Tech With Ric

Tethering Your Tablet: How to Stop Wasting Your Money

Guest Poster — Tue, 14 May 2013 04:31:57 +0000

“Do you want to add a data plan to that?”

It’s a question everyone buying a tablet has to face at checkout. On the surface, purchasing an independent data plan for a tablet certainly doesn’t seem like a bad idea. With a monthly subscription to a service provider like Verizon or AT&T, you’ll be able to use your tablet anywhere, anytime. However, what the sales associate isn’t telling you is that if you own a smart phone, you already can use your tablet anywhere, anytime – and you don’t need pay an extra $130 for the tablet and $30 a month to do it. It’s called tethering, and it’s something every tablet owner should know how to do.

Tethering is a feature most smart phones have, but many smart phone owners aren’t aware of. It essentially turns your phone into a mobile hotspot, allowing Wi-Fi devices such as your laptop and your spanking new Android tablet or iPad to connect to the Internet. The data you use while tethered is deducted from your phone’s data plan so it’s not a good idea to keep your tablet constantly connected, but in the rare instance where you can’t find Wi-Fi, tethering is a neat little trick that can get you online for much less than a monthly data plan. Here’s how you can do it for your tablet.

Step One: The Phone

Before you can connect to the Internet on your tablet, you need to activate your phone’s tethering feature. This process varies depending on what mobile OS you’re using, so here’s a guide on how to activate tethering on some of the most popular types of smart phones.

iPhone. If you’re using an iPhone, you’ll want to tap on Settings, then General and then Cellular. Tap Personal Hotspot and then toggle the switch to the “On” position. This will activate your phone’s hotspot and provide you with a password you can use to connect devices to your network.
Android. Tethering used to be easy with the Android OS, but then wireless carriers got wise and now some phones have the feature locked out. However, this is easy enough to bypass. You just need to download a free tethering app like Fox-Fi or Elixir 2. Once the app is downloaded, open it up and turn on the hotspot feature and you’ll be good to go.
BlackBerry. The new Blackberry OS 10 is pretty awesome, but activating the mobile hotspot feature can get pretty complex for users who aren’t familiar with the system. To go live, you’ll need to first swipe left to access More Apps. Then tap Settings, Network Connections, Mobile Hotspot, and Next in that order.

A pop-up will tell you that charges may apply – touch Next. Another pop-up will ask you to Monitor Hotspot Users – touch Next. You’ll then get a message about preserving your battery – touch Next. Finally, you’ll be asked to review the Inactivity timer – Next through this as well. After that’s done, touch Password. Enter a password for your network and touch Next again. Touch Configure then Name to set a name for your network. Finally, touch Save and your hotspot will be active. Sound confusing? Here’s a screen-by-screen guide that should help.

Windows Mobile. To turn your Windows Mobile phone into a hotspot, first touch Settings. Then hit System and Internet Sharing. Turn sharing “On” and then set a name and password for your connection under Broadcast Name and Password. This should make your phone active. Microsoft only allows data sharing with certain carriers, so unfortunately this trick will only work if your service provider is supported.

Step 2: The Tablet

Once your phone is activated as a hotspot, tethering your tablet should be easy. You simply need to open up your tablet’s Wi-Fi menu, find the hotspot you just created and enter your password to connect. This process is virtually the same on every type of tablet, but if you’re really, really unfamiliar with technology, here’s a breakdown of what to do.

iPad. Tap Settings, then Wi-Fi. Toggle the Wi-Fi function “On.” Tap the name of the network you created, and then enter the password.
Android. Open the Settings app. Touch Wireless & Networks and then Wi-Fi Settings. Tap Wi-Fi to turn the function on and then touch the network you created and enter the password.
Windows Surface. Slide your finger from the right edge of the screen toward the center to bring up the Settings menu. Tap the Wireless Available icon – it looks like a staircase with a star – and then tap the network you created. Hit Connect and then enter the password and you’ll be online.
Amazon Kindle. Yes, even your dolled-up e-reader can be tethered. Press the Home button, then Menu. Touch Settings and then hit View next to “Wi-Fi Settings” to bring up a list of active networks. Click your phone’s hotspot, enter the password and then hit Connect.

Step 3: The Carriers and Charges

A few years ago, tethering used to be free for any device that supported it. Unfortunately, this all changed when the nation’s service providers realized they were missing out on a chance to make a buck. Now, many wireless carriers have started adding terms, conditions and fees for tethering. Consequently, it’s a good idea to develop a working knowledge of how your service provider handles tethering before you try to activate a hotspot. Here’s what you can expect from your carrier.

Verizon Wireless. Thanks to a recent lawsuit with the FCC, Verizon Wireless subscribers with the Share Everything plan can tether their tablets to their Android, Blackberry and iPhones for free using the phones’ built-in hotspot feature or a third-party app. The data is drawn from your Share Everything pool. If you happen to overuse your data allowance by downloading a movie or something similar, you’ll be charged $15 for each gigabyte you go over.

If you don’t have a Share Everything plan yet and are on an old usage-based plan, you can still tether for free on Android phones using third-party apps. However, if you use your phone’s built-in hotspot feature Verizon will charge you $20 for a month’s worth of unlimited tethering.

AT&T. If you use AT&T’s new Mobile Share plan, you can tether all of your devices – including Windows Mobile phones – for free. The data used while tethered comes out of your shared pool. If you go over your monthly allowance, you’ll be charged $15 for each extra gigabyte that you use.

If you have an older, usage-based plan, you’ll be charged an extra $20 a month to tether any device, whether you’re using an app or not. On the bright side, this fee also provides you with an extra 2GB of data for the month.

Sprint. Sprint is the only service provider that still offers unlimited data to smart phone users. That’s great, but the bad news is that you can’t use this unlimited data to tether your tablet to your phone. If you want to make your phone a hotspot, you’ll need to add an additional tethering plan to your contract. You have two options here – you can either pay $19.99 a month for 2GB of tethering data or you can pay $49.99 a month for six gigabytes. This applies for any and all Sprint phone plans currently in service.
T-Mobile. As part of T-Mobile’s new Unlimited Plan, subscribers will receive unlimited data and will also be able to use 500mb of tethered data for free each month. An additional 2.5GB of tethering data can be purchased for an extra $30 a month. Anyone with a T-Mobile Classic Plan will be able to add unlimited data and 2.5GB of tethering for an additional $40 a month.

Tethering Your Tablet: Probably a Good Idea

It’s true that carrier restrictions over the past few years have collared tethering significantly. However, this little trick still has its uses, especially if you’re buying a tablet. If you’re one of the millions of Americans using a new “Shared” plan for your phone, you can save a bundle of money by purchasing a Wi-Fi tablet instead of paying the upcharge for a carrier-supported device and the data plan that comes along with it. So when that clerk asks you if you want to upgrade to a data planned device, tell them “No thanks, I can already get it for free.”

About the Author:
Bio: Rob Stachowski is a featured blogger at TechBreach.net. He has mastered the art of resetting a router and it’s rumored he can even program a VCR without looking at the manual. He currently lives in Massachusetts.

Posted at : Tethering Your Tablet: How to Stop Wasting Your Money

3 SMS Apps to Replace Default Android Messaging App

Richie Sajan — Wed, 01 May 2013 06:41:02 +0000

Android with all its wonderfulness and customization provides a very powerful platform for everyone – right from a novice to a seasoned programmer. The ability to customize and optimize just about anything in Android is just so superb (Read custom ROMS!) This ability also allows any Android user, with the right privileges, to replace just about anything in Android with something better. Here’s a look at 3 replacements to the default Android messaging app. SMS has been a very popular form of messaging, that is until the rise of free-over-data network apps like Whatsapp Messenger. However there are still people who rely on SMS especially when data networks go down or their plans run out of juice.

The main problem of the default app is that its pretty slow especially on slower and older devices and the older the Android version the worse the messaging app is. I personally have rarely used the default app, always going in for an alternative.

There are tons of free Android apps available to replace the default messaging app. However here is my personal pick of 3 apps, that I’d personally recommend any day.

Also Read: Speed Up your Android

My list goes as:

GO SMS Pro

GO SMS has got to be the most famous messaging app and pretty well known to any user who has been dabbling in the Android app section for some time. The USP of this app is the loads and loads of customization. Right from the chat bubbles to the pop-up that appears with the message, everything can be customized.

GO SMS Pro Screenshot

Additionally a lot of extra features like Go Chat, Go Chat for FaceBook, online locker, encryption and what not, are included in this package. The downside to this is that the app has slowed down considerably from its past version (bloatware anyone?) although a lite mode that disables most of these features is available.

Download: Google Play Store
Messaging Metro Beta

For those who can’t take the onslaught of features GO SMS offers ,especially what I consider personally, a lot of bloatware, here’s a new, lightweight and super fast SMS client: Messaging Metro Beta. As the name suggests its a messaging app that mimics the metro theme of the Windows Phone OS and does quite a splendid job at it.

Messaging Metro Beta Screenshot

The premium version does offer more features. But at just 586 KB its a very useful bargain for someone who may have a slower phone.
Download: Google Play Store
SMS Popup

Well this is not a complete SMS app as such. It still does use the default messaging app for managing and archiving the messages, but for new messages are displayed in a pop-up that can be used for quick reply right off the home screen. The below screenshot should give a clearer idea.

SMS popup screenshot

This does provide a rather easy way to text.
Download: Google Play Store

Here are my picks. I’ve personally used all 3 and would recommend it without any doubts. Got something better? Do comment on.

Posted at : 3 SMS Apps to Replace Default Android Messaging App

Now Google+ comments to your blogger’s site

Rejo Raju — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 10:37:36 +0000

After facebook, letting user to use the commenting widget of facebook on one’s site, its now Google+ who have turned on this feature for blogger platform.

This new feature is pretty cool because of the integration of blogger with google+ which means if there is public google+ discussion about one of your blog entries, those comments and reply will also appear in your blogger blog. You can see this live by visiting any of the Google’s official blog site. For an instance see this

Additionally post can also be shared with comment to your Google+ timeline, so if someone comments on your post, their follower may also discover the post. Making it more engaging with readers, all in one place. And if you don’t want to share the post to Google+ then just uncheck the tick mark before hitting the share button.

The new comment widget looks neat. By default it will sort the comment by popularity the other option is ‘Newer First’. The comment system does not allow for the nested comment beyond first level.

Since blogger and google+ are services of Google company so it becomes easier for one to integrate the commenting system to their site without the need of putting or inserting code. Here is how you can enable the comment to blogger.

Go to Google+ tab of your blogger dashboard and tick the option ‘Use google+ comment on this blog’

Currently this feature is available only to Blogger platform. In the long run google will likely want to use this to compete with facebook comments.

Posted at : Now Google+ comments to your blogger’s site

[Review] What Makes Nokia Lumia 920 Worthy

Guest Poster — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 04:09:06 +0000

With the advancement of the popular brands and the companies, one of the punier firms of the cellar company having the motto of “Connecting People” has newly launched Nokia Lumia 920 in the year 2012. The model had a tremendous response in the terms of acceptability and the likeness by the consumers. Here are few of the review facts that make Nokia Lumia 920 popular among all the potential buyers.

Design and the style

Nokia is one of the largest firms that have the best technology to stand first in the row. It has a great command over the designs of the cell phones, similarly that can be well depicted in there Nokia Lumia 920 model. It is made up of plastic with the curved screen that makes it bit ahead of the previous Nokia Lumia. Other than the screen the rest of the body texture is kept leveled having the buttons smoothly adjusted in the place where they needs o be fitted in for the convenience and ease of the users. It gives the cell phone elegant texture and the finest feel to the premium quality of the plastic that has been used for the manufacturing of this hot model. The best part in this model is that the color doesn’t scratch as there was in the precious sets of Nokia. This advance designed and framed cell makes it magnificent and appealing among the loyal clients.

Weight:

As far as the weight of this impressive cell phone is concerned it is light to be carried anywhere in the hands, it is the real hand phone that proves the statement of being handy. It is 185g, this 4.5inches. It has the excellent camera that gives the crystal clear image of the snap shots taken. It has Width dimensions of 130.3 x 70.8 x 10.7 mm, that makes it slim and easy o hold. This gives slippery and the soothing effect to the user who hold this classical cell.

Windows:

The cell phone has the amazing style and the synchronization as compared to the previous one, the buttons are well adjusted and in an orderly manner. This cell phone used windows 8 as the interface and the software. That is itself too easy and user friendly to be used. It can be customized as per the requirements, you can pin those windows on the front screen that are mostly used by you.

It has easily accessible buttons for the increase or decrease of the volume that is located on the downright edge of the cell phone. The power and camera buttons are under the screen are touching sensitive buttons for Back, Start, and Search.

Few of the special features are:

Internal 32 GB storage, 1 GB RAMS
DATA, Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots), 32 – 48 kbps
EDGE is Up to 236.8 kbps
Speed is HSDPA, 42.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps; LTE, Cat3, 50 Mbps UL, 100 Mbps DL
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot
Bluetooth 3.1 with A2DP, EDR
USB micro USB v2.0
CAMERA – Primary 8 MP, 3264 x 2448 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, optical image stabilization, autofocus, dual-LED flash, check quality
Chipset Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon
CPU-Dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait
GPU- Adreno 225
7GB free SkyDrive storage
MP3/WAV/eAAC+/WMA player
MP4/H.264/H.263/WMV player
BATTERY Stand-by Up to 400 h (2G) / Up to 400 h (3G)

These were few of the features that make Nokia Lumia 920 compatible with rest of the brands and the previous models.

About the author:
Albert Barkley is author of this article. He is writing articles for AmeriCord. AmeriCord is producing high quality electrical cord. They are also making computer power cords of every size.

Posted at : [Review] What Makes Nokia Lumia 920 Worthy

Manage your Google data after death with “Inactive Account Manager”

Rejo Raju — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 12:43:16 +0000

We might have thought once on taking action to our online data after death, this sounds obtuse but Google has implemented a tool which will control your action on all google services as per the option selected.

This service has 3 option that will perform action to your google services.

Timeout period.
Notify contacts and share data.
Optionally delete account.

1. Timeout period: Over here, You can set your timeout period, after which your account will be called as inactive. This start with your last signed in activity on Google. You can set up this for 3, 6, 9 or 12 months.

2. Notify contacts and share data: This will let you add up to 10 contacts who will be notified that your account is inactive for the specified period of time.

Add contacts with whom you will like to share data like mails, google drive files, contact, photos, videos and so.

You can also set your auto response mode, through which a message will be passed on if any messages are received.

3. Optionally delete your account and services: Once all above work is done by google, they can delete your account and services if permitted.

You can do this setup by visiting www.google.com/setting

So go ahead and plan your digital afterlife in a way that protects your privacy and security.

P.s. Don’t forget to hit Enable button on your setting page after doing the complete setup

Posted at : Manage your Google data after death with “Inactive Account Manager”

Send mails from different email-account using gmail

Rejo Raju — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 12:16:57 +0000

Gmail has an ability to send mails from multiple email accounts with user having more than one email addresses, letting user to send mails from the same account using a different email address.

This preferences gives user to handle multiple account easily without the pain of opening other email address. Lets see how is this workable.

Go to setting of your gmail account and click on Account and Import section

Now from the Send email as option select “Add another email address”

Specify the email address that you will like the messages to be sent from and click on Next step

On next step you can configure the SMTP server if you like or other you can leave it to gmail to handle it, i’d recommend to select first option i.e. Send through Gmail for easier setup. After selecting the option hit Next step.

Click on send verification button, this will authorize the user and you will get the verification code by logging in to provided email address earlier.

Provide the code to complete adding another email address to your account or other you can activate this by clicking on the link which is given on email message. The link will be sent to same mail address to which you agreed to send your verification code.

Once you are done, hit Verify button to complete the process.

Now draft your message and from the drop down arrow in the From field choose the email address that you want the mail to be sent from.

So keep enjoying accessing of multiple email address from the same account.

Posted at : Send mails from different email-account using gmail

10 SEO tips for Web Masters

Guest Poster — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 06:24:11 +0000

Do you have an excellent website with quality content? Do you have a very good product which you are selling online through your website? Do you have a quality blog which speaks about important issues? All this would be rendered useless if your site do not feature in the coveted front page of Google search.Search Engine Optimisation is both the boon and bane of today’s online marketing. Some websites are ranked higher than the others on Google search results. What is the factor that determines this sequence? Google has formulated various algorithms which value the content of each site and measure its relevance to a given search criteria. It has more than 200 variables against which it evaluates a site.SEO geeks try to exploit these variables and give their sites a higher ranking.

So how do you ensure your site tops the search results? Here are a few SEO tips which might aid you achieve it.

1. Quality content Nothing can substitute quality content. Have a rich content which is relevant to the key word and the Google spider will definitely like your site. Professionally written high quality content is always given primary importance by search engines over the years and is definitely not going to change in the future too.

2. Link Building Backlinks is the second most important aspect in Search Engine Optimisation. Backlinks are the links placed in other sites which directs traffic to your site. The search engines give huge weightage to the number of back links a site has. But having back links just for the sake of rankings might be detrimental. Make sure the back link building is contextual.

3. Use Image Alt Attributes Having Java drop down menus or image links is a useful way to get the attention of the search engines. But do make sure you have some text links for the search engine spiders to follow. And also ensure the image alt attributes are comprehensive, as they would be considered by Google, to value the relevancy of the image to the search criteria. It is also vital for the site’s ranking in image based queries (For instance: Google Images).

4.Title Tag Have a keyword focussed and unique title tag on each page of your site. Use your business name in the tag only if you want to as unless you are a very famous brand, people are not going to search your company name.

5. Keyword Phrases Focus on keyword phrases instead of standalone keywords. Like if your site is about holiday packages don’t just stress on the word“holiday packages” instead you can stress on “affordable holiday packages” or “holiday packages in Caribbean”.

6. Design Of the Site Make sure your website designer understands the importance of SEO and do not construct your site before both of you are very clear as to the goal of your site. You can build a flashy website with lot of images and visual treats but a search engine spider understands only text. If you are going to redo your site after failing in the search engine rankings it is going to cost you a lot of money and time. So design a site that is search engine friendly right from the scratch.

7. Do not Overstuff Keywords
Don’t ever over stuff the keywords as search engines are looking for a natural flow of the content. With the advent of Google Panda and Penguin one has to be more careful in creating content and make it more relevant and interesting. If the keyword count is too much and if it appears to be artificially over used then it might go against you.

8. Navigation Friendly Site Design a site which is easy to navigate, as this is one of the main criterion search engines look for.Particularly, making use of flash navigation would be danger if you do not know how to make them web-crawler friendly.

9. Block certain unwanted pages There could be some pages which do not add any value to your website content. Like for instance, pages which may still be in test phase when you are constructing a new site. It is better to block those pages to the web robots as there is a danger of it diluting the real content’s relevancy to the search phrase.

10. Link only reputed sites Make sure you link to and get links from quality sites. Having your link placed in a spam site will be very detrimental to your rankings.

The Key to SEO success is patience. There are a lot of websites out there competing for the top 10 spots and you have to get a lot of little things right to stay at the top. But the key mantra is keep updating your content and make sure they remain relevant.

About the author:
This is a guest post by Mark Bennett of Onlinecomcast.com, a site that offers savings and current information on comcast cable and internet deals. More info are available.

Posted at : 10 SEO tips for Web Masters

Galaxy S4 – First Teaser Video

Richie Sajan — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 16:29:12 +0000

As the whole world gears up for the launch of the next flagship model from Samsung, the Galaxy S4, the folks over there have started teasing us with subtle videos. Here a la Pulp Fiction-esque video,with what I personally feel would be a very irritating child, presents a teaser to the March 14 event.

I’m sure waiting for this. Are you?

Posted at : Galaxy S4 – First Teaser Video

4 Fast Browsers for Android

Richie Sajan — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 15:45:26 +0000

One of the most measured parameter when a new phone appears on the market, is the performance of its web-browser. While each Android version has released a revamped browser in each upgrade, its often the third-party apps that come up trumps. Here’s a look at 4 browsers I personally used and like and yeah, they are fast (especially for 2G).

Chrome Browser

How fitting is it? The fastest browser on desktop is also way fast on Android devices too. Chrome browser, from Google is super fast and does lead the competition by quite a distance. Its biggest plus point is loading complete desktop based sites in the same time duration, that other browsers take to load the mobile version. And yeah, it does support flash.

The only weak point I personally found is that it only supports devices having Android 4.0 onwards.

Download: Chrome Browser

Opera Mini

The worlds most famous mobile browser is next on my list. Of course with Opera Mini, there is no need for introduction. The slick transitions and ease to select text are some of the best features supported across various devices and platforms too.

Not much to say about minuses. But if you poke me, I’m a little bored of the mono-red design. We need more!

Download: Opera Mini

UCBrowser

Many may be suspicious of UCBrowser. Especially since it does have a lot of Chinese characters. But I do enjoy the desktop like download features it provides, especially the resume download support.

As for its cons, its updates aren’t very proper. On my device it hasn’t ever updated automatically. And when I head over to download it, it shows ‘link not found’. Strange!

Download: UCBrowser

Naked Browser

Not its not what you think! Its actually a stripped down version of popular browsers (that’s why ‘naked’, get it?) It loads pretty damn fast and smooth and is very light on resources.

The designing may not be to many peoples liking, but hey, you win some, you lose some.

Download: Naked Browser

Whats your thought on this?

Posted at : 4 Fast Browsers for Android

How VFX is Added to a Video

Richie Sajan — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 04:28:45 +0000

Visual Effects or commonly known as VFX or Computer Graphics are added in plenty to videos these days. The epic ocean in Titanic, the whole of Pandora in Avatar and most of the movie Life of Pi are some awesome examples of how VFX enhance the whole video experience. Small time publishers also use this, with the availability of softwares like Adobe After Effects. Here’s a small example of how the video is shot without VFX initially and how it turns out once it is done processing.

The video created here is a small sneak peak of the short film Wanted created by TheFigmentFilms. The VFX are courtesy of The Effects Forge. Enjoy!

Posted at : How VFX is Added to a Video

The benefits of Microsoft’s Surface over the iPad

Richie Sajan — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 15:34:32 +0000

With Microsoft announcing the launch of Windows 8 at the end of October, many were also expecting some official announcements of Microsoft’s long awaited tablet Surface, the device that promises to overtake Apples iPad.

Although this is going to be the first time Microsoft releases a touch-screen tablet the question is will it be capable to dethrone Apples iPad. The most award winning and best-selling tablet on the market for over 5 years now?

Tech specialists believe Microsoft has been keeping notes of the iPad’s disadvantages and will equip the Surface with some specifications a user would expect from today’s technology and compile it in a tablet. A market price of the Surface has not been revealed, but we will definitely be viewers of a battle between the two devices, and below are some specifications and advantages of the Surface over the iPad.

Cover becoming a keyboard: Not everyone has become used to typing on a touch screen tablet, especially tablet starters. It is difficult leaving behind the traditional keyboard and trying to focus on a touch key without the realistic feel of a button on your fingers. For this reason Microsoft supplies the surface with an innovation Idea. A protective covet that is connected to the tablet and once opened it automatically transforms into a keyboard.

Different types of Surface releases: The Microsoft Surface will be released in two versions. The First version will be a simple and more basic version appropriate for kids and starters. It will include Windows RT. The second version will include the Windows 8 OS, It will be loaded with better chipsets, It will be more expensive but suitable for users that demand more.

Integrated Stand: Both Versions of Surface will include a built-in stand that will bring the tablet in an angle of 60 degrees in standing position helpful for the view of videos of a slideshow. Surface will also include two cameras. One in the Background and One in the foreground and with the stand positioning it will focus exactly on the users face helping within communications.

Digital Stylus and Digital “ink” A lot of extreme rumours have been heard over the past months of Microsoft’s digital pen, but the reality will have the new tablet equipped with an innovating stylus, giving the user the ability to write or highlight text. It will be so realistic that the user will feel like the pen is actually real.

Office versions on Surface Both Surface devices will include MS Office, the RT version will include a lighter version and the Windows 8 version will include the full package.

Built in USB Ports People over the past years are still expecting the inclusion of at least one USB port on the iPad. Microsoft on the other side will include 2 USB ports in both the Surface devices released, giving the ability to any user to connect an external USB drive for storage or Backups.

Additional tech specifications Although Microsoft’s tablet is very promising there are some key points that the iPad has that will work as a magnet gaining more buyers, such as the portability with the iPad being 24g lighter than the Surface. The battery life per each charge is another win for the iPad with an average of 10-12 hours usage and 7-8 hours for the Surface. The Screen quality and the retina display on the iPad will also play a role when choosing between the two.

As a summary we could say that Microsoft’s Surface is related to a more PC-User who is looking to run heavier software with external accessories such as a keyboard and is not having portability on mind, compared to a well-designed highly portable user friendly iPad Tablets released over the years have challenged the iPad and failed. We will have to see if Microsoft can change this

Author Bio:

John is an IT Professional, a blog owner and author and enjoys writing useful information of the latest technology news on simplelize.com

Posted at : The benefits of Microsoft’s Surface over the iPad

4 Unique Ways to Make Your Blog Go Viral

Guest Poster — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 10:00:53 +0000

Getting something to go viral is the holy grail of marketers who use social media as a tool in their marketing campaigns. Blogs are one of the greatest weapons in the arsenal of a social media marketer. By its nature, they are great for generating back links and improving your site’s search engine rankings. Getting the blog to go viral is a totally different ball game. It is markedly easier for an image or a video to go viral. There are things that you can do to increase the chances of your blog going viral.

1 – Be Absurd

Making something go viral depends a lot on playing to the irrationality inherent in the way we use the Internet. For instance, we love to watch videos of funny animals. There are ways to tap this irrationality. The first thing you can try is to be unconventional. Usually, this could mean a slightly absurd or off-kilter title that piques the interest. Use of over the top adjectives combined with an interesting theme can really draw improve the chance of your blog going viral.

2 -Be controversial

Use comparative articles on your blog. Writing articles that pit one item or service against another are a great way to increase the chances of your blog going viral. Further, these articles are genuinely useful for people when they are on the lookout for making a purchase. This increases the chance of the article being shared.

Creating articles that are slightly controversial, yet which are well written and published at the right time can make any blog go viral. Granted, a WordPress post may not get this kind of attention. But a WordPress post that is picked up by a more popular website such as a news portal can go a long way in improving the number of hits for your website.

3 – Be helpful

Another very effective way to get a blog to go viral is to create articles that offer detailed solutions for practical problems. The key is in choosing a question that a large cross section of people are interested in and formulating a well researched and well written post addressing the question. The issue addressed could be as simple how to make a simple shelf from materials available at a normal hardware store. As long as the question is answered well, the ranking of the page will improve.

4 – Be Socially Aware

A great technique to use for making a blog go viral is news jacking. The technique works by identifying the latest trends in the web and connecting them to a topic of interest in your industry. So if you are a cookie manufacturer, you can tie in news of the Olympics to your cookie shop to increase the chances of your blog going viral. Try to connect the latest news with visually appealing infographics to catch the reader’s attention. Yes, this does require some skills with Photoshop, but picking up these skills can be the key to getting your post to go viral. Using infographics is the best way to showcase interesting data that you have come across.

About the Author:
This article has been brought to you by www.buyatt.com – the world’s fastest and most reliable global network. at&t Uverse, as well as att.com services.

Posted at : 4 Unique Ways to Make Your Blog Go Viral

Microsoft Wedge Mouse – Cutest of Them All

Guest Poster — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 16:39:54 +0000

Microsoft is doing all that it can to come out with these tasty little tidbits that distinguish it from others in the industry — remember the Surface tablet that comes through with a keyboard built into it?

Well, now Microsoft has released the Wedge Touch Mouse, which is so cute you will want to use it at once, and the Wedge Mobile Keyboard to go with it as well. There is also the Sculpt Touch Mouse and the Sculpt Mobile Keyboard, which are slightly different from the Wedges, but we have to applaud how we like the way Microsoft is thinking – to make the tablet experience so much more easy and comfortable for users – and for a lot of users this may just make the difference between buying one over the other. Whether other tablet makers will follow soon on Microsoft’s heels, and whether this affects the sales of Microsoft tablets altogether, remains to be seen – especially since critics are skeptical of Microsoft having released the gadgets before the Windows 8 tablets.

Now to the specifics. The Wedge is designed specifically for tablet use – the mouse is tiny enough to fit into your pocket and is optical so can be used across many surfaces, keeping in mind that you may be using your tablet wherever you may be. It has a four-way touch scrolling capabilities and navigates well enough, and the Wedge keyboard can be transformed into a tablet stand which goes with the idea of being meant primarily for tablet use.
The Sculpt on the other hand is so lightweight that you may forget it is keyboard. Ergonomically constructed, it can be used with other devices as well, especially since it is a little larger. The mouse allows you to swipe left and right, and also has a four-way touch navigation system like the Wedge.

The reason these sweet little machines have been released already should not be forgotten of course. When Microsoft releases its new operating system, it hopes to move it around the market with these hardware already in place. These teaser products are only a kind of build up toward the opening of the Windows 8 which should occur fairly soon which goes to show – unlike what some may think – that Microsoft is not restricting itself to hardware but is basing itself on creating an entire environment within the industry.

While this is true however, one wonders if the price would justify the gadgets in the end. Mice and keyboards that are meant for tablets have been around since the time tablets have been around – and what people really want to know is whether these new ones are significantly different from those around. The short answer is no. But the long answer is yes; they’re different inasmuch they are designed keeping Microsoft tablets in mind, which is what they will work best with. You can go to several shortcuts with the mice which will work beautifully on the Windows 8, but compromise on other tablets, which means that if you invest in these, Microsoft hopes you will in Windows 8 too. But the Wedge mouse would be about $70, the keyboard around $80, and the Sculpt around $50. It may not be what users want to spend, and something Microsoft ought to think about.

About the author:
This is a guest post by Ron Schiff of xfinityonline, a site that offers savings and current information xfinity tv, as well as xfinity.com services.

Posted at : Microsoft Wedge Mouse – Cutest of Them All

How To Find Who Unfriends You Or Decline Your Friend Request

Kiran Shinde — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 14:51:25 +0000

We all use Facebook daily. Sending friend requests to our friends especially. But there are some people who didn’t accept our friend request. Also some others unfriend us from their friend-list. So here I have a solution to see who unfriends us or declines our friend request. While surfing on internet I found this script which is working perfectly in all browsers.

How This Script Works :

This is a realtime script. A local database keeps the records of our friend list and compared at each refresh. It enables a menu named Unfriends that let us know the persons that are previously your friend but now removed you. This script works on all browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera etc..

Steps :

Step 1 : Download Unfriend Finder Script as per your browser.

Step 2 : If you have Google Chrome Browser it will directly download on you browser just after clicking on Add button when a dialog box prompts.

But if you use Mozilla Firefox you have to download Greasemonkey Addon in your browser

That’ it.

After Installation of script Unfriends menu will be created near Home menu. And you can find who unfriends you and decline your friend request.

Enjoy it.

Posted at : How To Find Who Unfriends You Or Decline Your Friend Request

WordPress for Android is Awesome !

Richie Sajan — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 07:36:13 +0000

Just take a wild guess from where I am posting this article? From a boring lecture! Just installed WordPress for Android and having such a good time.

This app supports pretty much everything that you can do on your desktop browser. It also supports your self-hostes wordpress blog as well as blogs hosted on wordpress.com. Here are some screenshots:

Home screen

And here’s the post page:

Do try it out. And enjoy!

Posted at : WordPress for Android is Awesome !

Links for 2010-06-28 [Digg]

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:00:00 PDT

Now You Can Send Emails In Your Handwriting...For Real !
Wow, sending e-letters to your friends and relatives in your own handwriting would really appeal to many people.