MORE THAN WHAT YOU CAN IMAGINE

Windows 10: Nine things you need to know

noreply@blogger.com (Wibowo_Gs) — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 23:41:00 +0000

Windows 8 has had a bit of a tumultuous run, something Microsoft is hoping to turn around with Windows 10. We got a brief glimpse at a Microsoft event on Tuesday, and while it did prove to be a tantalizing look at what's in store, there are still plenty of questions floating around, and a lot more to figure out before the final product is sitting on our hard drives.

1. When can I upgrade? And how much will it cost?

Microsoft expects to release the OS sometime in 2015, after the company's Build developer conference in April. If you're feeling adventurous, you can sign up for the Windows Insider Program on October 1 to get your hands on the early (and likely buggy) preview build. The cost for the retail version has yet to be determined.

2. Windows 10? What happened to Windows 9?

Windows 7 ate 9. (I kid.) Microsoft wants us to think of the latest version as a fundamental change to how Windows works, and the company is skipping a version number to show it.

Keyboards and mice take center stage on Windows 10. Nick Statt/CNET

3. I've got a desktop, and a tablet. How will that work?

Windows 10 isn't just about PCs. The operating system will run on everything from desktops all the way down to smartphones, and the user interface will adjust accordingly.

4. What about apps?

Apps will be coming along for the ride too, though Microsoft hasn't explained how that's going to work. We do know that you'll be able to buy one app from the Windows Store and expect it to run on all your devices. Developers will presumably need to make universal apps that will adjust their look and feel, depending on your devices size and capabilities.

5. Those full-screen "Modern" apps were a pain. Are they still around?

Those touch-friendly, full-screen apps that debuted with Windows 8 were alternately known as the "Metro" or "Modern" design. For Windows 10, full-screen apps will be optional. Let's say you're using a convertible 2-in-1 device, like the Surface Pro 3, for example. When the keyboard is docked, you'll see the standard desktop with Windows 10's "new" old-school Start menu. Once you take the device off of the keyboard base, the OS will allow you to switch to the finger-friendly full screen mode Windows 8 users are likely familiar with.

6. I actually liked those Modern apps, and bought a few. Are they still around?

It's too soon to say how Windows 8 developers will react to the changes, but Microsoft did show some of its own full-screen Modern apps operating in a windowed mode.

Old is new again with the Windows 10 Start menu. Nick Statt/CNET

7. And the Start menu?

If you hated Windows 8's full-screen Start screen, you're in luck: the new Start menu harkens back to the good old days, sitting on the left side of the screen and presenting that familiar pop-up column of shortcuts. And if you liked Windows 8's approach, there's something here for you too: the new menu will incorporate Live Tiles and can be customized.

8. Never mind the apps -- I need to get things done. Any improvements on that front?

Windows 10 beefs up Snap, the function that lets you quickly arrange apps side by side, with a new quadrant layout that lets you split your display up among up to four apps. There's also support for multiple desktops (finally), so you can keep all your work apps in one place and quickly slide back to the desktop with your blogs and Reddit once your boss walks away. And then there's the task view button that lives on the taskbar. Click it, and you'll get a quick look at all of your open files, windows, and desktops.

We're going to need bigger screens. Nick Statt/CNET

9. Will Windows 10 run on my machine?

It's too early to say. Windows 8.1 did introduce 64-bit computing requirements that ruled out some ancient processors, but it otherwise played well with PCs that weren't too old. Suffice to say, if you're picking up a newer device any time between now and Windows 10's release next year, you should be good to go. Once again, if you're willing to take risks, you can check out the Windows Insider Program for an early look.

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How to export your Skype contacts

noreply@blogger.com (Wibowo_Gs) — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 12:12:00 +0000

Changing Skype accounts soon? Grab a copy of your contact list information from your current account before you switch.

Whether a swarm of spammers is attacking your Skype, or you just decide that you're tired of your current username, you may want to export your contact list and move it to another account. Ghacks.net recently shared a post about an application that can show you all contact information in an organized window, but this example will use Skype's default tools. Skipping on the third-party application means the data will be a bit messier to look at, but you can still get the job done with relatively little effort.

Here's how to export your Skype contact list:

Nicole Cozma/CNET

Step 1: Click the Contact menu in your Skype window and select Advanced > Back up Contacts to file.

Step 2: When the window appears for saving the file, you can either keep the *.vcf file extension if you're going to import to another Skype account, or you can change the extension to *.txt.

Note: You can also assign *.vcfs to open with Notepad, too.

You should see all of your contacts, their usernames, and any other information they have made available on their Skype profile. Additionally, all accounts you've blocked in the past will also be included in the file.

(Optional) Step 3: Delete any entries in the file you do not want to import to your new account. Then head to the Contacts menu > Advanced > Restore contacts from file.

Contacts will be sent a request for you to add them to your new list. If you don't hear back from them, you can right-click their username in the list and resend the invitation, along with a personalized message.

Make calls with Google Voice without a Google+ account

noreply@blogger.com (Wibowo_Gs) — Sat, 02 Aug 2014 00:29:00 +0000

If you're not a fan of Google+, then the ability to call people with your Google Voice number via the Hangouts app was probably not something you cared about. However, Google has now added calling privileges to the Web version of Google Voice. This means that users don't need a Google+ account, just their original Google email log-in, to place calls.

Here's how:

Step 1: Log in to Google Voice on the Web.

Choose Hangouts as your Call with option.Nicole Cozma/CNET

Step 2: In the call or text box on the left, enter the number, and then choose Hangouts from the Phone to call with drop-down menu.

Click the Call button to complete the connection.Nicole Cozma/CNET

Step 3: After you click Connect, a new Hangouts window will appear. Press the Call button and you'll be connected to the number you provided.

Google seems to be moving slower than a snail's pace when it comes to updating the Voice service. However, this new ability to make calls without a Google+ account demonstrates that Google is still working on it. Should any future change limit your access to saved texts and voice mail, you can also check out this post on how to back up your Google Voice data.

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Locked out? Get back into Windows 8 by resetting your password

noreply@blogger.com (Wibowo_Gs) — Sun, 08 Jun 2014 09:09:00 +0000

A forgotten Windows password isn’t the end of the world. You don’t have to trash the computer, or even perform a dreaded factory restore. There are many ways to remove or reset a Windows password, but how quickly and easily it can be done depends on the situation.

Password reset methods differ between Microsoft and local Windows accounts. If you aren’t sure which type of Windows account you have, it’s simple to find out: turn on your computer and see if an email address is displayed above where you enter your password to login. If there’s an email, it’s a Microsoft account. If not, it’s a local account.

Resetting the password for Microsoft accounts can be relatively quick and easy. Resetting local accounts, however, takes a hack or a third-party tool. Since computers preloaded with Windows 8 include a new Secure Boot and the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) boot method, using a third-party tool complicates the process further.

Resetting the password of a Microsoft account

If you have a Microsoft-based Windows 8 account, you can use Microsoft’s online form to reset the password. You can complete this from another PC, or even a smartphone or tablet. Although you can find a phone number for Microsoft support, I was told when calling that they can’t help with password resets; you must use their online form.

ERIC GEIER

The online form will show you some of the email address and cell number you have on file. You must provide the complete information in order to continue.

It will be easier to reset your password online if your current email address or cell phone number are saved to your Microsoft account. The online form will show you an incomplete email address and cell number you have on file. You must then confirm the full address or number and choose which one you’d like them to send the reset code to.

If you don’t remember the full email address or cell number that’s on file, or don’t have access to them anymore, you can fill out a questionnaire including account security questions. If your information checks out, the site will help you create a new password.

ERIC GEIER

The questionnaire includes account security questions you previously set, entering any previous passwords, and even specifying subjects or addresses of emails you’ve recently sent.

Once you successfully reset your password using Microsoft’s online form, you should be able to login with the new password. Your computer must be connected to the Internet to be updated with the new password.

Removing the password of a local account

Although not great from a security perspective, there are many ways to reset or remove a Windows password for local accounts without having administrative access or passing the security checks from Microsoft’s online form. These methods typically include using a bootable CD, DVD or USB drive. We’ve already discussed this in a previous article for Windows 7 and earlier, but that particular utility doesn’t apply to Windows 8.

Caution: Resetting a password using these methods means you will lose access to any encrypted files utilizing the Encrypting File System (EFS) built into Windows and stored passwords for Internet Explorer and network resources.

There are many other bootable password recovery and rescue tools that work with the latest Windows versions, but most require changing the boot settings of your computer.

If you have a genuine Windows 8 disc or flash drive, you should be able to boot from it without having to change the boot settings. If this is the case, you can use it to perform a so called “Sticky Keys” hack to reset your local Windows account password.

A previous article describes how to perform the Sticky Keys hack. The article was written for Windows 7 and earlier, but still applies to Windows 8 and later with a few caveats:

Ignore step 4 from the first set of steps and do the following instead: click Troubleshoot, Advanced options, and then open the Command Prompt.
Resume with step 1 of the second set of steps.

ERIC GEIER

The new Advanced Startup Options (ASO) screen that replaces the Advanced Boot Options screen from previous Windows versions.

If you don’t have a genuine Windows 8 disc or flash drive, you can use a third-party tool or utility. For example, the Offline NT Password and Registry Editor is included with other rescue discs like Hiren’s BootCD.

Before you can boot up a third-party tool on a computer that came pre-loaded with Windows 8 or later, you must temporarily disable the new Secure Boot and UEFI features. Start by holding the Shift key down while you restart Windows 8, even from the initial login screen.

Once it boots into the Advanced Startup Options (ASO) menu click Troubleshoot, Advanced Options, and UEFI Firmware Settings. The exact settings differ between PC manufacturers, but find and disable the Secure Boot and UEFI features, which may include enabling the Compatibility Support Module (CSM) or legacy boot mode.

Once you run the bootable third-party tool and clear your Windows password, you should re-enable Secure Boot and UEFI. Then you should be able to boot into Windows again and login.

Prevent future forgotten password issues

ERIC GEIER

You can set up the new alternative login methods with the PC Settings app.

Now that you’re back onto your Windows account, consider setting somealternative login methods, like a PIN or picture password, which can be used if you forget your password.

If you’re using a local Windows 8 account, you can create a password reset disk using a USB flash drive via the User Account settings in the Control Panel. If the password is ever forgotten, even if it has been changed since you made the reset disk, you can plug in the USB flash drive in order to reset your password.

A somewhat similar password reset function exists for Microsoft accounts. You can generate a Microsoft recovery code so that you can save it and enter it later if you forget your password, even if the password has been changed. You can generate this recovery code on the Microsoft security settings webpage.

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Have operating system, will travel: How to run virtual machines from a flash drive

noreply@blogger.com (Wibowo_Gs) — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 23:33:00 +0000

Most of the time, one operating system per computer is enough. But on occasion, you might want to boot up a second operating system for security reasons, testing purposes, or compatibility with specific software. Technical details typically restrict that alternate OS to a single PC, however. You can only install an OS in a single location after all.

But using a fork of Oracle's popular VirtualBox virtualization software, known as Portable VirtualBox, you don't have to limit secondary operating systems to a single computer or boot it up separately from Windows. Instead, you can pack it onto a portable USB drive and load it up on any PC while Windows runs in the background, like a virtualized version of the Windows to Go option found in Windows 8 Enterprise.

Portable VirtualBox is fairly easy to set up, though it does require attention to a few key details. We'll walk you through it, and outline some of the main concerns with running a virtual machine on a portable USB drive.

Things to consider

The one major caveat with Portable VirtualBox is that it requires administrator privileges to run. That shouldn't be a problem if you're setting this up at home, but it's not the most practical solution for enterprise users, because the IT manager would need to be around to plug in a password.

VirtualBox also consumes a certain amount of hard drive space and memory—both of which you can adjust when setting it up—as well as processing power. That means you'll need a big-enough USB drive to contain whatever operating system you install—1.5GB for Windows XP and 5GB for Ubuntu, to name a couple of examples—and you might have problems using a virtual machine on a five year-old netbook with limited resources.

COURTESY OF USBTIPS.COM

You'll need a fairly spacious flash drive to install operating systems with Portable VirtualBox.

Also, keep in mind that VirtualBox doesn't come with any actual operating systems. You'll still need to supply your own installation files, and in the case of Windows, your own serial key to validate your copy of the software. (If you're looking for something free to mess around with in VirtualBox, Ubuntu should do the trick.)

Finally, consider reformatting your USB drive as an NTFS file system, because the FAT32 system used by some USB drives will limit file sizes to 4GB. To reformat a drive, right-click it in Windows Explorer, select Format and choose NTFS under the File System menu. This will delete all the drive's contents, so make doubly sure you're formatting on the USB drive you intend to use, and not any other drive on your system.

Setting up Portable VirtualBox

Once your USB drive is ready, download Portable VirtualBox. Open the file and extract the software to your USB drive. (You can also extract the files to another directory, and then paste the newly created folder into your USB drive.) Now, look in that directory and open “Portable-VirtualBox.exe.”

A window will pop up, with a huge “Download installation files of VirtualBox” button at the top. Click this button. While you're waiting, click the “Extract files” box for 32-bit or 64-bit operating systems, depending on the computers you're planning to use with VirtualBox. You can check both boxes, but this will take up more space. Check the“Start Portable-VirtualBox after the extract and/or compress” box.

Now stop!

Here's one potentially confusing part of this process: Once the files are finished downloading, click the OK button in the bottom left corner. Do not click the Exit button on the bottom right corner, and do not click the new VirtualBox.exe file that has appeared in your installation directory. (If you see an installation wizard, you're on the wrong track. Re-open Portable-VirtualBox.exe, and use the Search button to select that VirtualBox.exe file, then click OK.)

Be patient after clicking the OK button. It can take several minutes for Portable VirtualBox to extract and install the necessary files, and there's no progress bar to let you know how things are going. You may even hear a few error-like Windows sounds during the installation. Ignore those! If you try to quit prematurely, things can crash and you may have to start all over again. Just sit tight until you see the VirtualBox splash screen pop up.

You can manage the portable VirtualBox's settings by right-clicking the software's icon in your Windows system tray.

Once the software is installed, it should open on its own, though it may prompt you to exit and re-open the app to ensure everything's working properly. You can do this by opening the notification area of the Windows taskbar, right-clicking the Portable VirtualBox button, and clicking Quit. You can also tweak settings such as network support from this same right-click menu. (Network and USB support are disabled by default.)

To re-open Portable VirtualBox, click on the same Portable-VirtualBox.exe file on your flash drive—the one that previously led to the setup screen. This time, it'll take you straight to the VirtualBox software.

Windows XP running as a separate operating system in VirtualBox on Windows 7.

From here, it's VirtualBox as usual. We won't get into the nitty-gritty of how to set up a virtual machine, but you can check out our detailed instructions on installing Windows XP, Windows 8, Android or SteamOS through VirtualBox. Any of those tutorials should give you a good sense of how Oracle's virtualization software works.

Once you've set up a virtual machine, you can pop that USB stick into any Windows PC and open Portable-VirtualBox.exe, letting you run your chosen OS almost anywhere, and free of the file retention issues associated with ephemeral Linux live CDs. Pat yourself on the back for fitting all kinds of alternative operating systems and aging software in the palm of your hand.

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A beginner's guide to BitLocker, Windows' built-in encryption tool

noreply@blogger.com (Wibowo_Gs) — Sat, 31 May 2014 00:12:00 +0000

The creators of TrueCrypt shocked the computer security world this week when they seemingly ended development of the popular open source encryption tool. Even more surprising, the creators said TrueCrypt could be insecure and that Windows users should migrate to Microsoft's BitLocker. Conspiracy theories immediately began to swirl around the surprise announcement.

Regardless of the true motivations behind the message, the TrueCrypt fiasco gives us a chance to talk about BitLocker—and how to use it.

What is BitLocker?

BitLocker is Microsoft's easy-to-use, proprietary encryption program for Windows that can encrypt your entire drive as well as help protect against unauthorized changes to your system such as firmware-level malware.

Who can use BitLocker

BitLocker is available to anyone who has a machine running Windows Vista or 7 Ultimate, Windows Vista or 7 Enterprise, Windows 8.1 Pro, or Windows 8.1 Enterprise. If you're running an Enterprise edition chances are your PC belongs to a large company so you should discuss enabling BitLocker encryption with your company's IT department.

Most of us buy PCs with the standard version of Windows, which doesn't include BitLocker encryption. But if you upgraded to Windows 8 during the initial rollout of Microsoft's dual-interface OS then you probably have Windows 8 or 8.1 Pro. During the early days of Windows 8 Microsoft was selling cheap Windows 8 Pro upgrade licenses to anyone eligible for an upgrade.

System requirements

To run BitLocker you'll need a Windows PC running one of the OS flavors mentioned above, plus a PC with at least two partitions and a Trusted Platform Module (TPM).

A TPM is a special chip that runs an authentication check on your hardware, software, and firmware. If the TPM detects an unauthorized change your PC will boot in a restricted mode to deter potential attackers.

If you don't know whether your computer has a TPM or multiple partitions, don't sweat it. BitLocker will run a system check when you start it up to see if your PC can use BitLocker.

Who should use BitLocker?

Here's the thing about BitLocker: It's a closed source program. That's problematic for extremely privacy-minded folks, since users have no way of knowing if Microsoft was coerced into putting some kind of backdoor into the program under pressure from the U.S. government.

The company says there are no back doors, but how can we be certain? We can't. Sure, if BitLocker was open source most of us wouldn't be able to read the code to determine if there was a backdoor anyway. But somebody out there would be able to meaning there would be a much higher chance of any faults with the program being discovered.

So with BitLocker's closed source nature in mind, I wouldn't count on this encryption program defending your data against a government actor such as border agents or intelligence services. But if you're looking to protect your data in case your PC is stolen or other situations where petty criminals and non-government types might mess with your hardware then BitLocker should be just fine.

Getting ready to go crypto, Microsoft style

Here's how I got BitLocker running on a Windows 8.1 Pro machine. The first thing you'll need to do is fire up the Control Panel.

When the Control Panel opens, type BitLocker into the search box in the upper right corner and press Enter. Next, click Manage BitLocker, and on the next screen click Turn on BitLocker.

Now BitLocker will check your PC's configuration to make sure your device supports Microsoft's encryption method.

BitLocker checks for the required Trusted Platform Module.

If you're approved for BitLocker, Windows will show you a message like this one. If your TPM module is off then Windows will turn it on automatically for you, and then it will encrypt your drive.

TPM

To activate your TPM security hardware Windows has to shut down completely. Then you will have to manually turn your PC back on. Before you go ahead with this process make sure any flash drives, CDs, or DVDs are ejected from your PC. Then hitShutdown.

Once you restart your PC, you may see a warning that your system was changed. In my case I had to hit F10 to confirm the change or press Esc to cancel. After that, your computer should boot back up and once you login again you'll see the BitLocker window.

Recovery key and encryption

We've rebooted and the TPM is now active.

After a few minutes, you should see a window with a green check mark next to "Turn on the TPM security hardware." We're almost at the point where we'll encrypt the drive! When you're ready, click Next.

Before you encrypt your drive, however, you have to save a recovery key just in case you have problems unlocking your PC. Windows gives you three choices for saving this key in Windows 8.1: save the file to your Microsoft account, save to a file, or print the recovery key. You are able to choose as many of these options as you like, and you should choose at least two.

In my case, I chose to save the file to a USB key and print the key on paper. I decided against saving the file to my Microsoft account, because I don't know who has access to the company's servers. That said, saving your key to Microsoft's servers will make it possible to decrypt your files if you ever lose the flash drive or paper containing your recovery key code.

Once you've created two different instances of the recovery key and removed any USB drives, click Next.

Choose whichever option best describes your PC.

On the following screen, you have to decide whether to encrypt only the disk space used so for or encrypt your PC's entire drive. If you are encrypting a brand new PC without any files then the option to encrypt only the used disk space is best for you since new files will be encrypted as they're added. If you have an old PC with a few more miles on the hard drive you should choose to encrypt the entire drive.

Once you've chosen your encryption scheme click Next. We're almost there.

Make sure the box next to "Run BitLocker system check" is clicked so that Windows will run a system check before encrypting your drive. Once the box is checked clickContinue...and nothing happens.

You have to manually reboot your PC to start BitLocker's disk encryption.

You'll see an alert balloon in the system tray telling you that encryption will begin after you restart the PC. Restart your PC.

When you log in this final time you should see another system tray alert telling you that the encryption is in progress.

Whew! We made it to the encryption phase.

You can continue to work on your PC during the encryption phase, but things may be working a little more slowly than usual. Consider holding back on anything that might tax your system during initial encryption, such as graphics-intensive programs.

After all those clicks, that's it! Just leave Windows to do its thing and in a few hours you'll have a BitLocker-encrypted drive. The length of time it takes BitLocker to fully encrypt your files depends on the size of your drive, or how much data you're encrypting if you're only encrypting existing data on a new PC.

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Eight tips to get you started with Windows Phone 8.1

noreply@blogger.com (Wibowo_Gs) — Sun, 25 May 2014 00:43:00 +0000

Microsoft released an update to its Windows Phone operating system last month. The Windows Phone 8.1 update is currently available for developers and will roll out to current Windows Phone 8 users over the next few months, although there is a way to manually update your device now. These tips will help you navigate the revamped operating system and access all of the new features it has to offer.

Customize your device

Windows Phone users could previously add a custom background image to their lock screen, however they were stuck with a rather boring home screen. In Windows Phone 8.1, Microsoft has given users the ability to now set a background on the live tile Start screen. This can be done by going to the settings menu, selecting the "start+theme" option, and choosing a Start background. From here you can also add an extra row of live tiles, select a new accent color, and change the phone's overall color motif from light to dark.

Josh Miller/CNET

Access the new voice assistant

The most anticipated feature in Windows Phone 8.1 is the inclusion of Microsoft's Cortana voice assistant. The feature, which is comparable to Apple's Siri voice assistant and Google Now, can be accessed by pressing the phone's search button. There is also a Cortana shortcut in your app drawer, which can be pinned to your Start screen for faster access.

Josh Miller/CNET

Cortana can search the Web, answer questions, set reminders, tell you the weather, and more. Pressing the music symbol in the top-right corner of the screen will open Cortana's Shazam-like music recognition feature. Simply open this menu, let the phone listen for music, and it will tell you which song is playing. Additional features and settings can be found in Cortana's Notebook. This can be accessed by pressing the three-line icon located next to the music symbol.

Force-close apps

Building upon the multitasking feature found in Windows Phone 8, the latest update now allows you to close apps with a swipe of the finger. The feature is similar to those found on iOS and Android, and previously WebOS. The Windows Phone multitasking menu can be accessed with a long press on the back button. Once inside it, you can quickly jump to a previously opened app, or close it either by pressing the "X" icon or with a downward swipe.

Take a screenshot

If you wanted to take a screenshot on a Windows Phone 8 device you would be required to press the power button and Windows button simultaneously. In version 8.1, however, the action has been changed to the power button and volume up key.

View notifications

One of my favorite additions to the Windows Phone operating system is the new Action Center. The feature is similar to the notification pulldowns found in both Android and iOS. A simple swipe down from the top of the screen will give you quick access to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Airplane mode, and Rotation Lock toggles, along with a link to the full settings menu. Notifications that appear in the Action Center can be dismissed with a swipe from left to right.

Josh Miller/CNET

Share your Wi-Fi networks

Another new feature in Windows Phone 8.1 can be used to automatically connect you to local, open Wi-Fi networks. The feature, known as Wi-Fi Sense, also gives you the ability to share the Wi-Fi credentials of your trusted networks with your Outlook, Skype, and Facebook friends who own a Windows Phone 8.1 device. While your friends will have access to your network, they won't be able to see the actual Wi-Fi password.

Josh Miller/CNET

Wi-Fi sense can be enabled or disabled by going to Settings, clicking Wi-Fi, and scrolling down to Wi-Fi Sense.

Avoid going over your data limit

A majority of users are on some sort of shared or limited data plan. Going over your data limit could cost you big bucks, but a new feature in Windows Phone 8.1 looks to help you prevent that. The Data Sense feature shows you how much data you use on both cellular and Wi-Fi connections, and which apps are using the most data.

There is also an option to set data limits. This feature can be programmed to prevent background data from downloading over cellular connections when you are nearing your limit. The Data Sense feature can be found in the phone's app drawer.

Keep your phone's storage in check

Microsoft has included a new Storage Sense feature in Windows Phone 8.1 to ensure you never run out of space again. For phones with expandable storage, Storage Sense provides an easy way to move apps, music, and pictures to your SD card. It can also be used to see which apps or content are taking up the most space on your device, and it gives you the option to delete or uninstall large and unwanted files.

Storage Sense is located in the phone's app drawer.

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Definitely deleted: How to guarantee your data is truly gone before recycling old PCs and drives

noreply@blogger.com (Wibowo_Gs) — Sat, 17 May 2014 15:20:00 +0000

Deleted files can often be recovered, and that's a problem when you're passing your PC or PC-related tech along to someone else. Whether it’s sensitive financial data, business documents, or scandalous photos that could be used to blackmail you, you probably don’t want people getting their hands on your private stuff.
Fortunately, you can take steps to protect your data, whether you’re getting rid of a PC, external hard drive, or USB stick. Here's how! (And here's how to wipe mobile devices clean.)

Mechanical hard drives vs. internal solid-state drives vs. external drives

Deleted files can be recovered from some types of drives, but not others. Here’s a quick summary of how different drives handle deleted files.
Mechanical hard drives: Old-school mechanical hard drives—the kind with a spinning magnetic platter—are still used in PCs. If your PC doesn’t have an SSD, it has a mechanical hard drive. Files you delete from these drives can be recovered. When you delete a file from such a drive, the drive just marks the file’s data as deleted. Until it’s overwritten in the future, people can scan the drive and recover the marked-as-deleted data.
Internal solid-state drives: Solid-state drives use a feature called TRIM. When you delete a file from a solid-state drive, the operating system informs the drive that the file was deleted. The drive then erases the file’s data from its memory cells. This is done to speed things up—it’s faster to write to empty cells—but it has the benefit of ensuring files you delete from internal SSDs can’t be recovered.
External solid-state drives and other removable media: TRIM is used only for internal SSDs. In other words, if you have an external SSD in an enclosure and you connect it to your computer via USB, TRIM won’t erase files you delete. This means deleted files can be recovered from that external SSD. Deleted files can also be recovered from USB flash drives, SD cards, and other types of removable media.

If you have a PC with a solid-state drive, you just need to reinstall your operating system to erase your data. If you have a PC with a mechanical drive, you’ll need to ensure your drive is wiped before reinstalling your OS. If you have an external drive, you’ll need to wipe that, too.

Reset your PC With Windows 8

For many years, geeks had to use third-party tools to wipe their mechanical drives before disposing of them. Windows 8 added a feature that makes wiping deleted files and restoring your operating system much easier.

You want the "Fully clean the drive" option.

Use the Reset Your PC feature in Windows 8 or 8.1 to reset your PC to its factory state. You’ll be able to choose a “Fully clean the drive” option when going through this process. Windows will overwrite your drive with junk data and then reinstall the Windows operating system. Afterwards, you’ll have a like-new system without any recoverable files. Yes, it’s really that simple.

Wipe your drive and reinstall Windows 7

Windows 7 doesn’t have this wiping feature built-in. If you just reinstall Windows 7 on your PC using a Windows 7 installer disc or your PC’s recovery feature, your drive won’t be wiped. Deleted files could theoretically be recovered from your drive.

DBAN's scary warning isn't lying: "Nuke" is in the name for a reason.

To avoid this, you’ll want to use a disk-wiping tool like Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN) before reinstalling Windows. This tool wipes your computer’s hard drive by overwriting it with junk data. If you’re disposing of the PC or internal drive, you’re done—you can leave the PC in this state. If you’re passing along the PC to someone and want to give them a working copy of Windows, you can then reinstall Windows on the PC and pass it along.

After wiping your drive you can reinstall Windows over it.

For a full rundown of DBAN and other secure erasure tools, check out PCWorld's guide to securely erasing your hard drive. Be careful when using tools like DBAN! They will overwrite an entire drive, including any recovery partitions and other data you might want to keep. Back up any data you want to keep before wiping your drive.

Clean external drives

Perform a full format of an external drive to wipe away any deleted files. To do so, connect the drive to your computer, right-click it in Windows Explorer or File Explorer, and select Format. Be sure to uncheck the Quick Format box to perform a full format— a quick format won’t fully erase the deleted files from your drive. Repeat this process for each drive you want to wipe.
On Windows XP, data could be recovered from a drive even after a full format. Starting with Windows Vista, Microsoft says a full format will overwrite your drive’s data. There’s no way to perform a full format from Windows 7’s installer, so that’s why you have to use a tool like DBAN when reinstalling Windows instead of using the normal Format option.

Format an external drive to kill your data dead.

You can also use other dedicated drive-wiping tools. For example, CCleaner includes a Drive Wiper tool under Tools > Drive Wiper.

Wipe free space

If you’ve already reinstalled Windows and don’t want to wipe your drive and reinstall Windows again, you can try using a tool that wipes a drive’s free space, which should obliterate any leftover data left lurking in the shadows. For example, CCleaner’s Drive Wiper tool can wipe only the free space on a drive if you'd like.

CCleaner has an option that only securely deletes leftover information lurking on your PC's supposedly free space.

Just wiping a drive’s free space isn’t an ideal solution, however. If you have any sensitive files that haven’t yet been deleted, CCleaner won’t touch them. A full drive wipe is more fool-proof because it ensures everything on your drive is wiped away before you set up a clean system from scratch.

Check your work: Try to recover deleted files yourself

Use a file-recovery program like Recuva, created by the same people who make the popular CCleaner utility, to test whether you can recover any deleted files from a drive. Recuva scans your internal or external drives for deleted files, displays information about them, and allows you to recover them. Be sure to perform a “Deep Scan” when prompted—it’s slower, but will find more bits of deleted files. If you wiped the drives properly, Recuva should find no files you can recover.

If you can recover your data with Recuva, so can someone else.

Recuva performs the same sort of trick an attacker would use to recover your data. Of course, some attackers—particularly criminal organizations that target businesses—may use more advanced disk forensics tools to get at that sensitive business data.

Use encryption to protect all your files

Set up encryption on your drive if you’re deeply worried about people recovering your deleted files. Encryption secures all your files, including both current files and deleted files. You can enable encryption with the BitLocker feature built into Professional versions of Windows or the free TrueCrypt that works on all versions of Windows. TrueCrypt can create encrypted containers or encrypt entire drives.
You’ll have to provide an encryption passphrase to access your files, which will be saved to your drive in encrypted form. Even if you delete encrypted files from such a drive, the deleted files will just be meaningless gibberish without your encryption key. An attacker who wanted to recover deleted files—or access the current files on the drive—would need your encryption key.

Encrypting your data with a tool like TrueCrypt helps ensure that your files are unreadable even if someone manages to recover them off your drive.

Destroy drives

There’s another, more extreme option for protecting your data. When the military gets rid of a hard drive containing the nuclear launch codes, they don’t just wipe it and set it by the curb. No, they go out of their way to destroy it just to be sure—they may even melt it down or crush it into powder. For magnetic hard drives, you can pay to have the drive degaussed—this eliminates the magnetic field and thus all the data. Or you could just smash it with a hammer and a railroad spike if you want to save cash.
Most people shouldn’t be destroying drives, as it’s a waste of still-usable hardware. On the other hand, if you’re a business and you have an old hard drive containing customers’ financial information, you may want to destroy that drive rather than risk that data falling into the wrong hands.
Remember to consider your sensitive data before getting rid of a computer or external drive. The biggest challenge here is simply knowing you need to run these tools—many people don’t realize that previously deleted files can be recovered.
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Linux to the rescue! How Ubuntu can help a computer in distress

noreply@blogger.com (Wibowo_Gs) — Fri, 09 May 2014 00:26:00 +0000

This may sound like sacrilege, but it's not: Ubuntu Linux can be useful even if you’re a hardcore Windows user.

That's because there’s no way to boot a full Windows system from a USB stick to troubleshoot your PC—well, not without an Enterprise version of Windows and Windows To Go—but anyone can make a free Ubuntu USB drive, CD, or DVD. A Ubuntu live drive can be used as a digital Swiss army knife to troubleshoot all sorts of problems with anyPC, whether you need to recover files from a failing computer, diagnose hardware problems, perform a deep virus scan from outside Windows, or even reset a forgotten Windows password.

We’ll be getting our hands dirty with some Linux terminal commands here, but don’t worry—the Linux terminal won’t bite. You can even copy-paste most of these commands directly into the terminal.

Create Ubuntu Live media

To get started, you’ll need a Linux live USB drive, CD, or DVD. You can use any Linux distribution for this, but we’re focusing on Ubuntu to simplify things.

Visit Ubuntu’s website and download Ubuntu Desktop— we used 12.04 LTS for this, butany available version will do. Download the Universal USB Installer tool, then select your USB drive and the ISO file and the tool will create a bootable USB drive. You can also burn the ISO file to a CD or DVD, but those spinning discs will run slower than a USB drive.

You'll want to select the "Try Ubuntu" option to use the live drive.

Just insert the live drive into a computer and reboot. It should boot straight into Ubuntu; if it doesn’t, you’ll need to change the boot order in your computer’s BIOS. Once you're in, the troubleshooting begins.

Recover files from a failing drive

We’ve all been there. Your PC may not boot, Windows may be showing errors and blue-screening, or—even worse—you may hear that dreaded mechanical hard drive clicking.

Even if you can’t boot Windows, there’s a good chance you can read the drive from within Linux and recover some files before the hard drive dies completely. Or, if the Windows system is corrupted and the drive itself is fine, you can recover all of the files from outside Windows.

Recovering Windows-stored files with Ubuntu is as easy as opening a folder.

There’s no Linux terminal involved here. Just click the folder icon on Ubuntu’s launcher to open the file manager. You’ll see your Windows drive under Devices in the sidebar; click it and you’ll see your Windows file system. If you have multiple partitions or hard drives, you’ll see multiple devices here.

Connect an external drive or USB stick to your computer and it will appear under Devices, too. Copy and paste the files you want to back up from the Windows system to your external drive, just as you would on Windows. You could even fire up a web browser and upload the files directly to Dropbox or another cloud storage service, or open the Brasero Disc Burner application included with Ubuntu to burn them to disc.

Reset your Windows password

Ubuntu can also edit your Windows user account passwords, which is great if you’veforgotten your Windows password. We tested this on a modern Windows 8.1 Update system and it worked perfectly. We’ll be modifying the Administrator account here—after you unlock it and clear its password, you can log into Windows as Administrator and reset your other passwords.

Open a terminal by clicking the Ubuntu logo in the top-left corner of the launcher, typingTerminal, and pressing Enter. Run the following commands to install the password-changing utility you’ll need. (If you’ve already run the first two commands, you don’t need to run them again—just run the third one here.)

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) universe"

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install chntpw

Be sure to open the file manager from the launcher and click your Windows drive under Devices to view its contents if you haven’t yet. This will “mount” the drive and make it available in the terminal.

Finding the Windows directory using the Terminal.

Next, start typing the following command into the terminal, but do not press Enter:

cd /media/

Now, press the Tab key twice. You’ll see an alphanumeric label that corresponds to your hard drive. Type the first few characters and press Tab again to automatically fill the label in. Now type /Windows/System32/config so you end up with a command that looks like the following, and then finally press Enter:

cd /media/9A72A08872A06AA9/Windows/System32/config

Run the following command and press Enter to start modifying the Administrator account. SAM is the name of the Windows system file containing the hashed user account passwords.

sudo chntpw SAM

If your Administrator account is locked—and it is by default—type 4 at the prompt and press Enter to unlock it. Type y at the confirmation prompt and press Enter to confirm.

Unlocking the Windows admin account.

You’ll have to run the sudo chntpw SAM command again to get back into the program. Type 1 and press Enter at the prompt to clear the Administrator’s password and make it blank. Type y at the prompt and press Enter to confirm again. Important: Do not use the change password option here, as it could cause problems.

You can now log into Windows with the username Administrator and a blank password. From there, you can open the Control Panel and reset other user account passwords. (Worried about other people doing this to your Windows system? Set a BIOS passwordto ensure they can’t boot to removable media and mess around with it.)

Scan for malware

Rootkits are a nasty type of malware that burrow deep into Windows and start at boot-up, pulling strings in the background so they’re invisible to antivirus programs and hidden even from the Windows Task Manager. Even if you have bog-standard malware, it’s often easier to remove malware from outside Windows. Antivirus companies often makededicated antivirus boot discs you can use to scan your system from outside Windows, but you can do this all from within Ubuntu.

We’ll use ClamAV here because it’s open source and easily installable on Ubuntu. It isn’t the only option, though; you may also want to look at commercial antiviruses like AVG Free for Linux or BitDefender for Unices.

To install ClamAV, open the terminal and copy-paste or type each of the following commands into the terminal in order, pressing Enter after each. (Again, if you’ve already run the first two commands performing another task, you don’t need to run them again—just start at the third.)

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) universe"

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install clamtk

Type y and press Enter to confirm the installation.

Next, run the following command to update your virus definitions:

sudo freshclam

Be sure to have ClamAV scan all files and directories.

You can now run the clamtk command in the terminal or open ClamTk from your list of installed applications. Be sure to click the Preferences button and enable the “Scan all files and directories in a directory” option after you do.

Selecting a recursive scan while ClamTk is open.

To actually scan your Windows drive for malware, click the Scan option on the menu at the top of ClamAV's screen and select Recursive Scan. Select your Windows drive in the sidebar and clickOK. ClamTk should scan every file on your Windows drive with the ClamAV antivirus engine.

Give your hard drive a check-up

Ubuntu can also check for hardware-related issues.

The SMART hard drive status system allows a failing hard drive to warn you before it goes down in flames. To check a drive’s SMART status from Ubuntu, click the Ubuntu logo icon at the top-left corner of your screen, search for "Disk Utility" and press Enter. Select your Windows drive and look next to SMART Status to see the drive’s health status. You can click the SMART Data button to see more details and perform self-tests.

Checking your disk drive's health is SMART. Get it? Hey, stop groaning.

SMART isn’t perfect. A drive may be failing and reporting that everything is fine even as it grinds to a halt. Another drive may report a serious problem and continue working fine for months. But, if you see a serious warning, you should get your files off the drive and replace it as soon as possible.

Test your RAM

Ubuntu comes with the popular memtest86+ memory-testing utility built-in. This utility will write data to your computer’s RAM, read it back, and check if it’s correct. If your RAM has a problem, memtest86+ will notice when the RAM returns different data. In normal computer use, these problems can lead to application crashes, file corruption, and even the dreaded blue screen of death.

This utility must be chosen at boot, so you’ll have to restart your computer if you’re already at the Ubuntu desktop. When Ubuntu starts booting, repeatedly press Escape and you’ll see the normally hidden boot menu. Select the Test Memory option here to launch memtest86+.

You want the "Test Memory" option.

Give memtest86+ some time alone with your computer after it begins. After a single successful batch of tests, known as a pass, you’ll see the message “Pass complete, no errors, press Esc to exit.” You can exit memtest86+ after the message appears or allow it to perform multiple passes. If you see an error, you likely need to replace one or more of the RAM sticks in your PC.

But wait, there's more!

Even though you're not installing it on your hard drive, that itty-bitty Ubuntu live drive is a full Linux system, so there’s a lot you can do with it. Even if you boot it on a computer infected with a petri dish of Windows malware, it will be secure and isolated from any problems with the Windows software. PCWorld's Ubuntu guide for displaced Windows users has much more background information if you want to learn more about the operating system's ins and outs.

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How and when to upgrade to Windows Phone 8.1

noreply@blogger.com (Wibowo_Gs) — Thu, 01 May 2014 14:32:00 +0000

Microsoft on Monday released a preview of Windows Phone 8.1, which delivers a handful of new features to the company's smartphone operating system. In addition to home screen wallpapers, an extra live tiles column, and a notification center, the update includes Microsoft's Cortana voice assistant. Here's how and when you can get Windows Phone 8.1 on your device.

Become a developer

The fastest way to get the Windows Phone 8.1 update is to become a developer. Those users who have an active Windows Phone Dev Center account, an active App Studio account, or have a registered developer device can get the update directly from Microsoft through the Preview for Developers app in the Windows Phone Store.

Signing up for a Windows Phone Dev Center account requires a payment of $19 per year (or €14 per year in Europe and £12 per year in the U.K.). If you simply can't wait to get the latest updates and aren't willing to shell out some cash, you can register your device as a "developer device" for free. Please be aware, however, that installing the preview update will void your warranty and that you will be unable to revert back to an earlier version of the operating system.

To "developer unlock" your device, you must first download and install the Windows Phone SDK (sorry Mac users, it's Windows only). Connect your Windows Phone to your computer and open the Windows Phone Developer Registration. Verify that your phone has been identified, click the "Register" button, and sign in to your Microsoft account.

Screenshot by Dan Graziano/CNET

Next you will have to download the Preview for Developers app from the Windows Phone Store. Open the app and check the box that reads "Enable Preview for Developers." To download the Windows Phone 8.1 update, go to the phone's settings, scroll down to phone update, and check for updates. If your phone was properly unlocked the Windows Phone 8.1 preview update will be waiting for you.

Buy a new phone

A safer route would be to purchase one of Nokia's three new smartphones: the Lumia 930, Lumia 630, or Lumia 635. All three of these devices are slated to be available in May and will come with Windows Phone 8.1 already preloaded on them.

Wait for the update

If you aren't in the market for a new smartphone or you would like to hold on to your existing device, you can also wait for your carrier to push the update to you. While timeframes will vary for each carrier, Microsoft has said that the Windows Phone 8.1 is expected to arrive on Windows Phone 8 devices sometime this summer.

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Need to hide supersecret files on your Galaxy S5? Here's how

noreply@blogger.com (Wibowo_Gs) — Sun, 27 Apr 2014 10:16:00 +0000

There's more than one reason why you'd want to sock away certain photos, videos, and other files on your phone. It's OK, I'm not here to judge, just to tell you how to hide said documents from view on yourGalaxy S5.

It's pretty simple, but you do need to follow a few steps.

1.) Turn on Private mode

There are two ways to activate the Private Mode setting -- through an icon in the Quick Settings bar (pull down the notification tray with two fingers) and through the Settings menu. If you opt for the latter, open Settings, then Device. Scroll down until you reach the Personalization subsection, and tap "Private mode."

You can turn on Private mode two ways.Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET

2.) Prove yourself

Once Private mode is on, you'll be presented with a security barrier and asked to prove your identity. I have the fingerprint scanner already set up on my lock screen, so I'm asked to swipe my prints -- though I can also add an alternate password for if the swiping fails.

You can also choose to authenticate your identity with a pattern, password, or PIN.

3.) Select and move files

Say you want to put photos and videos under lock and key. Start by opening the photo gallery, then press the Menu button and Select. Tap on the pictures you want to sequester, then tap the Menu button again and select "Move to Private."

You'll need to make the Menu button your friend.Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET

You'll notice a new Gallery folder appear marked Private, with your items tucked safely inside. An icon of a door with a key lock tells you that a picture is private.

If you move an item into the privacy bucket by mistake, don't worry. It's easy to reassign photos for general viewing using the same Settings menu.

4.) View the master list

If you'd like to glance at everything you've marked private, Samsung's thought of a way to do that, too. With Private mode turned on, open the My Files folder in the app tray. Then, scroll down until you see the icon for Private, and tap once.

Voila! The Galaxy S5 displays your files in list mode, but you can sort them or reorganize them into folders through the Menu button.

To view and organize all private files, open the My Files menu when Private mode is engaged.Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET

5.) Turn it off!

Whatever you do, remember to go back into the settings and turn Private mode off when you're done using it. When you do, you'll notice that all visible trace of your private folders disappear -- including the option to even see the Private folder in My Files.

What it isn't

There are just two more things to keep in mind when using Private mode. The first is that it doesn't protect your browsing. Incognito or private browsing is a separate setting for the default browser and Chrome.

Now you see Private mode...now you don't.Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET

Similarly, Private mode isn't the same as Samsung Knox, which is an enterprise app your company has to deploy in order to lock down files that your company deems sensitive.

Instead, Private mode is a personal tool you can use on the device, just for files -- so you can keep those "what happens in Vegas" photos without fear.

Source

Windows 8.1 Update tip: Clean up that disk space now

noreply@blogger.com (Wibowo_Gs) — Sat, 19 Apr 2014 00:09:00 +0000

On April 8, Microsoft blessed us with an update to Windows 8.1 that made the touchy-feely OS more palatable to PC users.

Now that you've had about a week to play around with the update—which brings the taskbar to the modern UI, among other welcome additions—the next few days present a good time to clear up extra space on your hard drive by getting rid of some Windows Update files.

How much space you'll recover depends on whether you've ever run the Disk Clean-up utility, and the number of different Windows versions you've ever run on your PC.

In my case, I recovered a little less than 2GB. It's not much, but on a 3-year-old computer that's going to need a hard drive upgrade soon, I'll take all the extra space I can get.

While we'll focus on how to run a clean-up Windows 8.1, this basic utility is also available in Windows 7 and 8.

Cleaning up from the Control Panel

Not a bad amount of space, but we can probably clear up a little bit more.

Let's start by right-clicking on the Start button in the lower left corner and selecting Control Panel in the context menu. Now, from the Control Panel's category view, select System and Security>Administrative Tools>Free up disk space.

In the next window that opens, which may take a few minutes, you'll see a summary of various files that can be deleted to free up extra space. But we also want to clean up the system files in addition to the usual temporary Internet files and error reports.

To do this, click on the Clean up system files button and wait for Disk Clean-up to recalculate how much space you can take back.

After a few more minutes, we should be back at the Disk Clean-up window. Scroll through the list of items that are safe to delete, paying special attention to any large file sizes. There will be a few that aren't checked off, but feel free to delete them if you don't need or want them on your system anymore.

It will take a while for Windows to clear up all that extra disk space.

Once you're done, click OK and then Delete Files in the pop-up window that opens. A few minutes later, the files will be wiped from your hard drive giving you a few extra gigabytes of storage space.

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Translate foreign menus

noreply@blogger.com (Wibowo_Gs) — Sun, 13 Apr 2014 01:56:00 +0000

Vacations don't excite me -- eating excites me. Your city may have the most breathtaking vistas, and the most beautiful museums, but when all is said and done, my best traveling memories revolve around food. And nothing bums out my travel gluttony more than a menu I can't decipher.

Fortunately, whether you have an iPhone or Android phone, there are some useful apps out there that can help you translate a menu in seconds. None are perfect, but having a couple on hand could keep you from eating the wrong part of a bull.

Waygo (iOS)

Let's start with a new app out there called Waygo, currently only available for iOS. Waygo was designed specifically for translating Chinese text (though it now supports Japanese), and was designed with menus in mind.

The free version of Waygo gives you 10 free translations a day, or you can get a week pass for $1.99, or go unlimited for $6.99.

The above video gives you a basic idea of how the app works. You open the app and use your iPhone's camera to line up a few lines of text inside an adjustable window. Then, within seconds, a translation of the text appears under the box.

Waygo

Are the translations accurate? Well, your mileage will vary, but for the most part Waygo was at least able to accurately identify the type of meat used for the dish. Since all then menus I was able to get ahold of already had translations included, it was easy enough to gauge the accuracy.

The obvious drawback to Waygo is the limited amount of language support. It's also pretty tough on your battery and needs clearly printed type in order to work (fancy signs and calligraphy were nearly impossible for me).

That said, it tackles the two languages (Chinese and Japanese) that are most frequently missing in other apps. It also has the important advantage of being able to work offline, which can be critical if you're out of wireless range or generally trying to conserve data consumption.

Word Lens (iOS/Android)

Next up is Word Lens, which is technically a free download for iOS or Android, but you pay $4.99 for each language you want translated. Unfortunately, neither Chinese nor Japanese are languages it supports, but if you're looking for Spanish, French, German, Russian, Portuguese, or Italian, this is worth checking out, even if just for the novelty.

Quest Visual

With Word Lens, you pick your translation mode, point your camera at your text and watch as it not only translates the text, but seamlessly replaces it in the image, doing its best to match the text size, font, and color. When it works, it's uncanny -- billboards and newspapers mutate into their translated alter egos. And with a tap of the pause button, you can freeze the translated image, save it to your camera roll or share it in an email.

The major drawbacks are price, language support, and the battery drain required to pull off its real-time magic. On the upside, you get to see your translations in their original context, and it's a fun one to show off.

Google Translate (iOS/Android)

Finally, let's talk about your best free option: Google Translate. This app is available for both Android and iPhone, and it has the broadest range of language support. You get around 80 languages to choose from, ranging from Arabic to Zulu. But the Android and iOS versions are not identical. In this case, Google has blessed the Android version with a picture translation capability.

Google

To use it, open the Android version of the Google Translate app, select the languages you're translating to and translating from, then tap the photo icon. From here you'll take a snapshot of the text you want to translate, allow the image to be processed, and then specifically select the area to be translated using your fingertip.

The results may not have the gee-whiz factor of Word Lens, but the whole system works pretty well. Highlighting the text with your finger provides some context for the translation. Selections are also saved to the app's home screen for later reference.

Conclusion

What I love about these apps is that they're truly a phenomenon that could only happen at this moment in time, when smartphones, their cameras, processors, and data connections are all sufficiently advanced to churn out a kind of magic.

Are the translations perfect? Nope. In fact, most of the time they were hilariously bad. But if it helps you order food more confidently when traveling, and experience new tastes and flavors, then be sure to keep a few of these handy.

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Heartbleed bug: Check which sites have been patched

noreply@blogger.com (Wibowo_Gs) — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 13:05:00 +0000

The Heartbleed bug is serious. Disclosed less than two days ago, the Heartbleed bug has sent sites and services across the Internet into patch mode.

For an in-depth explanation of what exactly Heartbleed is, and what it does, read this post by our own Stephen Shankland. In essence, the bug potentially exposed your username and password on sites like Facebook, Google, Pinterest, and more.

Using Alexa.com, we've been going through the list of the top 100 sites in the US and asking "Have you patched the Heartbleed bug yet?" Once we have an answer, we will fill in the chart below with the response.

While we wait to hear back, we will be testing the sites against the Qualys SSL Server Test. There may be some instances where the patch isn't detected or a server can not be inspected (the site may be fine, but Qualys can not confirm that), in which case we will mark the site as "be on alert." When a site is marked as such, you should proceed with caution and contact the site or company directly if you have any questions pertaining to your account security.

You may notice some companies will be marked as "was not vulnerable." In that case, the site in question does not use the type of OpenSSL encryption this bug was based on and your data was never at risk.

If you're checking back after seeing earlier versions of this story, you may also notice that some statuses have changed. For instance, the status for Microsoft, MSN, and Live has been updated to "was not vulnerable" once Microsoft confirmed that to be the case.

Go here to check the complete list.

Meet the next-gen USB cable that could sweep away all others

noreply@blogger.com (Wibowo_Gs) — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 01:16:00 +0000

The upcoming USB cable design is reversible, has no right-side-up or upside-down problems, and will click when you plug it in. Expect the new design on the market as soon as this year.

The new design, called USB Type-C, is designed to replace today's multitude of cables and fix a number of their shortcomings. Type-C USB jacks will be small enough for mobile phones, the cable will be reversible end-to-end so it doesn't matter which end you attach to your computer and which to your digital camera, and as with Apple's Lightning connector there will be no upside-down when it's time to actually plug the cable in.

The USB Implementers Forum, which oversees the Universal Serial Bus specification, announced its plans for a new USB cable and port in December but hadn't settled on the exact physical design of the connector. Now it's done, and the new cables could arrive in months, the USB IF said Wednesday at the Intel Developer Forum conference in Shenzhen, China.

"The specification is anticipated to be completed in July 2014. We could see products with the new cable by end of year," the USB IF told CNET.

Expect new USB Type-C ports to live side by side with old-style ports for awhile.USB Implementers Forum

Type-C cures all these ills, the USB IF argues

But along with the difficulties of dragging the entire PC, phone, tablet, and gadget ecosystem into the future, USB Type-C faces another challenge from the USB IF itself: a new attempt to encourage wireless USB data transfer after last decade's effort flopped. Cables still have advantages, though, including the ability to charge and power devices and fast data-transfer speeds. Although the new wireless USB in principle can reach into the gigabit-per-second range with 60GHz 802.11ad wireless networking, Type-C cables will support USB 3.1's 10Gbps rates.The USB prong itself measures 8.3x2.5mm, smaller than the plugs that fit into a PC's USB ports today but larger than the 6.85x1.8mm of the Micro-USB B-type those widely used in mobile phones. Cable supported cable lengths won't change.

Other attributes of the Type-C design, according to the USB-IF:

It'll make an audible click when plugged in correctly.
It's designed to accommodate future USB incarnations with higher data-transfer speeds.
It'll support USB's growing role in carrying power to operate and charge devices through the USB Power Delivery technology.
It's designed to be plugged and unplugged 10,000 times.

With so many USB devices in the market today, don't expect an immediate transition to the new cable. It's likely PCs will include new and old port styles side by side, and that people will have use for cables and adapters that bridge the old and new styles.

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15 tips and tricks for the HTC One M8

noreply@blogger.com (Wibowo_Gs) — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 23:59:00 +0000

Last month HTC launched its latest flagship device, the HTC One M8. The new device features a revamped display, faster processor, more RAM, a wide-angle selfie cam, and two cameras on the back of the device to make depth-of-field pictures a reality on a mobile device.

With all of the new hardware, and of course new software, the HTC One M8 brings a lot of new features to the palm of your hand. While we can't cover everything, we feel it's important to highlight some of them -- 15 to be exact. So, without further delay, here are tips and tricks for your shiny new HTC One M8.

Quickly add a widget, customize layout of home screen pages

Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET

HTC has enabled the ability to tap and hold on your home screen in order to change the wallpaper or add a widget; making it easy to access either respective setting. But what you probably didn't know is you can actually pinch with two fingers on your home screen to bring up the same settings screen. You can use this gesture on any screen, regardless of number of icons (and thus free space on the home page).

Put two fingers a few inches apart, and pinch them together. The Widgets and Pages overview screen will show up, letting you customize away.

Disable BlinkFeed

BlinkFeed aggregates your social networks, TV listings, restaurant recommendations and more into one convenient feed. By default, the HTC One M8 and its Sense 6.0 software place BlinkFeed to the left of your home screen, accessible with just a swipe.

But for some, BlinkFeed is an unnecessary feature on the HTC One. Thankfully, you can turn it off with just a few taps.

Using the gesture mentioned above, bring up settings for home pages, and then tap and hold on the BlinkFeed icon. Once it lifts up, you'll notice a remove icon at the top of the screen. Drag it over to the icon, and once it turns red, let go. BlinkFeed will then disappear from your device. Adding BlinkFeed back to your device is as simple as tapping on the placeholder icon on this same page.

Grid size

One annoyance with Sense 6.0 is the way it lays out app icons in your app drawer. Besides the fact HTC forces you to scroll through apps vertically, the default grid size is 3x4. With this setting, you're going to spend a lot more time scrolling to find an app.

I recommend changing the setting by tapping on the menu icon (upper right-hand corner) when viewing the app drawer, and selecting Grid Size. There you'll find an option to change the grid to a more convenient and respectable 4x5.

Hide bloatware

You may also notice when you pull up the menu in the app drawer there's an option to hide/unhide apps. Selecting this option allows you to hide unwanted apps, such as carrier bloatware, on your new HTC One M8 without having to dig into the settings and actually disable the app.

Of course, if you want to disable an app, you can always do that by following the instructions in this post.

Customize settings quick toggles

When you pull down the notification tray, you can access quick toggle tiles by tapping on the top-right icon (you directly access these same tiles by dragging down with two fingers). Here you will find shortcuts to enable or disable common settings you're likely to frequently change on your device.

When viewing the quick toggle screen, you'll notice an edit icon along the top. Tap on it to be taken to the settings screen where you can then rearrange, remove, or add new icons to the layout.

Change launchers

Installing a custom launcher is high on the priority list for a lot of Android users. Even those who aren't all that tech savvy have a personal favorite when it comes to customizing the look and feel of any Android device.

You can still install custom launchers on the M8, but if you decide you want to change back to the BlinkFeed launcher, you'll need to dive a bit into the settings in order to do so.

You can find a list of installed launchers, and select the respective one you want to activate by launching the Settings app, then tapping on Personalize followed by Home Screen.

Do Not Disturb

Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET

The HTC One M8 now comes with a Do Not Disturb mode. When enabled, the new mode will prevent your phone from making any noise, vibrating, and keep the indicator light turned off. You can set DND to follow a schedule, or enable it before a meeting.

Customize DND by launching the Settings app, going to Sounds and selecting Do Not Disturb from the list of options. Here you can set a schedule and add contact exceptions.

Enable developer mode

HTC moved the Build Number section on the new One, making it a little more difficult to enable developer mode as we have discussed before.

To enable dev options on the new HTC One, you'll need to go to Settings > About > Software Information > More. There you will find Build Number, and you can tap away on it until you see the developer notification.

Camera tips

As we mentioned, there are a lot of new features in the new One especially when it comes to the camera. From adding a blur effect to photos, creating 3D pics, and getting festive with seasonal overlays, the M8's camera is full of fun stuff. Thankfully, we have you covered with a video demonstration.

Take a closer look at the new camera features on the M8 with Dan Graziano as your guide.

Save photos to SD card

Arguably one of the most notable features on the M8 is the addition of a microSD slot. Of course, you're going to want to make the most out of your expandable storage, and one of the areas it will benefit you the most is when it comes to storing photos and videos.

The first time you launch the Camera app after installing a memory card, you might see a prompt asking if you want to begin storing photos and videos on the card. But if you either dismiss the prompt at first, or don't see one at all, you can manually enable SD Card storage.

Launch the Camera app, tap on the menu icon (the three dots), followed by the Settings cog. Scroll down through the options until you find Storage. Tap on it and select SD Card. Going forward all photos and videos you capture will be saved to your memory card.

Save custom camera settings

Another new feature aimed at those who want to get serious with photography on the M8 allows users to save custom camera settings for quick access in the future.

By customizing exposure, ISO, white balance, and more, you can enhance the photos captured by your phone. Instead of constantly having to remember what settings you used to capture a brilliant low light shot, you can save the settings and access it with just a few taps the next time you need it.

Start by adjusting the capture settings and getting them just where you want. After everything is set, tap on the menu icon followed by the Settings cog. Scroll to the bottom of the settings list, and select Save Camera. You'll then be prompted to name your camera settings.

To access your new camera settings, tap on the same button you use to switch camera modes (from photo to video or Zoe, for example) and scroll down until you find the new camera mode you created.

Facebook cover photo

One of the hidden features in the camera app makes it possible to turn your favorite shot(s) into a Facebook cover photo.

When viewing a photo you'd like to turn into your Facebook cover, tap on the Edit button followed by Tools, then Crop. Scroll to the right through the list of preset crop ratios until you get to the Facebook Cover option. Reposition and resize as needed, save, and then upload to Facebook.

Turn a Zoe into a GIF

Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET

Zoe was first introduced with the original HTC One last year, making it possible to take creative shots with the camera. Did you know you can also use it to create an animated image (GIF) on the M8?

After recording a Zoe, view the Zoe file and tap on Edit and scroll through the icons until you find the one labeled GIF Creator. Tap on it and select the exact segment you want to animate, then save it to your device.

Transfer data

Upgrading from another device to the new One? Graziano walks you through the steps of transferring data between an older Android, or even an iPhone, to your shiny new device.

Gestures

What would a new device be in 2014 if it didn't include gestures to quickly access or activate certain features? (10 points if you said iPhone.)

The HTC One M8 includes new gestures and our very own Graziano has been kind enough to walk you through them in a video you can find here.

Source

How to get better battery life on Android

noreply@blogger.com (Wibowo_Gs) — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 05:51:00 +0000

Android gets a bad rap for short battery life, but that's only if you stick with its default settings. Make these simple adjustments to give your phone or tablet a battery boost.

Disable location reporting and history
GPS is a huge battery hog, as it harnesses data from the phone's GPS chip, cell phone towers, and Wi-Fi hotspots to find your location. The more a phone surveys your location, the more battery it uses. And that goes beyond just Google Maps.

Location reporting and location history are two GPS-based services with somewhat unclear motives. According to a Google Help page, the services can be used in conjunction with any other Google Apps, and may be used to improve your experience.

Chances are you can probably live without them, so disable these two features by going to Settings > Location > Google Location Reporting.

Disable Google Now cards
Now is an unmatched personal assistant, but some of its services -- which come in the form of informational "cards" -- are tireless battery drains.

For example, a card titled "Nearby places" shows you nearby attractions when you travel to a place that Google recognizes is out of your usual routine. Cool? Yes. Necessary? No.

To disable cards, go to Google Now, then scroll down to the very bottom, and tap the magic wand. Here, you can pick the cards you actually need. As a general guide, the GPS-reliant cards will demand the most battery, so disable cards like "Travel time" and "Nearby places" to see a battery boost.

Wi-Fi scanning
It's well-known that when Wi-Fi is left enabled, more energy is used. However, on Android, even when Wi-Fi is disabled, a phone could still be searching for networks.

To make sure this isn't happening, head to Wi-Fi settings > Advanced. Here, uncheck the option for Wi-Fi scanning.

Going forward, you'll have to connect to Wi-Fi manually, but you'll get a longer battery life in return.

Use the battery tool
If you're unsure how energy-demanding an app is, or you're wondering why your battery is draining so quickly, use the Battery tool. The feature shows you which apps use the most battery, with the top two items almost always being Screen and Wi-Fi.

Source

Simple smartphone photo tips

noreply@blogger.com (Wibowo_Gs) — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 13:11:00 +0000

Today's smartphone cameras have become nearly as complex and feature-laden as the compact cameras they replaced. It's easy to get overwhelmed, but here are four simple tips for better photos that will work with virtually any modern smartphone.

High Dynamic Range (HDR)

Most smartphones now have an option called HDR, which is short for High Dynamic Range.

When you take an HDR photo, your camera actually shoots three photos at three different exposures: low, standard, and high. Then, your phone stacks all those photos to create one composite image that's super sharp and looks closer to what the human eye sees.

When to try HDR:

- Landscapes. You'll notice bluer skies and richer details in trees and buildings.

- Direct sunlight. For those situations where the sun is right behind the subject you're shooting and there's no way around it.

When to avoid HDR:

- Action shots. Moving subjects will result in a blurred composite image.

- Portraits. Enhancing the detail on an old barn is great. Enhancing the wrinkles on your old mom is not recommended.

Remote shutter

That camera shutter button on your display isn't the only way to take a photo. If you want steadier shots, and a little more flexibility, there are a few more ways to snap a photo.

On iPhone and Android, use the volume-up to snap your photo. Or use a connected pair of headphones with inline volume control as a remote shutter.

For select Android phones, such as Samsung Galaxy S4 or LG G Flex, say "Cheese" to take photo without pressing a button.

Burst mode

When it comes to taking photos of kids, pets, or fast-paced sporting events, Burst mode will help you get a clear shot every time. On iPhone: Tap and hold the shutter button on the iPhone for as long as you like. Watch photo count indicator. When done, all photos will be saved into one thumbnail (on the iPhone 5S), and you can then choose your favorites.

On Android (depending on model): Tap the mode button and select Burst from the menu. Holding down the snapshot button will now take up to 20 shots in rapid succession.

Lock focus/exposure

By now you probably know that tapping the screen sets the focus and exposure. But the moment you or the subject moves, that setting is lost.

To force your phone to lock the focus and exposure, tap and hold the screen until the setting locks. Now, even if you move around, the exposure and focus will stay the same.

Source

Use TheFind on Android to shop, compare retail outlets

noreply@blogger.com (Wibowo_Gs) — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 14:15:00 +0000

Instead of visiting a number of retail Web sites to find the best deal on an item, use this free app and let it do the hard work for you.
Shopping online is super convenient. You get to sit in the comfort of your own home, browsing various sites to find the best deal on a product. Sometimes you don't even have to browse Web sites, due to most major retail chains having native apps for various platforms.

But let's face it, going to a number of sites (or launching a number of apps) brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "shop till you drop." To tackle this first-world problem, TheFind will help you "search over 500,000 stores and 500 million products" using the iOS app, the Web site, or the new Android app.

The iOS app originally launched in the middle of 2013, with the Android app only being made available as of today.

Within the app you can search for an item, and a list of retail locations (both online and local) that sale the item will populate. From there you can compare prices, read reviews and even check stock of nearby stores.

Singing up for an account allows you to save previous searches, set your favorite brands and more.

What do you guys think? Is an app like this a lifesaver from long digital shopping trips, or is it a bit overkill? There is a lot of information presented in the app, so I can see how it can be seen as overwhelming. However, if in the end I save a bit of money and find exactly what I am looking for nearby, I'm game.

Source

Use TheFind on Android to shop, compare retail outlets

noreply@blogger.com (Wibowo_Gs) — Sun, 09 Mar 2014 10:00:00 +0000

Shopping online is super convenient. You get to sit in the comfort of your own home, browsing various sites to find the best deal on a product. Sometimes you don't even have to browse Web sites, due to most major retail chains having native apps for various platforms.

The iOS app originally launched in the middle of 2013, with the Android app only being made available as of today.

Singing up for an account allows you to save previous searches, set your favorite brands and more.

Source

Avoid spam calls, find numbers faster with Current Caller ID on Android

noreply@blogger.com (Wibowo_Gs) — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 10:24:00 +0000

Last year, I shared how to use the Whitepages Current Caller ID app to easily track blocked calls and texts. Now, Whitepages has added the ability to spot many of today's spam/scam numbers, along with some other convenient features.

If you don't have the app already, there's no time like the present to get a copy. Current Caller ID is available for Android 2.2 and up.

The UI for the app has received a makeover, sporting lighter colors and better organization for its features. For example, the previous version of the app had two tabs for your call log -- one Recent and the other Frequent -- but now there's just one tab with a toggle for the two choices. The Blocked calls/texts menu has also moved to the row of icons along the bottom.

Avoid spam calls

(Credit: Whitepages)

When a phone number is part of an area code that has a high spam score, an alert will be shown on the Whitepages info window when making or receiving a call. According to Whitepages, their app can identify over 21,000 different scam numbers. Additionally, they will keep updating their spam directory to maintain the accuracy of flagged numbers.

Find numbers faster

(Credit: Whitepages)

Right before the update that enables you to spot spam calls, Whitepages added a smart contacts feature to the Current Caller ID app. This allows you to see not only numbers that are stored in your address book, but also those identified by the app in the past. You can also link your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts to gain access to profile information your connections have shared. If you download the official Whitepages app, which Current Caller ID can access through the search feature, you can easily look up numbers for people and businesses listed in their directory. There's even a built-in dialer, so you can just tap on a number to make a call.

Current Caller ID is an app that has improved with each update. The new UI, ability to spot spam numbers, and quick access to numbers are just a few of the reasons why nearly 5 million people have this app on their Android device.

Source

A deep dive into the Galaxy S5's snappy fingerprint scanner

noreply@blogger.com (Wibowo_Gs) — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 10:38:00 +0000

Samsung didn't shed many details about the fingerprint scanner on its new Galaxy S5 smartphone, but I had a chance to set up and use the security feature here at the show.

Setup took just a few minutes, after swiping my finger eight times along the sensitive portion of the screen to fully read my print. You're able to register only three profiles, for your own fingers or for someone else's.First, the basics. Samsung's sensor is on the bottom portion of the screen, not integrated into the home button as I originally thought. To unlock the phone with your finger, you swipe along the glowing path about half an inch from the bottom of the phone, going down and over the home button.

The swiping area seems like it's pretty limited to a narrow, vertical strip. That means your finger has to be more or less vertical to succeed, which also means that you will probably need to hold the Galaxy S5 with one hand while unlocking it with the other. I chose my index finger.

Scanning for prints worked pretty well, but I did experience some misfires if my finger wasn't correctly aligned or if I moved too quickly. If you do error out, you can also access the phone through a 4-digit backup PIN.

Source

This app gives your Android background an amazing look

noreply@blogger.com (Wibowo_Gs) — Sat, 22 Feb 2014 03:13:00 +0000

Muzei Live Wallpaper is a free app from developer Roman Nurik. His name may sound familiar, as he is also the developer of the popular DashClock widget.

Taking the same approach that he took with DashClock, Nurik has made Muzei Live Wallpaper free and open to developers to integrate with various services.

After installing Muzei, you'll have the option to select a service from which the app will pull random images. The default option is featured art, updated once a day. You can also select a photo album on your device, and increase the frequency of your wallpaper changing, if you so desire.

Perhaps the best part about the app, beyond its price tag, is the fact that it's API for third-party developers. Meaning, if someone wanted to create a Muzei plug-in to bring Instagram photos into the service, it's possible. In fact, it's already been done.

Searching the Play Store for "Muzei" will reveal a lengthy list of plug-ins. A sample list of the more notable services includes Dropbox, Reddit, Flickr, 500px,and Tumblr.

Once installed, you can select your preferred service as the source for your home screen image and customize any further settings included in the plug-in.

Source

How to solve four common problems with your new smartphone

noreply@blogger.com (Wibowo_Gs) — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 00:19:00 +0000

For all their smarts, smartphones can be complicated animals. Or at least frustrating ones, especially if you run into some of the problems that tend to crop up among new smartphone owners.

(Note that I'm referring to both new smartphone-owners and new-smartphone owners. Hyphenation matters, people!)

Thankfully, most of these issues are easily resolved -- or if not resolved, easily worked around. Let's dive right in.

(Credit: Apple)

1. Battery life is disappointing.
It always is. Smartphones suck up a lot of juice, what with all that Facebook updating, e-mail fetching, and candy crushing -- to the point where most users are lucky to get through a full day without needing an immediate trip to the charger.

In fact, I've found that Android phones are particularly poor at power management, though that's a topic for another day. The good news is that you can tweak some settings and/or install some apps that will give your battery a much-needed boost. Check out these helpful posts:

Personally, I've found that if you drop screen brightness to around 50 percent and turn off "push" e-mail, you'll see huge improvements in battery life.

The other "fix," of course, is to pack a mobile charger, thus extending your runtime when the juice runs low. For a wallet/purse-friendly shot of emergency power, check out Kickstarter project Jumper Card. I'm also very partial to Anker's mobile chargers, like the compact but long-lasting Astro.

2. You're worried about busting your screen.

(Credit: BodyGuardz)

You should be. Every day, gravity wreaks havoc on smartphones, which is why you often see people (especially teens) walking around with cracked, spider-glass displays.

Here's the rub: A case can greatly reduce the risk of impact damage, but it also diminishes the beauty of your carefully designed phone. It also adds weight and/or bulk, more reasons many users balk at using one.

So you have a couple options. First, you don't have to settle for a boring black shell; shop around for a pretty case that accurately reflects your tastes and/or personality. Second, consider a case that adds extra value, like these iPhone cases that do more than just protect your phone.

Finally, if nothing else, apply a glass shield to your phone's screen. (Hit up Amazon or eBay for glass protectors specific to your model.) In the event of a sudden burst of gravity, the shield can help absorb some of the shock. Even if it shatters, there's a better chance the important glass underneath will remain intact.

By the way, a shattered screen doesn't necessarily mean you're stuck buying a whole new phone. It may be possible to repair it yourself (again, hit up eBay for screen-replacement kits), or you can seek out a local repair shop. I recently paid $70 to get a brand-new screen for a bustediPhone 4S. Not cheap -- but definitely cheaper than a whole new iPhone 4S.

3. You didn't get enough storage.

The Iogear MediaShair Hub provides extra storage for Android and iOS devices.

(Credit: Iogear)

At the time you bought your phone, I'm sure 8GB or 16GB seemed like more than enough space for apps, photos, music, and whatnot. But the more you use it, the more you realize there's never enough space for apps, photos, music, and whatnot.

If you're an iPhone user, tough luck -- there's no such thing as an expandable iPhone (though you're not entirely without options -- see below). Some Android phones, however, have microSD slots that afford virtually limitless expansion (in 32GB chunks, the maximum card size supported by most models). That's the easiest fix.

Many Android phones can also take advantage of USB On-the-Go (OTG), meaning external storage plugged into the Micro-USB port. This can take the form of memory cards, flash drives, or even hard drives. First, see if your device supports USB OTG, then learn how to use this kind of storage to expand seemingly unexpandable Android phones.

Of course, that doesn't help iPhone users. But thanks to a fairly new crop of products, iPhone and Android users alike can now take advantage of wireless mobile storage: hard drives and media hubs that sling media to your phone via a direct Wi-Fi connection. Check out CNET's roundup of the best Wi-Fi mobile storage devices, which doesn't include my personal favorite: the Iogear MediaShair Hub (currently around $54 on Amazon).

Another universal fix: offload things like music, photos, and videos to a service like Dropbox, thereby freeing up space on your phone while keeping those items readily available for viewing and listening. (Dropbox and similar cloud apps support streaming, though this obviously requires you to have an Internet connection.)

4. The camera takes blurry photos.

Camera+ for iOS.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

Modern smartphones incorporate respectable cameras, but users are often disappointed with the quality of their snapshots. The problem: you, most likely. Smartphone photography requires a bit more finesse than SLR or point-and-shoot photography.

For starters, remember that your phone probably lacks an optical zoom. You can zoom digitally (usually by pinching your fingers), but that simply lowers the resolution of the photo by cropping and enlarging the zoomed area. Plus, zooming makes for much wobblier snapshots, and all but guarantees blurry results.

Solution: zoom with your feet. Get as close as you can to your subject(s). And for heaven's sake, don't use the "flash" (which is really just an LED that washes out faces). If you're shooting in a low-light environment, find more light.

Source

Test your network with Chrome Connectivity Diagnostics

noreply@blogger.com (Wibowo_Gs) — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 12:34:00 +0000

When you're having network issues and can't access the Internet, isolating the problem isn't always easy. As Ghacks points out, many computer systems have networking tools available to help you figure out the issue. Tools like ping, traceroute, nslookup, and netstat, are all proven utilities that help identify network problems.

If you're not familiar with using those tools or would like a simpler all-purpose tool, Google has created a Chrome app called Chrome Connectivity Diagnostics. It contains several different networking tests with the results displayed in an easy-to-read format.

After installing Chrome Connectivity Diagnostics from the Chrome Web Store, start the app from the Chrome App Launcher to begin running the tests.

(Credit: Ed Rhee/CNET)

To display all the tests and the results, click on the gear icon and select "Show passing tests." Clicking on the individual tests will provide a brief description of the test and a link to the logs.

(Credit: Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET)

That's it. If you happen to be on a Chrome OS device, you'll also notice two additional tests: Wi-Fi signal strength and default gateway is reachable.

Source

MORE THAN WHAT YOU CAN IMAGINE

Windows 10: Nine things you need to know

1. When can I upgrade? And how much will it cost?

2. Windows 10? What happened to Windows 9?

3. I've got a desktop, and a tablet. How will that work?

4. What about apps?

5. Those full-screen "Modern" apps were a pain. Are they still around?

6. I actually liked those Modern apps, and bought a few. Are they still around?

7. And the Start menu?

8. Never mind the apps -- I need to get things done. Any improvements on that front?

9. Will Windows 10 run on my machine?

How to export your Skype contacts

Make calls with Google Voice without a Google+ account

Locked out? Get back into Windows 8 by resetting your password

Resetting the password of a Microsoft account

Removing the password of a local account

Prevent future forgotten password issues

Have operating system, will travel: How to run virtual machines from a flash drive

Things to consider

Setting up Portable VirtualBox

A beginner's guide to BitLocker, Windows' built-in encryption tool

What is BitLocker?

Who can use BitLocker

System requirements

Who should use BitLocker?

Getting ready to go crypto, Microsoft style

TPM

Recovery key and encryption

Eight tips to get you started with Windows Phone 8.1

Customize your device

Access the new voice assistant

Force-close apps

Take a screenshot

View notifications

Share your Wi-Fi networks

Avoid going over your data limit

Keep your phone's storage in check

Definitely deleted: How to guarantee your data is truly gone before recycling old PCs and drives

Mechanical hard drives vs. internal solid-state drives vs. external drives

Reset your PC With Windows 8

Wipe your drive and reinstall Windows 7

Clean external drives

Wipe free space

Check your work: Try to recover deleted files yourself

Use encryption to protect all your files

Destroy drives

Linux to the rescue! How Ubuntu can help a computer in distress

Create Ubuntu Live media

Recover files from a failing drive

Reset your Windows password

Scan for malware

Give your hard drive a check-up

Test your RAM

But wait, there's more!

How and when to upgrade to Windows Phone 8.1

Become a developer

RELATED STORIES

Buy a new phone

Wait for the update

Need to hide supersecret files on your Galaxy S5? Here's how

1.) Turn on Private mode

2.) Prove yourself

3.) Select and move files

4.) View the master list

5.) Turn it off!

What it isn't

Windows 8.1 Update tip: Clean up that disk space now

Cleaning up from the Control Panel

Translate foreign menus

Waygo (iOS)

Word Lens (iOS/Android)

Google Translate (iOS/Android)

Conclusion

Heartbleed bug: Check which sites have been patched

Meet the next-gen USB cable that could sweep away all others

15 tips and tricks for the HTC One M8

Quickly add a widget, customize layout of home screen pages

Disable BlinkFeed

Grid size

Hide bloatware