Instead iOS users are subjected to simply loading up the Google music website in safari and navigating the website in a normal fashion. This lack of support is horrible as it is coming from Google granted that the mobile version of Google music is very well made it still doesn’t mean that Google shouldn’t make an iOS app. All in all Google music compatibility is hit and miss if it works on your android device then it’s quite great but everyone else feels a bit robbed From the lack of support.

Overall Google music has a lot of kinks that they need to immediately address after which Google music will be quite a viable option for people. But until they do stick with iTunes or Amazon as they are established and not as a frustrating experience as Google Music.

Google Music Review

December 17th, 2011

Shezy

Google Music Review - After much wait and delay Google has finally launched its much awaited Google music service which is much more than just a major music online store. Google is entering in direct competition with apple with their latest endeavour Google music may seem like a straight forward idea on paper. But Google music is a much like Google Plus was before it went into a live release namely Google music suffers from compatibility issues and they run deep. As everyone who has ever used an apple branded iOS device can tell you that iTunes is an essential part of owning any apple device. Well Google is trying the same idea here with Google music but unfortunately Google is not apple and thus lacks the conformity that apple have restricted their users too.

Google Music Review

As Google unlike apple has let all companies to license the Google android OS platform once they were delivering a product up to Google’s level of satisfaction and here is where the problem originates from. With so many companies using Google’s highly popular platform the market has saturated the android OS with each company tweaking the android OS for each of their devices. Making the android OS greatly differ from one android device to the other. For example an android device from Sony Ericsson and an android device from HTC feel completely different. Which is why Google has not been able to make its new Google Music service available on all of the android devices. This is why Google music fails as a whole as it is not able to provide enough compatibility to its android OS devices. Overall making the Google Music experience hit and miss for most android OS devices. As Google music might work perfectly with one Android OS device and work as intended. And for others it basically tells you to go online through your browser and use the Google Music service. This is very true for iOS device users as they don’t even have an app for the Google music service making Google Music not really an option for any iOS device user who was hoping to switching to the Google Music wagon. This is not something that you would expect from a company like Google along with this another major flaw in Google Music is the limitations of the service. For instance you cannot download songs to another computer unless you bought the music on Google music. This would have been alright if not Amazon cloud player and iTunes match were doing the same thing but they’re NOT and not only that but its kills the point of a “CLOUD” player.

All in all Google music needs time to fix all of the bugs that currently plague the service. So far now stick with iTunes or Amazon Cloud at the very least for the next year by which time Google will have (hopefully) fixed all of its bugs and lack of support issues. As the idea and software behind Google music has great potential it’s just that it’s been greatly overshadowed by the extreme issues with the service.

iPhone 4s siri

October 20th, 2011

Shezy

iPhone 4s siri - With the launch of the new iPhone 4S the biggest and best part of the new device has been its rather mysterious and almost completely surprise application called Siri which is unlike anything apple has ever made before. But is it actually any good? Well here’s a little rundown about the highly anticipated device.

iPhone 4s siri

The iPhone 4S is one of the most talked and hyped up devices we have seen in recent days. As the iPhone cycle was broken by the last flawed iPhone 4 which although hailed as a great smartphone for the time was flawed at calling with its antenna gate issues. Which made it not as much an iPhone as much as a really cool and slick designed iPod touch. But with the iPhone 4S coming almost 4 months after it was initially thought to make its debut. iPhone forums members and apple loyal were buzzing with ideas and concepts of the unannounced iPhone. This lead to a whole and highly unreleased outbreak of iPhone rumours and speculations leading to outrageous expectations from the new iPhone. Which is why when the day that the iPhone 4S was finally announced many apple fan boys and girls were taken aback at the form factor and minor changed that we’re being made with the latest iPhone. Not only were the changes minor but people were also disappointed with the lack of a new design in the iPhone 4S meaning a lot of people were not hoping to trade in their precious iPhone 4′s for the new iPhone 4S which seemed nothing short of a rushed iPhone 4 modification. This lead to a total outbreak in the apple community with many revolting against the company for betraying them by just selling them the same iPhone again with minor enhancements. This lead many people to completely dismiss what apple was hoping would be their saving grace Siri.

Siri is a new application for the iPhone 4S only that is nothing short of a personal assistant. It can help schedule appointments, find the closest restaurants to you list the newest movies in your local cinema etc. it’s like having your own mini Pepper Pots working for you all the time from your pocket. With Siri apple hopes to sway customers to accept the iPhone 4S and give iPhone 4 users more of an incentive to upgrade to the iPhone 4S as the Siri application is a iPhone 4S even though the iPhone 4 is more than able to run the application. But unfortunately the buzz around Siri although initially great has died down as Siri seems like nothing more than a gimmick that apple has up its sleeve. As even apple knew they couldn’t sell a whole new iPhone with just a better processor and camera they needed something new and exclusive to the iPhone 4S and Siri was the answer. But although people who have used Siri say it’s a huge improvement over the voice recognition system that is in the earlier iPhone’s Siri is not a very realistic product for day to day life. As the issue with Siri is that nobody wants to walk around talking and shouting commands at their iPhone not only that but Siri although great in ads and the iPhone 4S marketing is much slower and stupid then it appears in the commercial and has to be dealt as a child with one word at a time relatively slowly. And if you are going to bother to do all this just to get Siri to work then why not just do the job by yourself?

Another issue that rises with Siri is that although it is a brand new apple application it is nothing new in the smartphone market as android has had a similar application for quite some time in the OS. Showing that the application did not really take off in the android market shows that Siri is more than likely not going to be something more than a gimmick from apple to push their new iPhone 4S. As the iPhone 4S is not enough without Siri to seem like a worthy upgrade to everyone with an iPhone 4. Furthermore many are saying that the real iPhone 5 is coming in June/July so the iPhone 4S will be not much more than a teaser for the actual device. Thus all that can be said for Siri is that it’s a great product and it more or less delivers on its promise but it’s not enough of a new thing that we need to buy a brand new iPhone 4S as long as you have an iPhone 4. And as for all you jailbreakers out their there is quite a good possibility that Siri might be ported to all devices that run iOS 5 meaning that you won’t need an iPhone 4S to have Siri soon.

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