technology

Monday, 19 May 2014

Determine if your Mobile Phone will Work in Another Country,.

f you have trouble accessing a web page either because the website is blocked at your workplace, or because that page happens to be behind a paywall, there are a couple of undocumented Google proxy servers that may help you read that page.

When you access any page via one of these Google proxies, the content of that page gets downloaded on Google servers and then served to you. The lesser-known gmodules.com proxy, discussed later, will even allow you to download documents, videos and other web files that are otherwise blocked.

1. Google Translate as a Proxy

To use Google Translate as a proxy, set the destination language as the actual language of the page and the source language as anything but the destination language.
For instance, if you are to access a page written in English, set the destination language (tl) in the translate URL as “en” and the source language (sl) as “ja” for Japanese. (example)

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&u=http://example.com/

Google Translate Proxy (bookmarklet)
Advantage: This is the most popular Google proxy and the download web pages looks exactly like the original provided the domains serving the images and CSS aren’t blocked at your place.

2. Google Mobilizer as a Proxy

Next in the list is Google’s Mobilizer service. Google has discontinued the main mobilizer service on google.com (secure) but you can still access it through any country-specific Google domain like google.co.in or google.ie. The URL would be:

http://www.google.ie/gwt/x?u=http://example.com/ (example)

Google Mobilizer Proxy (bookmarklet)
Advantage: The presentation (CSS) isn’t retained but this mode is perfect for reading text-heavy pages and do have the option of disabling inline images for faster loading.

3. Google Modules as a Proxy

The gmodules.com domain is part of the Google personalized homepage service and is primarily used for hosting gadgets that are available for the Google homepage.

http://www.gmodules.com/ig/proxy?url=http://example.com/ (example)

Google Modules Proxy (bookmarklet)
Advantage: This is the only Google proxy that will let you download files (like PDFs, .MP4 videos, etc) in addition to viewing regular web pages.

Finally, if none of the above proxies work, you can always check the Google Cache or create your proxy server using either this Google Script or the more advanced Google App Engine.

Use Google as a Proxy Server to Bypass Paywalls, Download Files

1. Google Translate as a Proxy

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&u=http://example.com/

2. Google Mobilizer as a Proxy

http://www.google.ie/gwt/x?u=http://example.com/ (example)

3. Google Modules as a Proxy

The gmodules.com domain is part of the Google personalized homepage service and is primarily used for hosting gadgets that are available for the Google homepage.

http://www.gmodules.com/ig/proxy?url=http://example.com/ (example)

Google Modules Proxy (bookmarklet)
Advantage: This is the only Google proxy that will let you download files (like PDFs, .MP4 videos, etc) in addition to viewing regular web pages.

Finally, if none of the above proxies work, you can always check the Google Cache or create your proxy server using either this Google Script or the more advanced Google App Engine.

On Nokia Lumia and Windows Phone 8

The Nokia Lumia series of mobile phones stand out from the crowd. The devices, powered by Windows Phone 8, are responsive, the interface feels fresh and they have great cameras.

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“Which phone should I buy?” This is one question that I get asked a lot and, obviously, there is no fixed answer.

Android based phones – like the Google Nexus or the Samsung Galaxy series – are a good option for people who prefer choice as every single feature of an Android device can be customized right from the phone dialer to the on-screen keyboard. Then there’s the iPhone for those who want to have the absolute best phone and wouldn’t mind paying a heavy premium. Some people also see the iPhone as a status symbol.
Nokia Lumia - Side View

For others, my recommendation is often the Nokia Lumia series powered by Windows Phone. Why? No Google Maps? No Gmail? There are no apps for Windows Phone? That’s a common reaction you can expect when you recommend someone a Windows Phone based device.
The Android Store (Google Play) and iTunes Apps Store have about a million apps each and the Windows Phone Apps store is nowhere close. This isn’t however a good reason to discard the Windows Phone platform. Most of the popular apps – Twitter, Facebook, Skype, WhatsApp, Evernote, Kindle, Foursquare, TrueCaller to name a few – are already available while others like Flipboard, Vine and Path are in the works.
Google is conspicuously absent from the Windows Phone store and there’s no Instagram or Chrome in the store. But should that be a deal breaker?
I have been using the various Nokia Lumia models as my primary device for more than a month now and never found myself looking for the Android or iOS device for lack of apps. The apps I need, barring a few favorites like Flipboard and Feedly, are all there now. And this is the only mobile OS that has Microsoft Office. A research says that smartphone users, on an average, install about 41 apps but use less than a dozen apps on regular basis.
Nokia Maps, now called HERE Maps, and HERE Drive (for turn-by-turn voice navigation) are a good, in some cases better, alternative to Google Maps and they include full offline capabilities as well. Nokia HERE City Lens is an augmented reality viewing app that displays all the nearby places – not just popular public places but even the local medicine shops and mom-n-pop stores – through your camera’s viewfinder.
One of my favorite feature of Windows Phone is the people hub and integration with Facebook. Every time I wake up the phone, there’s a new picture on the lock screen pulled randomly from one of my Facebook albums. Then there’s the Kids corner where you can choose a list of apps and games that should be available to your kids and rest everything on the phone stays hidden.
The on-screen virtual keyboard in Windows Phone, with flat keys and good spacing among keys, is comfortable to type though you’ll miss the Swype style gesture-typing available on Android devices. Windows Phone 8 is also missing a proper notification center.
Nokia Lumia - Front View

The Lumia series of phones have among the best cameras in their range and the dedicated camera button make it easy for you to quickly capture the moment. Lenses are one unique feature of Windows Phones that let you open the various camera apps – like Nokia Cinemagraph, Instagram like filters or the Panorama maker – from the camera window itself.
The Lumia range is available at all price points from the budget Lumia 520 to the high-end Lumia 920. The 920 sports the biggest screen at 4.5” and stands out for its brilliant “PureView” camera that does especially well in low-light conditions. The device feels premium, sturdy and extremely responsive but the only thing that doesn’t go in its favor is the weight.
The upcoming Lumia 925 has similar specs as the 920 but does away with the extra pounds. The Nokia India website says 925 is “coming soon” but am not sure how soon that will happen.
Next in the list is Nokia Lumia 820. This one again has a great display that is slightly smaller than the 920, the camera shoots crisp pictures though it lacks PureView and the phone’s performance is also very good. Unlike the unibody 920, the 820 has a removable back cover and support for micro SD for extra storage but the device overall feels thicker and a bit heavy.
The Lumia 720 sports the same design – rectangular slab with curved edges – as the 920, the plastic back with matte finish doesn’t feel cheap and provides a great grip. The display of 720 isn’t as bright as its more expensive cousins but this is the one Lumia model that feels slim and light. The phone’s 6.7 MP camera and performance didn’t disappoint either.
Among the budget Lumia phones, the 620 is a small Windows Phone 8 device with a 3.8” display and a 5 MP camera. Lumia 520 is the best-selling Windows Phone 8 device and rightly so – the phone is a value-for-money device with a decent display that is slightly bigger than the 620, a 5 MP camera sans LED flash, removable cover and the same fluid and responsive Windows Phone 8. You can even operate the touchscreen of 520 with your fingernails.
The design of Windows Phone is fresh, different and extremely user-friendly. The live tiles, the customizable home screen, the typography, big fonts, bold system menus, the screen animations are smooth and beautiful. In my 30+ days of usage, none of the apps have ever crashed, the scrolling is smooth and there’s never any lag even on the low-range Lumias.

The apps store is growing though Windows Phone 8 may still not be the first platform of choice for most developers.

That said, look at your current collection of apps – if the ones you absolutely need are also available for Windows Phone 8, you should strongly consider going the Lumia way. And if I were to pick a favorite among this series, it would be either the Nokia Lumia 920 (for the camera and polished look) or, for the budget conscious, the Lumia 720 (good specs and great value-for-money).

How to Play YouTube Videos in the Background on iOS

Do you prefer listening to music while working? Learn a trick to help you play YouTube videos in the background on your iPad or iPhone.

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The YouTube website is probably the world’s biggest library of songs and music videos that you can watch on any device. You can play your favorite music on the YouTube website and let it stream in the background while you work on other important tasks.
This is only possible on desktop computers and not mobile devices since YouTube on mobile stops playback as soon you put the video player in the background. The YouTube app, or the YouTube website, needs to be in the foreground else the video pauses itself.
There’s however an easy workaround ↓ that will let you play any YouTube video in the background on your iPad or iPhone. Here’s the trick:
Open the Safari browser on your iOS device and play any of your favorite song on the YouTube website. Now tap the Home button to go to the home screen, or swipe to switch to a different app, and you’ll notice that the YouTube video has stopped playing.
Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open the Control Center and tap the Play button. Voila! The paused YouTube video will resume playback and you can now switch to any app on your iOS device while the audio streams in the background.
If you are using an older model of iPhone or iPad that has not been upgraded to iOS 7, you can still use the same technique to “listen” to YouTube videos playing in the background. Instead of the swipe-up gesture, double-press the home button and swipe the notifications bar from left to right. Press the “Play” button to resume the paused YouTube video.

Whether you are reading ebooks on the iPad, browsing web pages or responding to emails on the iPhone, you can finally use YouTube to play some great music in the background.

Swipe up the screen to access the iOS 7 control center

Double-press and swipe right to access the Play button in iOS 5.

Double-press the home button and swipe right to Play videos in iOS 5.

An Easy Way to Download APK Files from Google Play.

ndroid apps are packaged as APK files. You can use any File Manager app to copy these files from the computer to your Android device and then touch the .apk file to install, or sideload, the corresponding app on your device.

There are various reasons why you may want to download the APK installer of an Android app from the Google Play store:

Google Play Store says that a particular app or game is incompatible with your Android device though you know that the app would work just fine.
Sometime an Android app may be not be available for download in the Google Play store of your region or country.
An app is listed on the Google Play store but you want to install that app on another Android device, like the Amazon Kindle tablet, that doesn’t have the Play Store.

How to Download APK Files from Google Play Store

Evozi, an Android app developer, offers a one-click online APK download app that lets you download the APK installed of any Android app that’s listed on the Google Play store. The downloader app can be accessed at apps.evozi.com.
To get started, enter the web URL of any app listed on the Google Play store and click the “Generated Download Link” button. The APK download app will fetch the APK file from the Google Play store and will host it on its own servers from where you downlaod the file.
Since the APK files are directly fetched from the Google Play Store, it’s unlikely that the Android App will be infected with any malware. Also, to prevent app piracy, the APK downloader only lets you download free apps and games from the Google Play store, not the paid ones.

The 20-20-20 Rule for Reducing Computer Eyestrain

Do you work at the computer for long hours? Learn about software that can help you reduce eye-strain, RSI and other computer related stress!

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If you spend a good part of your day using the computer, the 20-20-20 rule, that I recently learned recently from my doctor, might help reduce eye-strain and also relax your tired eyes.

The 20-20-20 rule is something like this.
The computer screen is bright and therefore, if you don’t blink your eyes as often as you should while working at the computer for long hours, you can have dry eyes sometimes even followed by redness.
To help you deal with this problem, the 20-20-20 rule suggests that after every 20 minutes, the computer user should take a break for at least 20 seconds and look at objects that are 20 feet away.

Eye Test for Computer Geeks [credit]

Since it is nearly impossible for any computer users to remember that they have to take a break every 20 minutes, there are free software programs that can help you in your mission. For instance, there’s a Windows utility called Eye Defender that sits in the system tray of your Windows computer and, after a fixed interval, it will auto-run a visual training for the eyes on the desktop screen. You are supposed to follow the pointer on the screen and this in turn should help relax your eyes.
WorkRave is another handy app that reminds you to take breaks at regular intervals to prevent computer related stress (including eyestrain).
It offers two kinds of breaks – micro-breaks, these are short and are mean to relax your eyes, and then there are rest-breaks where you are supposed to walk or stretch a little. Workrave also has a built-in wizard that demonstrates the various types of stretching exercises that you can do during these breaks.
Stretching Exercise for Eyes

If you are an active computer user, these tools need to be on your desktop.

Use Google Maps as a Background of your Webpage..

his is a demo of contact form that embeds a Google Map in the background. It isn’t using a static screenshot image of Google Maps in the background but the map is an interactive one — you can zoom in and out, drag the Pegman to turn on street view or even toggle between the Satellite view and the Maps view.

There are basically two layers on the page – one is the map and the other is the form – and we are using the z-index property of CSS to define the stack order. The form has a higher z-index than Google Maps and thus the latter appears in the background. Let’s look at the actual code now.
The HTML — There are two DIV elements – the map will render inside the element with ID #googlemaps while everything that you add inside #contactform will show up in your form. You can even embed a Google Form here.


<div id="googlemaps"></div>
<div id="contactform">
  <!-- You can even embed a Google Form here -->
</div>

The CSS — The #googlemaps element occupies the entire height and width of the page while the #contactform has a fixed width. You can also change the opacity level of #contactform to make your forms slightly transparent.


#googlemaps { 
  height: 100%; 
  width: 100%; 
  position:absolute; 
  top: 0; 
  left: 0; 
  z-index: 0; /* Set z-index to 0 as it will be on a layer below the contact form */
}
 
#contactform { 
  position: relative; 
  z-index: 1; /* The z-index should be higher than Google Maps */
  width: 300px;
  margin: 60px auto 0;
  padding: 10px;
  background: black;
  height: auto;
  opacity: .45; /* Set the opacity for a slightly transparent Google Form */ 
  color: white;
}

The JavaScript — Find the latitude and longitude of your place and replace the co-ordinates in line #7. You can then copy-paste the modified JavaScript code in the footer of your HTML page.


<!-- Include the Google Maps API library - required for embedding maps -->
<script src="http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?sensor=false"></script>
 
<script type="text/javascript">
 
// The latitude and longitude of your business / place
var position = [27.1959739, 78.02423269999997];
 
function showGoogleMaps() {
 
    var latLng = new google.maps.LatLng(position[0], position[1]);
 
    var mapOptions = {
        zoom: 16, // initialize zoom level - the max value is 21
        streetViewControl: false, // hide the yellow Street View pegman
        scaleControl: true, // allow users to zoom the Google Map
        mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP,
        center: latLng
    };
 
    map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById('googlemaps'),
        mapOptions);
 
    // Show the default red marker at the location
    marker = new google.maps.Marker({
        position: latLng,
        map: map,
        draggable: false,
        animation: google.maps.Animation.DROP
    });
}
 
google.maps.event.addDomListener(window, 'load', showGoogleMaps);
</script>

You may refer to the HTML source of this contact form for a complete example...