Our 1st giveaway is a bit of a test run, if you will.  It seems everyone is hooked up played First Person Shooter Games. Why not?  They have extremely broad appeal. And this first of many contests is all about connecting with gamers. Everyone loves free stuff, and there’s nothing better than paying you back for reading the site. Thanks for being awesome!

And now the Giveaway – Anker Precision Laser Mouse. This is one great looking mouse and very light in weight. You can add small weights to the mouse to adjust it’s weight.  The anchor symbol on the mouse has a light in it that can be customized to any color. How many? 16 million! and you can customize back light colors, easy to personalize your mouse. Also providing a benefit to users managing multiple profiles with different colors. Illumination can also be switched off if not required.

Specification:

• Optical Resolution: 8000DPI
• 9 Precisely-placed programmable buttons
• Product Dimensions: 127 * 79 * 43 mm
• Product Weight: 140-160g

The good stuff:

• Clean design
• Perfectly honed shape, carefully crafted to maintain comfortable play for hours.
• Accurate 8000dpi is about as good as it gets.
• Custom weight options so the mouse has the exact feel right for your hand.

This giveaway is sponsored by DragonBlogger and Anker. The Anker Precision Laser Mouse is one of the best gaming mouse  and I will be giving out a brand new one worth $60 to 1 lucky winner. To have a chance in winning this awesome gaming mouse, participate and earn entries using the PunchTab widget below. The more entries you have, the higher chance you have to win. The winner will be picked randomly. The giveaway starts on Feb 18th 2013 and ends on Mar 11th 2013, winner will be chosen and has 48 hours to claim prize or a new winner will be chosen. Note that this sweepstake is eligible for everyone.

Let the contest begin!

Please use your real identity in the submission so that we may contact you via e-mail, Twitter or Facebook to let you know that you have won.

Anker Precision Laser Mouse – Giveaway is a post from: BLOG404

Finally, the iPhone killer that I have been waiting for. That too, from the house of Blackberry That’s right. Blackberry[I was going to say RIM but then they have changed its name to BlackBerry] is back with a vengeance having  unveiled BlackBerry 10 OS along with the Z10 and Q10 phones that will run it. The question returns: iPhone or Android or Windows Phone or ‘Blackberry‘ ? Here are some facts gathered together in one, handy place. If you need to know about BlackBerry 10, this is your station.

Two BlackBerry devices were revealed. Full touch Z10 and QWERTY-touch hybrid Q10.

1. Z10: Powered by a dual-core 1.5GHz Krait processor it features a 4.2-inch touchscreen with 356ppi pixel density and 1280x768p resolution. It comes with 2GB RAM with 16GB onboard storage and support for expansion up to 32GB via microSD card. It boeasts of 8MP camera that can take 1080p videos, and a 2MP unit in the front.
2. Q10: It is also powered by a dual-core 1.5GHz Krait processor, coupled with 2GB RAM. has a 3.1-inch SuperAMOLED touchscreen with 328ppi pixel density and 720x720p resolution as well as a Qwerty keyboard. The Q10 is the first BlackBerry 10 device with a QWERTY keyboard.

What’s impressive:

• The best part - No “home” or “back” buttons on the Z10. The platform negates it. That’s innovation
• The BlackBerry World Webstore has over 70,000 apps at launch, including Skype, Whatsapp, Kindle and Angry Birds.
• BlackBerry Flow offers a truly real-time, seamless multitasking without pausing/closing apps.
• Great for multi-taskers with easy access to important apps and features. Everything is seamlessly integrated.
• Apps like Facebook, Twitter  have been completely integrated and all notifications from such applications go to the BlackBerry Hub, a nerve centre accessible with a finger swipe even if you have another application open.  No other mobile platform available today does that!
• The BlackBerry10 virtual keyboard is unlike anything I have ever seen. You can type full sentences using just one thumb. It’s amazing
• BBM Screenshare allows you to share your device screen in real time. You can share documents, pictures, web pages and more.
• BlackBerry has introduced an app called Story Maker to aggregate content such as photos and videos into one stream allowing users to create mini movies and share them on social networks.

What I didn’t like:

• No Gorilla Glass
• Blackberry won’t be licensing the BlackBerry platform to OEMs.
• Apple, Android and Windows Phone all have consumer cloud solutions readily available for their platform, BlackBerry 10 doesn’t
• Updated BlackBerry World webstore but it still looks plain compared to Google play and Apple’s App Store
• No support for Youtube and Google Drive

So what if RIM is dead? It’s Blackberry now No doubt it’s excellent out of the box features hopefully will make Blackberry back in motion. This sure is a promising phone and brings a whole new level to the world of touch phones. Also its time for BlackBerry PlayBook owners to rejoice as BlackBerry said that it is working on an update to bring BlackBerry10 to the tablet. Ultimately, in terms of capabilities and features BlackBerry10 is generations ahead of Apple, Android and Windows Phone. There’s a chance you will see people switching back to Blackberries

Watch everyone switching back to blackberries soon is a post from: BLOG404

With Windows Phone 7, Microsoft created a new user interface, featuring its design language called Metro which is now powering Windows 8 OS and Windows Phone 7.5 and 8.  However WP7 is a dead duck now while WP8 has already seen its first update. Now its time for the WP7.5 users to get a 7.8  [not 8] update. And not all devices will be getting the 7.8 update.

Mentioned below are facts you need to know for updating Windows Phone from 7.5 to 7.8

Who will get Windows Phone 7.8 update?
This upgrade will be available for most of the for existing Windows Phone 7.5 Mango users.

What’s new in 7.8 bring?
Windows Phone 7.8 will bring the new Start screen feature of Windows Phone 8 and additional theme colors. Lock screen features include the Bing picture of the day and the “‘A1B2C3’ PIN/password challenge to prevent accidental device wipes,”

When will I get Windows Phone 7.8?
Windows Phone 7.8 will start rolling out in early 2013.

Will all Windows Phone 7 phones get version 7.8?
There is no guarantee that all existing Windows Phone handsets will be upgraded to version 7.8. However Samsung  and Nokia has confirmed its devices with Windows Phone 7.5 will get the upgrade.

Can I update it to Windows Phone 8?
Nope.

Why not?
Because Windows Phone 8 is a generation shift in technology, which means that it will not run on existing hardware.

Will Windows Phone 7.8 run Windows Phone 8 apps?
Apart from Nokia confirming some apps will be available for Lumia devices the answer to this question isn’t fully clear yet.

I wonder why the hardware specs were never at a level needed to meet the demands of this WP7.5 community. However due to a very well received device I am sure users will continue receiving support and improvements and a vast majority of these users will remain pleased with this experience. The only thing which will bother is will the developers continue to develop for 7.5/7.8 or move on to WP8 and leave legacy users in the dirt ? Developers then would have to make their apps work on both

Updating Windows Phone 7.5 to 7.8 is a post from: BLOG404

Dear readers and subscribers. It’s been a while since I last posted. Well, life has been pretty busy with me for the last few months. I have been replying to mails as soon as I get time, I am sorry if I can’t get back to all of them. From this year onwards, I will be blogging without fail [because we have just survived the Mayans?]

I had like to take this opportunity to wish you a Happy and Healthy New Year 2013. I hope 2013 will fulfil all its promise, and may all your expectations be met.

Let’s get born again on the first day of January and Start with a fresh page

Whatever you do, I hope you have a fantastic 2013.

Till then, bless me with your comments.

Happy New Year 2013, Internet! is a post from: BLOG404

I don’t believe that a week has already passed since Apple gave the world its first (official) look at the iPhone 5 with the iOS6.  I remember checking leaked pics of  iPhone5 the day iPhone4S was launched with iOS5 (because i thought there would be iPhone5 after iPhone4 and the reason why I waited for iPhone5 to launch  ). The internet seems confused as there is no majority if the iPhone5 rocks or sucks. Let’s look at the features of iPhone 5 and then compare it if it rocks or sucks. Here we go…

The Good:

Taller, Thinner and Lighter

After five generations of the iPhone, Apple has finally enlarged the size of the touchscreen panel, moving from 3.5in to 4in. However Apple has kept the width the same as the earlier models, and instead just made the phone a bit taller, giving a 16:9 aspect ratio, instead of 4:3 like the iPhone4S. The 16:9 format is awesome for watching videos. The extra space means you can now see five rows of apps on the home screen instead of the previous four. Similarly on a Calender app,you can see five days of events on the screen in horizontal mode, instead of just three.

Higher screen resolution

Apple introduced a screen resolution (1,136 x 640) which helps preserve the iPhone4S’ 326ppi pixel density and its Retina display designation in order to accommodate the unusual screen panel size. However that’s still half an inch smaller than Samsung Galaxy S III and Nokia Lumia 920.

4G LTE

This was widely expected, and Apple delivered. Imagine, How many seconds will it take for Samsung to sue Apple over the 4G LTE patents?

Better camera

The “iSight” camera, stays at 8 megapixels (with the best resolution being 3,264×2,448 pixels) with a feature list that includes backside illumination, a hybrid IR filter, a five-element lens, and a f2.4 aperture.You should be able to launch photography apps up to 2.1 times faster. Finally, there’s a built-in panorama mode that stitches shots together for one large 28-megapixel photo.

Cool Earpods

The Bad

‘Faster’ Processor

You will boast anything, won’t you Apple?
Isn’t this the same thing we hear with every release?
The ‘improvement’ in battery life hardly makes a difference and any Android device lasts pretty long than iPhone.
The iPhone5 has a new A6 processor which they say is twice as fast as its predecessor’s CPU at many tasks. A6 remains a dual-core CPU and a dual-core GPU.

New smaller dock connector

There’s a new and long-anticipated smaller dock connector called “Lightning”. It’s 80 percent smaller, and since it’s reversible, both ends will be the same (that’s cool). Alas it doesn’t conform to the much more universal micro USB standard. By all means, it’s bound to annoy owners of current speaker docks, accessories, and charger/syncing cables since it will render them obsolete. That sucks!

NFC

Somehow I just knew Apple wouldn’t adopt NFC for iPhone 5. I predict they will make their own and Patent the hell out of it.

Models

The iPhone 5 is available in three capacity models, all of which will come in black and white versions. The 16GB is $199, the 32GB $299, and the 64GB $399. Now does anyone even use 8 GB of it ? They should even launch 8GB models for something like $149 and in new colors, gorgeous colors.

Conclusion:

No NFC, No wireless charging, No FM Transmitter, No DLNA, No Sharing capabilities like sending media through Wifi-Direct or just plain Bluetooth, USB OTG, new design etc etc…  Is it too late to keep pace with the rapidly iterating Android and Windows Mobile offerings? If you already owe an iPhone4 or iPhone4S then you should wait for iPhone6 and get a hang of Droid or Windows 8 Smartphones. If you never used an iPhone then you shouldn’t wait for iPhone6 because it will take some 5-6 months. iPhone5 is the right phone for you then

iPhone5 Review: Should you wait for iPhone6 ? is a post from: BLOG404

Windows 8 is almost upon us and  the recent Consumer Preview showed it’s very different to what’s gone before . I have already had a chance to try out the developer and consumer preview editions  . Here are some cool tips and tricks you need to know to jump right in and get started with Windows 8.

1. Choose Picture Password

Windows 8 allows you to create a picture password, where you choose an image, then draw on it in a combination of taps, lines and circles .This seems a more secure way which cannot be cracked by hackers and only someone who can reproduce this pattern will be able to log on.

Select Win + I > More PC Settings > Users > Create a Picture Password to give this a try.

2. Auto Login

Of course even if you remove the lock screen, you will still be forced to manually log in every time your system starts. This can be resolved at speed, though, using much the same technique as in previous versions of Windows.
Hold down the Windows key, press R.
Type netplwiz and press Enter to launch the User Accounts dialog.
Clear the “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer” box and click OK.
Enter the user name and password of the account that you’d like to be logged in automatically, click OK, restart your system and this time it should boot directly to the Start screen.

3. App Store

Along with the built-in apps , there’s the hyped Windows 8 Store  which provides games, video and music apps, photo tools and more. Lots pf popular apps are already made available like Evernote , Vimeo , WordPress , USA Todayand many more .

4. Task Manager and Management System

Ctrl-Alt-Del is still around in Windows 8 and it opens Task manager where you can switch users, lock the workstation or log out. Want to check out Windows 8’s new task management system ? Just click on the link near the bottom of the window to bring it up!
Just need Task Manager? Ctrl-Shift-Esc is a fast, convenient way to get there.

5. Customize the Home Screen

The Metro interface is designed to look like a “tablet” style screen. If there’s an app you use all the time then you don’t have to access it via the search system, of course. Pin it to the Start screen and it will be available at a click. You can easily pin and un-pin apps you don’t want with a right-click of your mouse if you have no touch screen to “down swipe.”

6. Just Type It !

Can’t find a certain app? Just begin typing at the home screen and app-related search results will pop right up.

7. Uninstall Apps Super-fast

Looking for a fast way to eradicate any Windows or third-party apps that you have installed on Windows 8 ? Just right-click on the  icon within Windows Metro UI and select “Uninstall and you will see them disappear in a jiffy. Poof!

8. Against Disaster mode

Windows 8 makes it easy to return a broken operating system to default mode unlike its previous versions and saves the efforts to re-install . Click on the General tab within the aforementioned “More PC Settings” menu.

• The “Refresh” option cleans your system of the third-party apps you have installed and returns it to factory-default settings, but it keeps your User files.
• The “Reset” option wipes your operating system clean of all your data and returns your system to Windows 8’s factory-default settings.

9. Mount ISO files in Windows 8

At long last, Windows 8 will allow you to mount and unmount ISO and VHD files — if only it let you create them, too . Need to take a closer look at an ISO file? Right-click it in Explorer, click Mount and you can view it as a virtual drive, launch the files it contains, or add more if you like.

10. Dark Horse IE 10

IE 10 is a sort of curious beast. There are two versions of this app -

1. A Metro-style constrained app providing a full-screen browsing experience that will work wonders on tablets .
2.  The other one is a traditional desktop application that looks and works much like its predecessor IE 9 and is fully extensible with third-party add-ons.

IE 10 Metro is the default .

10 SOLID reasons to Upgrade to WINDOWS 8 is a post from: BLOG404

Pinterest is the next hottest startup that lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web . Its the most talked  social network that everybody and their cat has being talking about of recent. It is basically an image sharing site where users “pin” images to “boards” (also called as Pin-Boards). If you are bored with how Images and other stuff appear on FB timeline , then we have a way out for you. You can view and use Facebook as you would see images on Pinterest .

Well, now there is an app that does that !

PinView is a FB app which displays items from your News Feed, Timeline, friends list and multimedia pages as small panels, just like your social bookmarking site Pinterest showcases images on Pinboards. Once you get that app, PinView opens up your News Feed in grid format. Buttons at the top of the page, right hand side, allow you choose to view stuff from your Timeline, friends’ profile photos, photos or videos.

How To Get Pin View .

Step 1: Navigate to https://apps.facebook.com/pinviewer/

Step 2: Click On ‘Go to App ‘.

Step3: Accept the Facebook authorization prompts.

Your Facebook NewsField will then load in a gorgeous streamline layout that will remind you of Pinterest .

You can view your Timeline, pictures, videos and friends.

Final Thoughts

This can be the best app which helps to make Facebook  easier to use , and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Do you like pinview ? Please share your opinions on comments

Convert your Facebook into a Pinterest Timeline is a post from: BLOG404

How will you manage your time schedule If your alarm clock is lost or its battery is dead , you are lazy to set alarm on mobile and you are busy surfing online ? It can be done easily from the Internet ! How easy is that and that’s where these web 2.0 virtual alarm clock apps come to rescue !

The regular clock on desktop does not ring  , but a virtual alarm clock app is something that fascinates a lot . Its best to be reminded about something at a specified time  at home and especially in office when you are about to take a short sweet nap and plug your headphones as nobody else will come to know
These apps are damn simple to operate .

• Just open a the app from browser window
• Set an alarm and don’t close it ! You can minimize it [ best option ]

Right now , you can see the list of online virtual alarm clocks available at the moment i am writing this post , i found googling . Very user-friendly and uber productive . Do check them out.

1. Music Alarm – http://www.music-alarm-clock.com/
2. Onlineclock – http://Onlineclock.net
3. Online Stopwatch – http://www.online-stopwatch.com/online-alarm-clock/
4. Online Video Clock – http://www.onlinevideoclock.com/
5. Online Alarm Clock – http://www.csgnetwork.com/timealarmclock.html
6. Klukoo – http://www.klokoo.com/
7. Kukuklok –  http://www.kukuklok.com/
8. Military Time –  http://military.onlineclock.net/
9. Onlive Clock – http://onliveclock.com/
10. Alarm Clock Server – http://www.alarmclockserver.com/

Hope you find this list useful !

List of Free Online Alarm Clock Apps is a post from: BLOG404

If you are waiting for Ubuntu 12.04 which will be available on 26th April but had no idea what a Pangolin was, then you’re in for some more as Ubuntu is ready with its next release 12.10 which will be on October of this year . Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth has announced that Ubuntu 12.10 will be known as “Quantal Quetzal”. Linux Rocks !

P for Precise and Q for? Looks like Mark Shuttleworth had to go through names to pick the best match for the upcoming Ubuntu 12.10.  The Precise Pangolin. That’s ‘P’ they used. The next letter in the alphabet is ‘Q’. So, that’s how the name comes . Wikipedia says that Quetzal is a colorful bird, and perhaps more importantly, is one of a select number of animals that begins with the letter “Q”.

According to Shuttleworth, Ubuntu 12.10 will get a major re-design… A new typography, a new look, new iconography, and much more . Most importantly, they are saying good-bye to the old boring brownish look. Something colorful and light will be used instead . So brown is out and something colourful and light is called for. Therefore , he settled with “Quantal Quetzal“. Quetzal is known to be a colorful bird which can be found in forests and woodlands (especially in humid highlands). I think he picked the colorful bird because the next Ubuntu might be “colorful” !

For your Information , then new versions of Ubuntu are issued every six months on a time-based release cycle. Each major update has an alliterative animal codename and a version number that signifies the month and year of its release. The codenames have followed alphabetical order since the launch of Dapper Drake in 2006.

Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal is scheduled to launch on October 18th. But testers can usually get their hands on pre-release builds much earlier. Ubuntu 12.10 will be no different. The first alpha release is scheduled for June 7th.

The tentative schedule for the rest of the pre-release builds is:

• Jun 28th – Alpha 2
• Aug 3rd – Alpha 3
• Sept 6th – Beta 1
• Sept 27th – Beta 2

This might just be beginning of New Ubuntu 12.10, but version 12.04, or “Precise Pangolin,” is due on Thursday. Stay tuned for more updates .

Ubuntu 12.10 named ‘Quantal Quetzal’ on its way is a post from: BLOG404

Cloud is the next hot thing and yes , Cloud War is on ! The evergreen lovable Dropbox gets more competitors namely Google’s Google Drive , Microsoft’s SkyDrive and  Apple’s iCloud . There are a dozen more of these kinda services but these 4 are the most prestigious and most powerful in this Cloud era . Lets see what features are provided by them and which one’s you should be choosing …

1] Google Drive

Google announced its long-awaited Google Drive cloud storage service  , providing users with 5GB of free storage integrated with Pure Google Docs and other Google services.The launch of Google Drive comes as several other cloud storage services have extended their services in recent days.  Drive features a built-in document editor on par with Microsoft’s online Office suite that’s part of SkyDrive. You can’t yet use Drive with multiple Google accounts which are the only cons .

Google Drive
5GB free
25GB for $2.49/month
100GB for $4.99/month
200GB for $9.99/month

2] Microsoft’s SkyDrive

SkyDrive is to Microsoft what Drive is to Google .It started by offering 7GB of free storage . Just like Google DOcs , you can use SkyDrive to edit and sync Office documents created using OneNote and other Microsoft Office products like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on the go for free within your browser [Not restricted to IE ]. If your sharing PC is turned on, you can access all your files using SkyDrive’s “Fetch” feature . Also you can share public links, view-only private links, and view/edit private links. The only thing worse is that there’s no sharing yet from the Mac  and you can’t download items for offline viewing on all mobile platforms.  Pricing: 45GB for $10/year; 75GB for $25/year; 125GB for $50/year.

SkyDrive
7GB free
45GB for $10/yr
75GB for $25/yr
125GB for $50/yr

3] Apple’s iCLoud

iCloud is the soul of Apple fanboys having more than one Apple devices – iPhone , iPad , iPod , iMac because of the feature  to sync data into a cloud storage It had replaced Apple’s MobileMe service which was acting as a data syncing center for email, contacts, calendars, bookmarks, notes, to-do lists, and other data and as of 2012, the service has over 100 million users !  iCloud is one of the elementary  document-syncing solution and still it’s the simplest one to use. To use iCloud , you need a device with iOS 5 or a MAC with OS X Lion 10.7.2 and that;s the only limiting factor of this service .

iCloud
5GB free
10GB for $20/yr
20GB for $40/yr
50GB for $100/yr

4] Dropbox

Dropbox is the most famous and easy go-to solution for syncing files across multiple devices . That’s what makes it super-awesome ! It’s user-friendly and with a couple clicks you can share files and it offers lotsa settings for you to mess up. Dropbox recently launched a new feature that makes it easier for non-Dropbox people to use files stored in the cloud. Using the new collaboration feature, Dropbox subscribers now can send a Web link connecting the files or folders in the account to non-Dropbox receivers using the service’s desktop, Web or mobile application. Any kind of data can be opened and viewed immediately without having to sign in .

DropBox
2GB free
50GB $9.99/mo
100GB $19.99/mo

Which comes out on top? Only you and your storage needs can say for sure …

Google Drive VS SkyDrive VS DropBox VS iCloud is a post from: BLOG404