We have gathered together a listing of exams to make sure you are buying a real Chinese carbon bike, preventing any avoidable crashes and keeping you cycling happy!

Remember, now not all Chinese carbon bike producers are counterfeit, however it is essential to be capable to recognize the difference for your own safety.

# Why you shouldn’t purchase counterfeit frames
Although the frame may seem to be the real deal and be a lot cheaper than the original, they are genuinely some thing to avoid! Counterfeit frames are more probable to crack or even shatter, in particular all through a high have an effect on crash. Unlike genuine carbon fiber frames, counterfeit frames cannot take as an awful lot impact, with even the smallest of crashes to be life-threatening.

Here you can study this thorough take a look at from Velonews, they evaluation a real Specialized frame and a counterfeit one. You might also have a deeper thought that why you shouldn’t purchase these frames,

# Chinese carbon bike take a look at standard
In order to take a look at Chinese carbon fiber bikes, we have gathered together many specific assessments to ensure you are capable to perceive a authentic carbon fiber bike from a counterfeit.

Stiffness
In order to check the stiffness of a counterfeit Chinese carbon fiber bike, Microbac carried out numerous tests. One of these tests consisted of loading each the frame and the fork with 300 kilos of exterior force through the seat post. These effects have been measured in terms of compression. Microbac concluded the counterfeit cycle to be over 11% less stiff than the proper carbon fiber cycle.

Tensile strength
Tests performed by using velo news the use of a tarmac branded bike printed that the authentic tarmac branded bike was once engineered to ride on the toughest terrains whereas the counterfeit mannequin used to be truely designed to seem like the brand itself. Therefore, the tensile power of the counterfeit was much, lots weaker and truely marked as dangerous.

Quality manage standard
When searching at a carbon fiber cycle, it is important to determine the nice of the bike. Look for stiffness in the frame, tensile strength, weight of the frame and any unusual markings of paintwork which might also provide the sign closer to being counterfeit.

# Bike paint job
Looking at the paint job of a cycle can often be a simple way of identifying a counterfeit bike. Often, the paint jobs are not remotely comparable or of much decrease quality. In some cases, counterfeit manufacturers have even used completely distinctive colors, making it that little bit easier to spot.

# Frame geometry
One key distinction between a authentic carbon fiber cycle and a counterfeit is certainly the body geometry, especially the size of the frame. Measuring up an proper body in opposition to a counterfeit will frequently see a distinction between sizes, most usually being the counterfeit being a whole lot smaller.

# Carbon Bike weight
With many unique factors making up a bike, it can be hard to perceive what is actual and what is fake. The weight of carbon fiber bikes need to be light, mainly if the majority of the components are actual carbon fiber. Counterfeit carbon fiber cycles will often be plenty heavier, as the substances used may also not even be carbon fiber, simply disguised as it.

Frame weight
Counterfeit carbon fiber body typically weighs significantly greater than real carbon fiber. This is due to low-quality headsets and seat collars, often developed out of much cheaper, much less long lasting and heavier materials.

Meanwhile, if you choose to pick a Chinese carbon frame, you can additionally evaluate the weight with extraordinary sellers. Of course it could be heavier than top brands like Trek, Specialized, Cervevo or other brands, however preserve in mind suggestions as below:

Aerodynamic frames are heavier than superlight frame
Disc brake frames are a little heavier than ordinary rim brake frames.
Always ask yourself, what’s the motive of your riding? Climbing? Speedy?
Find the proper bike body size. Some cyclists select to select a smaller dimension to get a lighter bike, however incorrect size bike may additionally damage you in lengthy time period way.
Rim weight
Carbon fiber rims are in particular designed to withstand additional force placed via the rider for the duration of difficult climbs and descents while managing excessive speeds and sharp corners. Counterfeit brands are hazardous as the rims may also be unable to withstand the pressure furnished through the bike, resulting in a horrible and potentially deadly crash.

Components weight
When searching at the man or woman elements in which make up a carbon fiber bike, the whole weight should be a good deal much less than that of counterfeit parts. Counterfeit parts are frequently an awful lot heavier due to the non-carbon fiber being used, these materials are a lot greater hazardous and not well worth your money. When buying a Chinese carbon fiber bike online, be sure to take a look at the weight classification of the bike in the specifications section, observed through matching this up to the company and or cycle to test the authenticity.

# Chinese carbon wheels
It is a common truth that the wheels on any cycle need to be robust enough to withstand the pressure positioned thru the bike. Counterfeit wheels are a recipe for disaster. Below we will go into further detail into what to seem to be for, permitting you to pick out the distinction between appropriate carbon fiber and counterfeit, dangerous materials.

Chinese Carbon Rims
When it comes to rims, as lengthy as they are made of genuine carbon fiber and assembled efficiently you must have nothing to worry about. The first-rate of the rims ought to be tested and felt whilst riding, with low-quality rims handy to spot.

Hub
The hub of a counterfeit cycle will often be heavier. Ensure to check the hub shell as nicely as axles and bearings to be geared up correctly, therefore, stopping any future crashes and improving your security on the road. A inaccurate hub may end result in spokes no longer fitting into region with the doable for them to snap, increasing the probabilities of you taking a tumble as well as destructive your bike.

Spare parts
In terms of spare parts, ensure these are of high-quality. There is nothing worse than breaking down whilst ill-prepared, in no way idea breaking down with counterfeit materials which may additionally be even greater risky than before. Check spares such as inner tubes for any punctures or faulty marks alongside brakes and device kits so they all work in conjunction.

Wheel Assemble
The assembly of the carbon wheels is imperative to the safety of the cycle. In terms of searching for a counterfeit based on the carbon wheels, one issue to seem for are any unusual markings, terrible assembly or distinction in weight between actual carbon wheels.

# The FAQ of Chinese Carbon bike
- How to purchase Chinese wholesales bike online?
There are a few famous B2B/B2C wholesale platform in China which you ought to find masses of Chinese suppliers/trading companies. Like Alibaba, AliExpress, DHgate and so on. If you prefer to purchase bikes in bulk order, you can check our guide for buying Chinese wholesale bikes.

- Where are Specialized bikes made
Most of the Specialized bikes are made in Taiwan and China, whilst their headquarter in USA is focused on R&D, checking out and so on. There is nothing incorrect about the fact that most of the pinnacle brands (like Trek, Specialized, Giant, and so on) are made in China.

The reality why human beings don’t have confidence “General” manufacturers made in China, is that without desirable take a look at and excellent control, they could promote at an implausible low fee without a fine guarantee.

You can additionally take a look at more unique answers from Quora.

-  DHgate carbon fiber bikes
Our suggestion is that you shouldn’t buy your carbon bike elements (frame, rim, handlebar, and components) from DHgate.

As a producer in China, we recognize the hints that human beings are enjoying on DHgate. DHgate is the platform imparting the lowest rate you can ever imagine.

Think twice about the price: Do you sincerely consider a USD300 body ought to be proper and safe to ride? If you don’t have sufficient budget for a carbon frame, you shouldn’t buy. Try an aluminum body as a substitute or go to Decathlon.

- Aliexpress carbon fiber bikes
The fact is you can find sensible carbon bikes on Aliexpress. Most of carbon bike manufacturers are selling on Aliexpress (The Top 3 Aliexpress markets are Russian, France and Brazil)

Before buying your carbon bike factors on Aliexpress, keep these pointers on hand:

Always check the guarantee policy, specifically about the return and refund part
Read critiques carefully, particularly ONE STAR reviews
The shipping method. You need to pay Customs tax and perhaps VAT in your own united states of america if you pick out EMS( which is more cost effective but takes 15-20 days to supply generally).
Check their bundle small print (Will the frame been packed carefully to keep away from unfavourable or scratching for the duration of delivery?)
Don’t ask for a huge discount, or you will acquire the bike with “discount” quality. USD20 would possibly be nothing for you, but it’s a 1-day salary for a Chinese worker. Be respectful of hand-made products.

- eBay carbon fiber bikes
The simple truth of carbon bikes on eBay is, they are retailers from Aliexpress. The difference is as below

> You pay more on eBay for the same products
> You get extra rights if you receive low-quality products
> You may additionally discover some good first-class 2nd hand bikes at a reasonable price.

Our recommendation is, if solely you desire to purchase 2n-hand branded bikes, check them on eBay is a proper option.

- Amazon carbon fiber bikes
Similar to eBay, there is a huge danger you will locate the identical seller from Aliexpress. But it’s now not a exact alternative to choose Chinese carbon bikes on Amazon.

Why?

The reply is simply, Amazon expenses greater fee prices from sellers, and they offer a hundred percent assurance for buyers, that’s why no longer so many carbon bikes dealers on Amazon. Admit that all human beings are equal when you meet these clients who simply prefer a carbon bike barring paying the money, you will no longer have faith Amazon.

Now over to you

Did you buy any carbon bike components from Aliexpress?

How do you assume about Chinese carbon fiber bike?

Or you can also choose to buy from Amazon

Either way, let us be aware of your experiences on Chinese bikes by way of commenting below.

Thankfully, it brings some very welcome updates, such as a slimmer and lighter chassis, optimised battery administration and tweaked onboard features.

Before we delve into the details, workable consumers have to know a issue or two about the special flavours the Fenix 6 is available in. It comes in a number of skews: There’s the popular Fenix 6 mannequin which has a 47mm case and prices from £599. Then beneath this is the slightly extra compact 6S that touts a 42mm case and slightly decrease battery life. There’s additionally a Pro version of these models available, which adds track compatibility, maps and Wi-Fi connectivity. Finally, there’s the greater powerful 6X which has a barely higher battery alongside music, Wi-Fi, maps as standard.

And if cash is no object, there’s the 6X Pro Solar version; the model which boasts a splendid mild all-titanium physique and brand new Solar panels for an extra improve in battery life.

For the previous month, we’ve been using the Fenix 6 the Pro Sapphire edition, which sits on the upper-middle stop of the vary and has get right of entry to to the most important features, alongside a plenty tougher, scratch-resistant sapphire crystal screen.

DESIGN: A TEENY BIT LESS BULKY

If you’re definitely unfamiliar with the Fenix range, there’s no doubt you’re conscious it’s no longer aimed at the equal kind of humans that would buy an Apple Watch, for example. And absolutely now not some thing you’d favor to wear to a dinner birthday celebration with a tux or fantastic frock.

The Fenix sequence was once as an alternative designed to be strong and withstand the harsh factors of the first-rate outdoors - it’s intended to get muddy, bashed around, plunged underneath water and live on intense temperatures. And the Fenix 6 is the satisfactory Garmin has ever produced for doing so.

It’s by no capacity sleek or rather - it possibly even appears a little enormous for those with slender wrists. But sooner or later - if you use it the way it’s meant - you’ll come to love it for this very reason.

If you’re wondering “what’s new?” well, you’ll likely no longer even observe the sketch updates in the Fenix 6 over its predecessor the 5S Plus. Changes are minimal and will solely make a big distinction to those who personal one a plenty older device.

The Fenix 6 boasts the identical clunky layout that the sequence is nicely regarded for but there has been a few tweaks made. For starters, it’s still 1.1mm slimmer, measuring 14.7mm thick, which is down from 15.8mm. Alright, this isn’t quite slimmer on the wrist but it does sense slightly lighter – weighing 7g less than remaining year’s equivalent model. This is a much welcome improvement for such a chunky smartwatch. Unlike Garmin’s extra consumer-friendly smartwatch, the Vivoactive three Music, the Fenix 6 is controlled completely using buttons rather of a touchscreen, which is purposely designed so it can be better operated in moist and windy environments, in particular underwater.

It additionally capacity you can count on it to final a hell of a lot longer between charges. In phrases of operation, button control works well, eradicating any unintended instructions that might occur with clumsy thumbs.

SCREEN: BIGGER, BRIGHTER, BETTER

The biggest design improve is all about the Fenix 6 screen. The show is now 17 percent larger than that considered on the 5 Plus, leaping from a 1.2in, 240×240 decision show to a larger 1.3in, 260×260 offering.

It may now not sound like a lot, but it does make a difference; text is displayed plenty cleaner with fewer visible pixels. It also capacity that data is slightly simpler to see than before - showing more facts fields. For instance, round the trendy watch face you’ll be in a position to match eight of your current pastime measurements over the preceding six meaning you can actually glance at the statistics you desire to see without having to scroll thru infinite menus.

Again, there’s purposely no contact compatibility, which the Fenix would in all likelihood in no way combine due to the motive of this watch being a serious outdoors activity tracker. If you’re acquainted with Garmin devices, you’ll understand that display brightness can be an difficulty due to there being no backlit AMOLED screen as viewed on many different devices. Instead, the firm makes use of a transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP) screen, which depends on external lights to illuminate when in properly lit conditionals, and an LED mild backlight (in genuine ‘90s Casio watch style) when not. This works an absolute dream on the Fenix 6. In the midday sun of a hike up the Alps, for instance, the show used to be illuminated perfectly with all records such as heart fee and elevation information being proven in crystal clear detail.

FRESH FEATURES: EVERYTHING BUT THE KITCHEN SINK

Before we even touch on some of the countless abilities of the Fenix 6, we should start with a disclaimer: there is no way you can take a look at all the functionality in a multi-sport smartwatch like this in the time we’ve had it.

There’s extra layers to this issue than an onion. However, we have tested a wonderful deal and are nevertheless playing discovering and getting to know extra by the day. This is the beauty of such a complicated device like the Fenix 6 and does really justify its hefty charge point.

Regardless, we’ll speak about some of our favourites to make this as straight-forward as possible.

One of the most high-quality updates is to the Fenix 6’s coronary heart charge sensor. Previously, you had to buy an extra chest strap to song your coronary heart charge while swimming. However, Garmin have managed to tweak the sensor so it can now measure coronary heart price underwater. There’s no real way of checking out how well this works unless you evaluate the coronary heart rate tracking recorded by means of the watch and then put on a seperate watch at the identical time related to chest monitor, which we didn’t have, however it does seem to work the equal way underwater as it does out.

As with different high-end Garmin watches such as the Forerunner line-up – the Fenix 6 comes integrated with a pulse oximeter, branded by using Garmin as ‘Pulse Ox4’. This approves customers to see how well their body is absorbing oxygen. There’s also stress tracking, incident detection, which sends an automatic SMS and e-mail with your title and GPS place to your emergency contacts, and the new Elevate HR sensor, which uses Garmin’s personal proprietary optical-based coronary heart rate sensor technology. Great for these who consider relaxation time just as essential as the recreation itself, Garmin’s Recovery tools are – of course - present on the Fenix 6, working in the identical way as they did on the Fenix 5 Plus, to assist rest and help prevent injury.

This works through constantly tracking your heart and giving you an average resting coronary heart rate (RHR) for the week. This is specifically available for spotting an irregular elevation in RHR, which would be a correct sign you have to in all likelihood chill out for a bit. As with the Apple Watch four and Apple Watch 5, there’s additionally an peculiar heart fee undertaking alert - another sign you’re likely overdoing it.

ACTIVITY TRACKING: NO NONSENSE

As for sports activities tracking, the equal multitude of activities are handy as you’ll assume from a system like this, from the extra preferred running, swimming and cycling to the extra surprising SUP, skiing and yoga. Everything we examined worked exceedingly well, even when doing indoor workout routines such as an F45 fitness class.

Tracking cardio for the duration of this high depth exercise proved a fantastic experience (not that we may want to completely respect this during, mind). We appreciated that the Fenix 6 doesn’t experience too heavy or cumbersome on the wrists whilst jumping onto boxes or swinging kettlebells, and due to the placement of the buttons we weren’t in a great deal risk of by accident altering any settings or monitoring choices for the duration of a heavy workout.

Altitude data by means of the trekking monitoring feature, for example, regarded to work a treat, too. We took the Fenix 6 on a hike in the Alps, simply outdoor the village of Courmayeur. We tracked an predicted 50-minute slog to a restaurant on the top of a large hill recognised as Refuge Elena. At the cease of the session, outcomes got here returned at 44 minutes with a recorded maximum elevation of 2,063 metres, which was pretty spot on as the Refuge’s records factor stated it stands at an altitude of 2,062 meters.

Using GPS was a doddle, activating nearly instantly after hitting the begin undertaking monitoring button, with a “GPS connected” message popping up after a few seconds.

SOFTWARE AND PERFORMANCE: ENDLESS BATTERY LIFE (KIND OF)

The Fenix 6 doesn’t convey any drastically new software program features over the previous mannequin but as a substitute a range of tweaks and changes which all go toward a much greater intuitive interface.

One of the biggest adjustments is the fresh arrangement of Widgets. They’ve now been grouped into extra digestible chunks, which you can access via hitting the Up button on the domestic screen so you’re no longer overwhelmed by way of statistics and you can discover matters easier.

There’s a big center of attention on electricity administration and battery transparency in the Fenix 6, too, so that customers can higher understand how lengthy the watch will ultimate earlier than needing a re-juice. Instead of offering a final battery percent number, the smartwatch now displays the remaining usage in time. For instance, if there is 10 percentage of the battery left, it will display this in days or hours. The great bit? This will alternate in real-time, depending on how you use the watch, lowering the last time if you’re stressful more from the battery.

Garmin claims you need to get 14 days of use out of the Fenix 6 when in regular smartwatch mode earlier than it needs a recharge. We determined this to be extra or much less accurate, however it’s hard to precise measure it, as it truely relies upon on what you do. For instance, using the watch’s GPS performance continually on – say – an extremely marathon, complete battery lifestyles will plummet down to a predicted 36 hours. However, we haven’t been doing a whole lot continuous running you can extend this to 28 days if it’s put in day trip GPS pastime mode or even a whopping 48 days in the new battery saver mode.

As for charging – that’s distinctly fast, too, taking less than three hours to fill the battery from definitely flat.

APP AND SMARTWATCH FEATURES: EVERYTHING YOU’D EXPECT…AND MORE

As with most smartwatches, all the well-deserved sweat is calculated and then saved by statistics within a companion application, in this case, the Garmin Connect app. Anyone aware of what this app appeared like a few years in the past will know how a ways it has come in terms of appearance and usability; it’s a lot more polished these days, and a lot less complicated to use, thank goodness.

It logs running, biking and swimming stats, your heart-rate diagram for the closing four hours, latest notifications and the weather all in one lovely summarised welcome screen, with the accompanying data laid out coherently in blocks, making it very intuitive.

When reviewing a workout, you’ll be introduced with three rings representing time, distance, and calories burned, alongside with tempo and elevation facts under and a map of your route at the bottom (if GPS used to be used throughout). From here, you can have an even closer seem to be into your stats (such as VO2 max insights) if you favor a real deep dive, but these are solely presented to you if swipe throughout to them, making sure you’re not overwhelmed with data. With assist for notifications, vibrate indicators and step counts as well, the Fenix 6 also gives you the foundations of a greater lifestyle smartwatch whilst concentrating more on the serious fitness side of things.

FENIX 6 VERDICT

The Fenix 6 has to be one of the first-rate smartwatches on the market today. Sure, it doesn’t seem to be as smooth as the Apple Watch, but that’s now not the notion here.

Anyone who is truly into their fitness will more than admire the infinite aspects that Fenix 6 has to provide and how it’s able to deal with the whole thing you throw at it – now with higher electricity selections and person interface that make it a great deal simpler to use. It is, besides a doubt, the fine health smartwatch money can buy.

It’s simply a exquisite shame you want a lot of it to get one. But ought to you buy one? Well, if you already own a Fenix 5 or later, it’s probable no longer really worth the upgrade. Nevertheless, these who don’t already have a devoted smartwatch and are getting extra serious about fitness and searching to improve their smartwatch recreation can’t go incorrect with Garmin’s trendy release.

1. Steal Ideas

2. Make lists and Keep it organized
You have to make lists all the time, every day, everywhere. Use board, or stickers on your home or office door. It is not a bad thing. Just keep everything listed. It will keep you organized and prepared.

Chaos is bad, so keep you organized.

3. Keep going forward
No matter what happens, no matter a failure, disappointment, a new opportunity will come up – start searching for it immediately.

4. Confident
Speak up about your weak sides or the things that they actually can’t or don’t like to do. This will help you to believe in your straight points and fill you with courage.

5. Training
Constant improvement of knowledge is must. Make sure you get training for everything. Besides the standard forms of training, you have to believe in mentors, and you know that there is always someone smarter than you. Then you try to join forces with this person.

6. Blog
You have to blog and you have to coach as much as you want overachieving. You have to express you words on blog and you should not be afraid of judgment.

7. Healthy
Exercise! You want to live in a world where everyone exercises and eats well, including yourself.

8. Start
You have to start things, and not necessarily finish them. You need to enjoy trying yourself on every field.

9. Risk
Take risks all the time. You should be often stepping out of your comfort zone in the name of achievement. With time, the risk will become comfort zone.

10. Love you
Loving yourself is part of becoming successful. Then someone compliment you you say “I know” instead of “thank you”.

11. Lack trust
You never let someone’s lie ruin your achievements. You know that you worked so hard to come so far and you will never let anyone else stand in the way or ruin that.

12. Help
You have to believe that in life, as much as you give, you will get double the size back. You even help other people become overachievers.

13. Stress
Become comfortable with stress, you need to have this all the time. Find a way to bear with it.

14. Achieving
You have to be addicted to you goals and achievements. You achieve all the time, no matter how big or how important things, you just achieve.

If you accept to settle, you will start feeling useless and meaningless. So – become overachiever!

Open Chrome (install if you are not using it) and load apple.com on your browser. Then you must change UserAgent string to use the UserAgent string of Firefox on Windows so Chrome will pretend it’s Firefox running on Windows.

To change UserAgent of Chrome, open Menu > Tools > Developer Tools. Click on the Gear icon at the bottom-right corner and select UserAgent checkbox. Choose Firefox for Windows.

Thats it. Now the video will be loaded in your browser (I’m using Ubuntu so the QuickTime plugin is installed by default). If the online player is stucking, right click on the video and play it with the movie player.

The long awaited operating system Windows 8 has finally arrived with mind-blowing features. Many have started exploring it on different medias including laptops, tablets, smartphones and others. It is designed to meet the needs of customers in many areas like speed, touch screen capabilities, multi-device access and others. The new operating system is packed with some groundbreaking advancements, which make it unique and special. I am sure that you have plenty to explore, and let’s take a look at the business benefits of using Windows 8.

UEFI vs BIOS
New computers bearing the logo of Windows 8 will require UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) to boost up the performance. UEFI replaces the outdated BIOS (Basic Input Output System) that has served its maximum. It’s time we give retirement to BIOS and use the modern interface to improve the booting experience. You will experience faster boot times within 8 seconds from switching on the power button in the latest OS. On top of this, you can enjoy less restarts, which saves a considerable amount of time while upgrading and installing software.

UEFI is built-in with safeguards which saves the IT team at crucial times. What does it do? “Secure Boot” blocks unauthorized OS from loading and the anti-malware “Early Launch” saves your PC against loader attacks. UEFI does not put a block on remote diagnostics and repair that is done within the same environment. A physical technician is not required to restore the machine.

Windows Applications in Tablets
Blackberry and other iOS device have adopted the full windows experience. The similar kind of support is expected from the x86 based tablets and tablet-laptop hybrids. These will come with the new Start screen in Metro Style along with the Windows applications. Metro style apps and MS Office 2013 can be found in both desktops and mobile devices. This will make the task easier for IT employees to work on network management and infrastructure. However, keep in mind that these benefits can be enjoyed only on x86 tablets which is loaded with ARM processor.

Ability to carry the Workstation
The new feature “Windows To Go” in Windows 8 OS will allow you to install a new image or an existing image into a 32 GB or more USB drive or any other portable drive. This can be booted from another PC. This might seem similar to the Linux distributions, however, this feature might work in Vista and Windows XP apart from Windows 7 machines.
This feature is of great use to temporary contractors and telecommuters. The reason being, they perfectly fit the environment which is loaded with settings, files, apps and others. They might need an additional drive in their pockets to boot from any other PC. This is more efficient when compared to carrying a separate device wherever you go. “Windows To Go” acts as a backup for corrupt machines and this can be protected using tools like SCCM, Active Directory and BitLocker. These encrpt the data and prevent the data from being stolen.

Connection Process
Windows 8 OS is featured with several latest network authentication software’s in addition to the EAP authentication option.
• WISPr protocol allows you to switch form one Wi-Fi hot spot to another despite their difference in ISP. This is similar to how mobile phones work.
• EAP-SIM, EAP- AKA Prime and EAP- AKA protocols provides authentication when connecting to 3G or 4G networks.
• EAP-TTLS protocol makes sure that a third-party client is not required in a PC while authenticating these protocols.

Reinstalling Windows
The recovery options Reset and Refresh comes handy when a PC gets corrupted or infected, ready for reuse or disposal. These options can be initiated from the Settings app or from the USB drive.
Reset clears all the data and then starts reinstalling. This procedure makes the computer fresh like how it was when it was purchased. Now, don’t think that this procedure will consume more time. It takes anywhere from 10 to 25 minutes based on whether the option is enabled or disabled.

Refresh maintains all the style apps, important settings, personal data and then does the reinstall. This task can be completed in less than 10 minutes despite the amount of data backed up. If you have done the image backup, Refresh will restore the image.

I have covered most of the important features that will benefit your business. These are not all, there are plenty of small enhancements which simplifies many tasks. You can learn about them in the near future. Windows 87 does seem strong for business purposes. What do you have to say?

Robin Mckenzie has been writing articles related to Technology News, Gadget Reviews and How To’s and does guest posting for Buycenturylink, a site that offers great savings and up-to-date information on consumers broadband internet and cable. With service from Centurylink, you get top-speed internet, excellent value, and award-winning security.

Here are 5 great reasons why smart business owners use Ubuntu for their small and home based offices.

Reason #1: Simple and Great Performance

If you have never tried Ubuntu or another Linux OS, it is time you took a look at it, especially the interface. It does away with features that typically have no value for businesses, and that makes it light for people who want just the minimum and nothing more. However, that does not mean it has fewer features. The fact is, Ubuntu is customizable to your liking, by removing features not normally required for business operations. Anyone can download a copy of Linux and adapt it to their requirement.

Reason #2: Freedom from Viruses, Trojan and Malware

Competing operating systems like Windows and Apple to considerable limit are all plagued by viruses, Trojan and malware. To keep computers and data safe, businesses spend considerable sum on antivirus and firewalls. With Ubuntu on computers, the risk of contracting virus or malware is eliminated to a large extent. This means substantial savings on buying and installing software, and time lost in maintaining equipments. Users can also take advantage of the built in antivirus-like software in the OS. This alone is enough reason for businesses to switch to Ubuntu Linux.

Reason #3: Compatible with Software Developed for Other OS

It is commonly believed that applications and software developed for Windows and Apple may not fit into Ubuntu Linux. However, the fact is that it is not so in all instant. Many of the software that runs on Windows and Apple’s Mac perform well in Linux as well, though it might not be so universally. But little do businesses have to worry over it, because there is already a vast collection of applications specifically made for Linux cutting across different genre.

The fact that Linux is open source helps developers come up with new software at half the normal price of Windows and Mac applications. So businesses can use it for saving money.

Reason #4: Frequent Updates and Great Support at No Cost

Linux is not owned by anyone, and source codes are free to distribute. Developers around the world work on improving the OS, debugging it and fixing lapses. That means unlike other OS developers, there isn’t a waiting period for updates. They are more frequent and of the best quality. Then there is also a huge community of users who can advise users on virtually any issues pertaining to Linux. Most help is usually available in forums and in the official website of Linux. Businesses can use the sources and save considerably. What makes Linux unique is that it is free.

Reason #5: Light Weight & Easy to Use

Ubuntu Linux is light weight, consumes less space on the hard disk and requires less of RAM. As a result it is faster and easier to accomplish most tasks. But to say Ubuntu Linux is better than featured products like Windows or Apple’s Mac OS may be doing injustice to these products. They have features that are not available in Linux, but you shouldn’t mind considering that at least 90% of users rarely touch upon even a fraction of all features available in any software.

This guest post is brought to you by Sandy Coops of cabletimenc.com, a site that offers savings and current information on Cable Time NC.

This increased the number of users TweetDeck had and many more people started using it when it was introduced for different platforms like Android, iOS, and so on. As they were supporting TweetDeck for all these platforms, they have also been developing new ways of improving it. Now Twitter is withdrawing support for TweetDeck. They are developing a new app that is going to be integrated with Chrome. They informed us about this as early as October 2012 and now they are withdrawing support for TweetDeck as announced earlier.

Twitter said in an announcement that they are focused on developing an app that will integrate with most of the modern browsers and have many helpful features. The new feature rich app will include search features, auto-complete tool, and a feature that updates your Twitter stream automatically so that the most recent Tweets stay on the top, and so on. It will also have a new look and feel besides having an option to notify you when you have a new Tweet to read or when someone mentions you. Though these are being developed, the TweetDeck team still has positions to be filled and they are hiring.

The withdrawal of support for TweetDeck app for mobile doesn’t mean that the team has gone completely idle. They are still active and in fact they are hiring more people for the development of the new app that will integrate with the modern browsers. Twitter has also announced that users might experience service outage even before the date mentioned because they are testing the new API. This is nothing to worry about because we are just going to get a new app which has better capabilities than the app that is currently being used.

The list of apps that are going to be retired includes TweetDeck AIR, TweetDeck for iPhone and TweetDeck for Android. It’s a high time Twitter users start using some other app in order to avoid the consequences from the outages that Twitter told might affect users. Therefore, many people have already started using other apps temporarily until Twitter brings the new app to us. People don’t have to say their goodbyes to TweetDeck since it is going to send another app with better features and capabilities that will help them manage their Twitter account even better. Twitter has also said that these apps will be withdrawn from their respective stores from May. Till then we can use it and from May we will have to use a new app until Twitter launches their new app.

Author Bio:
Carlene loves to write about technology stuffs in any field. She has been a writer/blogger for four years and currently working for Internet Bundles – http://www.internetbundledeals.com, where you can find great offers and details on verizon internet.

With one app, though, you can easily get around that. For simple PDF to Word conversions, take a look at Able2Doc PDF to Word, a new mobile app released by PDF converter solutions company, Investintech.com, Inc.

Key Features of Able2Doc PDF to Word
With Able2Doc PDF to Word you can convert hard to edit PDF files to MS Word right from your Android and iOS devices. The app works for tablets or smartphones, and is free to download. Here’s a closer look.

1. User-Friendly Interface
The user interface is designed to work seamlessly on mobile devices and touch screens. To convert PDFs to Word you won’t even need to open the app.
1. Locate your file (this could be in your email, SD card, or default file manager)
2. Long press or tap on the PDF. Then choose to open it with Able2Doc.

Thus, what is normally thought of as a tedious process is now scaled down to 2 taps—the same amount of effort it takes to access a text message.

2. Lightweight and Small in Size
This mobile PDF to DOC converter is quick, lightweight and doesn’t tie up your device’s resources. File conversions are done on the company’s servers, not on your device. This means that the file conversion is managed properly and carried out efficiently then sent back to you.

3. Accurate Conversions
Just because you’re converting PDFs on your mobile device, doesn’t mean that you can’t get quality results. Your PDF files are converted with the same advanced conversion technology that powers the original Able2Doc desktop version.

4. Centralized File List
The file list is where you’ll find your converted docs and it’s also the place where you can share and interact with them. If you’re constantly losing track of where you store your files, Able2Doc’s centralized file list will be your favourite feature.
From here, you can perform the most common tasks. Tap on the Share button to select from a list of sharing services. Or simply tap on the file itself and you can edit it in your default word processing app.

5. Security Guaranteed
Also, there’s no need to worry about the confidential PDF files you just converted. PDF files are kept on Investintech.com’s servers for only 24 hours. After that they’re deleted permanently. You can convert PDFs risk-free. For added security, you can also manually delete them from the File list once you’re done with it.

As working on the go becomes more common, the apps on your device will mean the difference between getting the job done and struggling to get it done. It goes without saying that Able2Doc PDF to Word is geared towards the former.

Got last minute edits to do? Ready to convert? You can find the PDF to Word app for free on the Investintech.com site along with help guides and resources. The apps can also be downloaded directly from the Google Play Store and iTunes App Store.

Design

The One SV from HTC is designed with smart and unique looks. When you look at it from the front, you might mistake looking at an iPhone. The black slim plastic trims that are placed around the glass of the display have given this phone an iPhone look. The back panel of the phone is claded in white with silver linings. It is made fully of plastic and manages to sport the trendy look. Much work has been put in to design the holes of the speaker. The phone looks good with the 4.3 inch screen and snuggles into the palms of your hands. The buttons on the screen are within your thumbs reach, which is an advantage.

Key Features

• Android Ice Cream Sandwich Operating System and a 1.2 dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor
• 1GB RAM with 8GB of storage facility
• An autofocus 5MP camera with geo tagging, face detection and LED flash. Videos can be recorded at 1080/720 pixels with a stereo sound at 30fps. A front facing 1.6MP camera perfect for video chat
• Wi-Fi, GPS and NFC connectivity
• LTE network and HSDPA support
• Bluetooth, FM radio, micro USB port and micro SD card slot

Camera

The 5mega pixel camera at the back panel performs well for a mid-range phone. The camera acts quickly and frames can be captured at the right moment by just tapping on the touchscreen controls. You also have the flexibility to click pictures and capture videos at the same time by pressing both the buttons simultaneously. When you keep pressing on the shutter release, you can take 60 shots continuously at the rate of 4fps.

Pictures when shot at closer levels look very impressive. Good looking videos can be shot using the HTC One SV phone with much ease.

Battery Life and Phone Connection

Calls can be heard clearly in all kind of climatic situations. Calls from this phone can be made via 2G, 3G or 4G networks. It is a known fact that the performance of the LTE network will change based on the locations. So far, the network is limited to the dense populated areas of large cities.

The battery life of the phone seems to be reasonable as the specifications do not eat up much of the battery power. However, if you happen to use the LTE network frequently there might be slight fluctuations in the life of battery. HTC claims that the phone can withstand 8 hours of talk time. When the phone was checked with multiple apps turned on like auto photo uploads, media streaming, web browsing, GPS, Twitter, Facebook and local playback, it was able to withstand battery for a considerable amount of time. On the other hand, if the mobile hotspot is turned on, you can most likely witness your phone exhausting at a quicker rate.

Conclusion

HTC One SV has been launched at the right time when 4G connection is all rage in the world. HTC is most likely going to win the hearts of people who like to have their hands on the latest technology. This mid range handset is expected to go good in the market owing to its reasonable price of about $349. The Taiwanese company will have to wait a little longer to judge the exact results. If you are looking to experience 4G connection on a budget phone, HTC One SV is your choice.

This is a guest post by Sharon Thomas of thecornersuite.com – a site that offers savings and current information on dish network satellite internet, as well as dish.com services.

Since Mac OS is a UNIX system, Linux distributions usually work pretty well. However, the Mac platform is exclusive in that all boot processes take place using Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) in combination with GUID Partition Table (GPT). Hence, an EFI boot loader such as rEFIt, has to be used as the “master” boot loader, which will supply a boot menu to select operating systems situated on the different parts.

In order to boot Linux on Mac OS X one will need the following software:

• An Intel Mac running OS X 10.5 “Leopard” or an advanced version currently.
• A copy of Ubuntu Linux on CD.
• An EFI boot loader – the rEFIt.

After having acquired the above software on can proceed with the following:

• The rEFIt boot manager will automatically detect operating systems on any attached partitions. So it needs to be set up first. While installing rEFIt, click the “Advanced” button on the final dialog and choose to set up the boot loader (GRUB) to the root Ubuntu partition. This will allow one to chainload from the rEFIt menu to GRUB. Reboot the system.
• Next Mac’s hard drive should be partitioned. While one can format the new partition correctly in ext3 for Linux in Boot Camp, free space can be created in Disk Utility. Create the partitions for Linux and switch the partitions before installing Linux. The partition for Ubuntu should have a space of at least 20 Gb. While installing Ubuntu, ensure that the boot loader is also installed in the same partition as the Linux. Also ensure that there is no overwriting on the OS X partition.
• After the installation has been completed and the account has been set up, a notification that “restricted” drivers are present and software that you can install will come up. According to Ubuntu, “restricted,” means that though the drivers will work they are not open source. To get upgraded drivers for camera, wireless card, Ethernet adapter, etc. all the software should be installed.
• Next visit the Ubuntu Software Center and download and update the system software. When all of the drivers are installed the operating system is ready to start working.

Finally one should let rEFIt fix the partition tables by rebooting and restarting the Mac. To find the data on Linux while you are on Mac, you can utilize fuse-ext2, which should help solve the access problem from one partition to another.

This guest post has been brought to you by Robin Mckenzie of Centurylink, a site that offers savings and current information on consumers’ broadband internet and cable.

The camera comes in the typical Canon packing, nothing fancy like the Leica M9 or the Fujifilm X100. It fits perfectly with the other EOSs in design and the button positions are pretty much retained. All the control features that were introduced in the flagship products are available and this comes as a surprise. The power switch is built into the mode selector and the LCD on the top right gives you all the details about the current settings. When you compare it with the 5D, you’ll see the striking similarities. It also has a depth of field preview button and an IR receiver for remote trigger. The 6D grips well in your hands and it weighs just 27.16 ounces. You can also add an extra battery grip, which has a shutter button for easy portrait mode shooting. The Canon 6D also has HDMI, A/V support and a port to connect a stereo microphone.

When you switch it on, the LCD on the back pops into life and with the million pixels, it is sharp. Like every other ESO, the 6D has TV, AV, and P and M modes for shooting. Since it is an entry level full frame camera, Canon seems to have added other easy shooting modes like portraits and sports. There are 11 focal points (the 5D Mark lll has 51) and when you compare it to other full frame EOS models, the auto focus system is a bit slow. The 6D doesn’t have an auto focus illuminator and you need to use an external flash if you want illumination under low light conditions.

Under the highest quality settings, the Canon 6D produces images at 20 mega pixels and the Digic 5+ image processor allows you to shoot up to 5 frames per second. Mirrors are not used in the view finder system and neither is it an electronic view finder, rather, the Canon 6D uses a penta-prism and this gives you a very bright view of what the lens sees. The shutter speeds on this camera go from 1/4000 of a second to 30 seconds (plus bulb). One of the notable features of the Canon 6D is its ISO range. It can shoot from ISO 100 to ISO 25600 under standard settings. The onboard flash syncs at 1/180 of a second and has a range up to 5 meters. You have a hot shoe and additional flashes and speed lights can be attached to the camera. Other than this, the Canon 6D can also shoot videos at 1080 pixels.

In short, the Canon 6D is a good entry level full frame camera and people who wanted to enter 35mm digital photography now have a choice between the Nikon D600 and the Canon 6D. If you are already using an ESO, then the lenses designed for the APS-C sensors don’t work on this camera and you will have to buy new ones.

This is a guest post is brought to you by Samantha Kirk, a writer for AT&T U Verse. Samantha provides up to date content and information for AT&T.

The Dash
The Dash lets you to search both online and offline. Especially, the Dash displays different groups of data sources under which all the search sources you use are found, so that you can easily locate the source you want to use and perform search and get access to the information you are looking for. Moreover, you can easily use the search feature because the search bar displays a clear description of what tasks it can perform. The items are also properly proportioned and positioned in the Dash, letting you access items easily. Moreover, there are many items displayed on the top of the Dash.

Preview

• Of all the changes done to it, the changes to the Preview are more exciting to see.
• To preview an item, you just have to right click on it. The preview will be encapsulated in a dark window in the display, letting you see what the item looks like more clearly.
• Circling the previewed items will circle the ghost icons of those items, too. Thus, we can easily perform our tasks without exiting the preview mode.
• We could also see a fancy inversed animation which goes from the bottom to the top while closing the preview

Other Changes

• When you hold down the Super key, you will be able to see bigger and clearer shortcuts.
• The Spread feature works well with all the themes in this version and you can use it on the window outlines and titlebars, too.
• The Dash has overlay scroll bars so that you scroll easily to the item you want to get access to.
• There is also a new lens icon to make your tasks easier.
• Some processes which run on the background have been designed in such a way that they close automatically when idle and you will be able to revive them back when you need so that not much of the memory is used.
• As only GNOME Shell needs the GNOME Online Accounts, it will not be installed by default. If you need it, you can always install it easily.
• The idle memory usage has been reduced to 400M from 600M for the desktop version. Though it is not so great a change, it is a step taken at the right time.
• Dragging an item to a different location doesn’t change its size or appearance so that you can clearly see what is happening. In the previous version, the size of the item was reduced and so it resulted in poor quality images making it difficult for us to see what we are dragging. It was the case especially with PNG files.

Besides the various visual refinements done to the interface, there are also many changes done under the hood to ensure better performance. You are going to love the interface as the look and feel of it has changed drastically due to the tweaks done to it. There might be items left unattended to on your wish list for Ubuntu, however, they will be addressed soon, too. As always, this is also a momentous change that we’ve been expecting.

This guest post is brought to you by Nicole Wilson of cabletimenyc.com, a site that offers savings and current information on time warner cable nyc.

You can download this Fedora version from fedoraproject.org. You can also download it via BitTorrent. Dubbed the spherical cow, it comes with some interesting new features. Let’s see what they are:

• MATE Desktop: With Microsoft shifting to a touch centric, mobile friendly operating system like Windows 8, can others afford to be left behind? Fedora introduces MATE, the Linux desktop version of Windows Metro UI. According to Fedora spokespersons, this is perfect for those who are used to GNOME classic or Xfce and offers a viable alternative to GNOME 3. You actually have a list to choose from: Xfce 4.10, GNOME 3.6, Cinnamon and KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.9.
• Rewritten Anaconda: The Anaconda graphic Installer has been rewritten entirely and is now capable of being used by a wide range of users. Installation comes with in depth explanations, making the process a breeze even for first time users. It has also been made more appealing visually and the whole installation experience is much better now.
• Secure Boot support: Win 8 UEFI comes with Secure Boot technology enabled. Fedora was quick to catch on to the implications of this inclusion, and have decided that they too will go the same way. So now it can boot on systems with Secure Boot enabled. You also have tools with which you can create custom certificates, as an administrator, to sign local changes to the kernel or GRUB.
• System administrators will also be happy that Samba 4 is included. This is the newest version of the tools suite that perform file and print sharing services in diverse operating system environments. In fact, Samba 4 has introduced the first free open source implementation of Active Directory procedures.
• Eucalyptus: This platform for on premise Infrastructure as a service (or IaaS), has made its debut in Fedora 18 and includes the cloud software’s version 3.2, OpenStack Folson release and oVirt Engine version 3.1 (the management app for the oVirt virtualization platform), which is a core component for the release of RHEV 3.1.
• Also included in this iteration is ownCloud, the open source cloud storage and syncing tool that’s an absolute must have.
• The latest Fedora release also includes several language and programming updates, together with new versions of Rails, D, Perl and Python. Clojure tooling packages and libraries and frameworks (like Korma and Noir) have also been added, including the Leinegen build tool. What this means is that its instrumenting code and other diagnostic capabilities have been extended, and these capabilities can be given to a bigger group of user admission levels.
• New tools and libraries for SAN and NAS management means enhanced management of storage; the System storage Manager has also been added, and this is a united command line UI for organizing numerous storage technologies.

Author bio:

Jem is fond of following the latest trends in technology especially on gadgets, Smartphones, social media, networking, internet and computers. She is currently working for buyVerizon.com – a site that offers savings and current information on finding internet service promotions.

In totality, WordPress offers its users a wide variation to choose from. The 30 diverse portfolio themes that one can select from come in conjunction with the typical trappings offered by WordPress that comprises the aptitude to alter fonts or colors.

Porfolio Vertical gives you the space to nurture your brand and you can customize your online portfolio as it defines your creativity and the themes that have been offered allow an artist to agree on the already provided customized color or image that serves as a header. Your online portfolio can be transformed into an exceptional piece of art with the aid of the “custom design upgrade”.

Other than providing photographers, designers and the like with the varied themes to choose from, WordPress has also offered many online tools that can be employed for the maintenance of the portfolio and also makes collaborating with clients and potential employers easily possible.

So while you may be great at taking extraordinary shots, the tools and themes provided are designed to make that great image or video you shot look rather superlative and if you would like to display an entire assemblage of images, it can also be achieved by inserting ”image galleries”. These galleries can also be as innovative as can get by introducing images in various geometric shapes or blending it with adorned tiled frameworks.

Anyone who fancies movement in pictures and a touch of audio can encash on some of the most efficient tools wherein you can upload external high definition audio and video straight to the site. Visitors who love your work can also subscribe and get mails to keep them updated on what’s trending on your portfolio. You can also enjoy great visibility through the “sharing buttons” which will enable your regular visitors to in turn expand your work that intrigues them to other social networking mediums.

An artist with diverse talents can build many versatile portfolio themes with a single account and WordPress also provides an opportunity to pool your work with other artists by allowing them to showcase their creations on your profile. You also have the possibility of securing your work or the page you have built by including a password which in turn will restrict users and preferred contacts can be invited to view specific pages.

This can also serve as an ideal platform to increase your network by including a contact form which enables fans and visitors to reach out to you directly. WordPress has a “media uploader” that can be explored to perhaps upload any additional information that would like to share that can be downloaded.

So for anyone who is passionate about anything remotely creative can use Portfolio Vertical to channelize your innovative ideas and have the ideal destination to flaunt it!!!

This is a guest post by Dazzle Rogers of workwelltogether.com, a site that offers savings and current information on comcast cable and internet, as well as other comcast bundles and Comcast.com services.

The Raspberry Pi, an unbelievably tiny and incredibly inexpensive proto type of a computer, is meant to open the minds of children and allow them to explore and tinker with possibilities. This is more in the line do-it-yourself enthusiasts who want their children to follow suit. The moment you unpack to view the contents, you are enthralled and get automatically committed and would need to be a quick learner to be able to use the Raspberry Pi. This computer comes as a challenge to you and your entire family.

The Raspberry Pi comes in two different versions that are priced, as mentioned earlier at ridiculously low prices that will even make you wonder at what quality can be offered at such a price. However, you can rest assured that all the time and money spend on research and developments have not gone in vain. There are two models of which the first one is available for just $25 and second one costs slightly more at $35, which do not look like price tags of computers any way. The difference in the price is solely for the extra USB port that the second one sports. Similarly, the more expensive model has Ethernet, which the cheaper one lacks. There is difference in power consumption as well with the more expensive model consuming half the power that the less expensive one does.

However, the differences seem to end there. There is no noticeable difference in the hardware. The Raspberry Pi (both the models, A and B) sports a Broadcom BCM2835, which is mounted on a chip, which for practical purposes is a mere circuit board. This is the bridge between the central processing unit – the 700-Megahertz ARM and a Broadcom I V GPU. The SD random access memory has a capacity of 256 Megabytes. The external connectivity is taken care of by the thoughtfully provided USB ports, in addition to the two video output options that come in the form of HDMI , composite RCA, and SD card slot. The audio a 3.5 mm output is optimum for all your audio needs.

The power source for the Raspberry Pi is the USB adaptor (micro) that has a minimum rating of 2.5 watts (500mA) for the cheaper model and a slightly higher 700mA (3.5 watts) for the expensive one. However, you may have to make provisions for these, as they do not co0me as a part of the package. Finally, the actual dimensions measure to 2.1 inches by 3.4 inches with a thickness of just 0.6.

This guest post is brought to you by Chad Bauer of timewarnercable.wedocable.com, a site that offers savings and current information on time warner cable bundles.

This article talks more on what separates the two Godly devices. The article is written with the intention of helping people in making the right selection. So if you are someone who is looking for or confused with what to buy between the iPad 4 and the iPad mini, read on.

The Mini

Like many other full-sized tablets, the Mini comes in different flavors – 4G, Wi-Fi only, Wi-Fi + 4G models. These models come with different storage options – the 64 GB, 32 GB and the 16 GB. They also come in two different colors – white and black. Hence there are 12 different models to choose from. Unlike the new iPad 4, the mini measures just 7.9 inches.

Advantages of iPad Mini

1) The iPad Mini is much cheaper than its bigger cousins. The price starts from $329 and that makes a saving of $299 compared to the larger screen devices. The iPad mini is the apt choice for those who want an Apple tablet but feel that the bigger ones are slightly over-priced.

2) The smallness of the Mini has its own advantage just like the bigger ones have theirs. The Mini is much more mobile in nature than the bigger tablets. This makes it easier to fit into pockets and purses. The mini can be hooked to your TVs to enjoy videos on bigger displays.

3) The very fact that it’s still an Apple product is its biggest advantage. Although the iPad Mini does not have Retina display or the fast processor as in the case of iPad 4, it has all the magical stuff that you see in many other Apple products. You can still use all the glorious applications available in the Apple store.

iPad 4

The iPad 4 comes in the same set of varieties as seen in the iPad mini but it features a bigger and much better display. The concept of Retina display from Apple’s end should not disappoint you. Also, the device is much more powerful than all the previous ones.

Advantages of IPad 4

1) The tablet is faster, bigger and more powerful. The 9.7 inch retina display will offer you faster resolutions, and the processor is twice as fast as the Mini.

2) The tablet is much better in terms of productivity. It is definitely a heavy weight lifting champion. You can perform multi-tasking activities and play games with better experience. The tablet naturally has a better video and photo manipulation and a faster web browsing capabilities. If you like editing your photos or interested in the video editing activities, the iPad 4 can be the best choice for you.

What’s our take?

Both these products have the Apple brand on them. Hence there are no worries about their performance and capabilities. It all burns down to individual choice and use.

Robin Mckenzie likes writing articles related to Technology, Entertainment, and Finance and does guest posting for Centurylink home page, a site that offers savings and current information on consumers broadband internet and cable.

Micro-blogging website Twitter has hit the headlines yet again. This time for the launch of its Instagram-like photo filters. A highly placed source from the company made official this new Twitter feature.

Every day, many millions of users world over use Twitter to share the things that they care about. Images are shared with text and other social content on Twitter. Average users, celebrities, artists and famous personalities share images with their tweets on this micro-blogging website. Instagram with the intention of driving users to its parent website has confirmed that it will not display Twitter images going forward.

Furthermore, when its rival acquired the famous photo service feature (Facebook acquired Instagram) Twitter decided to roll out its latest photo sharing update for its Android and iPhone app. With this latest version of update, images that you tweet can be made to look almost picture perfect. Twitter’s introduction of its own library of image editing tools saves users the trouble of using another photo editing tool or app to edit images.

This new image editing tool for the iOS and Android platform is brought by Aviary, a company that provides image enhancement tools and is based in New York. This company also provides photo editing solutions for various websites like Squarespace, Box.net and Flickr.

Twitters photo editing tools
A picture speaks a thousand words. No one understands this better than Twitter. Sharing images is a big hit on this micro-blogging website. Twitter gives you the ability to edit and re-work on the images on Twitter itself.

What you can do with the Instagram-like photo filters on Twitter
Twitter promises its users that pictures will look their very best with the introduction of these filters. To make the already good looking pictures look their very best, users can use filters that come with the app. Here is a list of eight filters you can use with this app:

• Black & White
• Warm
• Cool
• Vignette
• Happy
• Gritty
• Cinematic
• Vintage

These filters allow users to edit images the user-friendly way. The image that you wish to use the filter on is displayed in a grid format. The grid has 3 rows and 3 columns displaying how the image will look when a particular filter is used on it. You can view how the image will look when no filter is used as well. You do not have to tab or turn pages on your phone as all the images appear on a single page. The same page also provides you with other image editing options. Below the same page you will find standard editing tools like zooming, cropping and auto-image enhancement options. Once you have modified the image using filters you can click on ‘Done’ that sits on the top right hand side of the screen and your image is ready to be tweeted.

Visit Google Play or App Store to download the updated version of Twitter app.
With Twitter you no longer will have to depend on image editing platforms to modify images.

This is a guest post by Sharon Thomas of thecornersuite.com, a site that offers savings and current information on dish network internet packages.

Android is the life breath of millions of mobile devices in several countries across the world. This is a world-class platform that offers opportunity to create apps and games for Android users and others worldwide. This operating system that has become quite popular has witnessed millions of users downloading apps every month. Of these several hundred thousand apps, there are few that are ranked highest by popularity and usage. These apps are sort of addictive and help kill boredom. Some of the top such apps are listed below:

X Construction

How would you like to picture yourself as an important construction engineer entrusted with the task of constructing a large bridge? Imagine the amount of planning and effort it is going to take to build a bridge of that magnitude. Remember that the bridge needs to be strong, functional and remain aesthetic at the same time. This is one real challenge and the great thing is that you can go on a trial and error method because it is just a game. You can build it, pull it down and build it all over again. There will be a train going across the bridge, hence it has to be stable enough to carry that many passengers across safely. This app is certainly going to keep you busy and kill all the boredom by the time you are done.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.hms.xconstruction&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImRlLmhtcy54Y29uc3RydWN0aW9uIl0.

Link It

How can a set of pearls keep one busy and help kill boredom? You’ll never know until your try Link It. The basic object is to link all the pearls. After you are done with linking all the pearls you need to get back to where you started from. The starting point always starts off with a green pearl. Each pearl has an arrow sticking out which indicates the direction of the link. You can maneuver the white pearl in any direction by swiping. Tap the green pearl to initiate the linking process. The lite version of the game has 25 levels that you can reach up to.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.boolbalabs.linkit&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5ib29sYmFsYWJzLmxpbmtpdCJd

Cestos 2 Party Time

You may have heard of Cestos, this game is a sequel to that. It is a multiplayer game that was first introduced by Android and is still very popular. It is based on an elementary principle of physics or rather- vector physics, where quantity has scale and direction. The game has some mind boggling graphics that will floor you. You are given set of marbles which need to be controlled according to the pace and speed at which they travel. When all the players are ready and all the marbles are set to roll, the one who gets past the pits and hidden mines to reach the destination is the winner. When you graduate to the other levels the excitement increases with no threat of the game lagging even with the slowest of internet connections. Kick out boredom and add spice to the group playing with you.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chickenbrickstudios.cestos2&feature=search_result

Sketch Online

If you remember having played the game “What The Doodle” you will realize that Sketch Online is the alternative to that. You need to sketch a drawing based on the input from the server. You will be given the name of the object and need to sketch it on the sketching board. You may use different colors and brushes and give others a chance to guess the object correctly. There is a time limit in which you need to accomplish this. As time is of essence, you have the option of skipping a word if you have difficulty in guessing it correctly. You can move on to the next object and try your luck. This game is bound to keep you engrossed and a sure cure for boredom.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.into.sketchit&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5pbnRvLnNrZXRjaGl0Il0.

Parallel Kingdom

You don’t have to set your imagination on fire and think that you are going to play King and have a realm of your own. Rather, you are in the modern day with a Global Positioning System from Google to help you. You need to locate the others and fight with them, meet others inside the game. You need to plant flags to establish your territory. You can plant trees, collect resources and fight different types of creatures. This game is real fun and can be enjoyed thoroughly.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.silvermoon.client&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5zaWx2ZXJtb29uLmNsaWVudCJd

This is a guest post by Lance Goodman of dishtvoffer.com, a site that offers savings and current information on dish tv everywhere near your region, as well as dish.com services.

Nik Software released a photo editing app for the iPad in the summer of 2011. It became hugely popular mainly because it was so simple to use. It’s instinctive touch screen UI made filtering and adding effects, kids’ play. In a couple of months, the app was updated and ready for use on iPhone and iPod touch.

Though the company announced plans for an Android version of the app, when Nik was acquired by Google in the fall of 2011, eyebrows were raised. However the Senior VP Engineering Vic Gundotra asserted that that plan was not being shelved.

In fact, it seems that Google made this their top priority mission and have rolled out a robust photo editing tool for Android devices. This is available on all Android devices with minimum OS of ICS. Considering that most Android devices that have been released in the recent past are ICS or Jelly Bean, nearly all the Android devices out there today can make use of Snapseed.

Probably the best news for Android device owners is that, not only is this app available at no cost, it will be free of ads as well. So Snapseed really scores over the competition: easy to use, and free!

Apple device owners can take heart from the fact that this cool tool is now available for free on iOS devices too. Initially, idevice owners had to shell out $ 5 to download this app. Probably that is why there is an extra feature now available for iOS that has not yet been offered to Android users: scratch and texture effects, frame type options, and frame color adjustment. No doubt, we will soon see these being offered to Android users too, but for now, they are an Apple users’ privilege.

Editing with Snapseed is simple and fun.

• Select the photo you want to edit
• Choose the editing tool/filter from the sidebar
• You get instructions on how to make the modifications
• Swipe up or down to select the augmentation
• Swipe left or to the right to adjust that augmentation

Easy? I told you so!

Of course, if you’re a cowboy and want to do a little in depth editing, you may need to do more than just swipe horizontally or vertically; but for mere mortals like me, the swiping suffices pretty well.

These are the editing tools you will find in Snapseed:

• Crop
• Straighten
• Tune Image
• Rotate
• Selective Adjust
• Auto adjust (if you’re feeling lazy and just need a quick fix)

Filters:

• Vintage: Makes your picture look like you’re from the hippy era, only your hair and clothes are all wrong
• Black and White: Need I say more?
• Tilt Shift
• Drama: Now here’s something interesting. Increase the saturation and filter strength to create that dramatic effect
• Grunge: Well, if you want to give it that dirty and grunged up look! The coolest filter.
• You can also add borders to your images if you want.

After fooling around with all the filters, let’s say you have tears in your eyes because you wish you hadn’t; Presto, no problem! Just revert it to the original.

You can also share your photos directly to Google + and as there is integration with this site, the sharing is super quick and easy. You can also share your photos to other social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, or email them directly from the app itself.
This app is amazingly cool and is capable of keeping a user entertained for some time. While it may not have as much depth or as many options as some other photo editing apps, the fact that it is free and is easy to use, may well push up the popularity of Snapseed. You can download Snapseed from the Google Play Store.

This is a guest post by Mark Bennett of OnlineComcastcom click here for our website that offers savings and current information on comcast cable and internet.