AskWiki -

Aakash Tablet (cheapest tablet) now available Online

2011-12-19T09:41:00.001+05:30

The manufacturer Datawind has now started the online booking and pre booking of the much anticipated low cost Android tablet. The Students' version of the tablet is called Aakash and the commercial version is called the UbiSlate 7, for which pre booking has started.

Students' version will be available for Rs 2,500 ($50) and will be delivered in seven days. The

commercial version, UbiSlate 7 is priced at Rs 2,999 ($60). The payment mode for both the tablets is cash on delivery.

The commercial version of Aakash tablet is powered by Android 2.3 and has a resistive touchscreen, Cortex A8-700 MHz processor and graphics accelerator HD video processor, 256 MB of RAM and 2 GB of internal memory, GPRS and WiFi support.

To know more about the Aakash tablet - a quick review of the product and also an interview with the Chief Executive Suneet Singh Tuli.

To book online click here

Google Launches its own Music Service

2011-11-17T08:56:00.002+05:30

Google recently unveiled its much anticipated digital music store in the US. Google Music which has more than 13 million songs already on the cloud network will allow consumers access music from various Internet connected devices and easily share tracks with friends.

Google's Music Beta also lets people access their personal music collections from any Web connected PC or mobile device powered by Google's Android software.

To use the service, people must upload their digital music files from their personal computers to the Music Beta locker. On Google music you can get tracks from artists on Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI, and the global independent rights agency Merlin as well as over 1,000 prominent independent labels.

Here is a quick tour video of recently launched Google Music..

Google Music is all about discovering, purchasing, sharing and enjoying digital music in new, innovative and personalized ways.

P.S. Check out some free online web music here..

Have some fun with Google Search

2011-11-04T09:08:00.002+05:30

Google has come up with a spin-tastic search results page for the query "do a barrel roll". Try to do that search on Google and see what happnes.. Google litterlaay makes the search results page do a barrel roll on your browser.

Another one is if you try to search "tilt" on Google, the search results are displayed will all results at a slight tilt to the right..

My all time favourite is "google gravity". All you have to do is search for "google gravity" and click on the first link on the search result and see how the gravity effects, while you can continue to seach in there as well.

Check out http://www.search-cube.com/ as well.. for a 3D cube experience...

Best 3 Siri Alternatives on Android

2011-10-30T11:36:00.000+05:30

When Apple released the iPhone 4S, it introduced Siri - a voice-activated "personal assistant" capable to send messages, make calls, set reminders, and much much more..

Siri is available on iPhone 4S, what about Android phones ? Well here i would like to share you three best alternatives to siri on android. So if you have an android device, be it a mobile

phone or a tablet you can simply install this android app and have your own voice activated personal assistant.

1. Vlingo Virtual Assistant : With over one million downloads Vlingo has already been a hit. It can be your very own Virtual Assistant. Simply speak to Vlingo and it will help you get more done, faster and easier. It can send texts and emails, voice dial, search the web, update your status on Facebook or Twitter and get answers to just about any question.
Here you can find more details on Vlingo
You can download Vlingo now from Android Market for Free

2. Iris (alpha) : Yes, the name is reverse for Siri also called as Intelligent Rival Imitator of Siri. Iris was built in just eight hours during a hackathon by workers at India-based software company Dexetra, who set out to replicate Siri
Here you can find more details on Iris and here
You can download Iris now from Android Market for Free

3. Speaktoit Assistant : SpeakToIt is a customiseable personal assistant with different avatar, it gives you information about weather, nearest restaurants, and even talks to you. You can customise the look of the assistant, by changing it clothes, hair etc
Here you can find more details on Speaktoit Assistant
You can download Speaktoit Assistant now from Android Market for Free

Do check out these best alternatives to Siri on Android, untill some day Siri on Android is released.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0

2011-10-20T08:29:00.001+05:30

After Apple's iPhone 4S release something big and better was expected by Google. Infact there

was a teaser video released by Samsung "Something BIG is coming"... and now the something BIG is here...

Recently in Hong Kong Samsung and Google have now released the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the upcoming Android version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus will come on the market in November in 16 GB and a 32 gigabyte version.

Here is quick summary of the specifications of Samsung Galaxy Nexus

1.2GHz Dual-Core Processor
1GB of RAM
(Slightly) curved 4.65 inch 720p HD Super AMOLED "Contour" display (1280 x 720 pixels)
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
5 megapixel camera with LED flash, "was no shutter" and fast Shot2Shot
1080p HD video recording at 30 FPS
Bluetooth 3.0
USB 2.0
WiFi 802.11 a / b / g / n
NFC chip
HSPA + or LTE 4G, depending on the region
Accelerometers
Compass
Gyro, light and proximity sensor
Barometer
16GB or 32GB of internal memory
Dimensions: 135.5 x 67.94 x 8.94 mm
Weight: 135 grams
Battery: 1,750 mAh

Official Video

Alternatives to Google Android Market

2011-10-16T14:06:00.000+05:30

With Android enabled phones gaining significant market share across the world, Google's android

market remains to be the ultimate source of apps for android devices.

Howvever there are alternatives to Google Market, infact there are quite a few websites from where anyone can download android apps.

The good part is while Google Market has free and paid apps, some of these paid apps are available for free on these alterantive sites.

1. ANDROIDPIT APP CENTER : The the collection of android apps is approx 6000 plus, which is much less than what you find on Google Market, however AndroidPIT selects the best ones to make it available on its site. Also for the paid apps the site has an 24 hour return policy. Visit the site.

2. GETJAR : GetJar is the world’s largest free app store with over 2 billion downloads till date. The site provides apps for not only android phone but also for other operating systems including Blackberry, Java and Symbian. The site currently has more than 150,000 mobile applications. Visit the site

3. POCKETGEAR : Pocketgear is one of the oldest active app distribution platforms in the web. The site has a good collection of free apps. For the paid apps they also accept payments using Paypal and AmazonPayments, something the non-credit card users would like. Visit the site

Share and Get Rewarded - Blog Loyalty Program

2011-10-16T09:24:00.002+05:30

Askwiki brings you an instant loyalty program that encourage readers to visit the blog every day, share the contents on their social networks and by doing so they earn points.

Readers can earn points every day for their actions on the blog and can redeem the points earned for a reward.

The service is provided by PunchTab. The PunchTab widget as here at the right side allows readers to earn for there every action as bellow.

1. Liking the page your Facebook.
2. Becoming a Facebook Fan of the blog
3. Leaving a comment on the blog/article
4. Tweeting about the blog/article
5. Sharing via Google Plus or +1

Readers can immediately authenticate through popular social networks and start earning loyalty points. Belos is a brief video on how it works..

Interested ? Take a detailed tour

Best web tool to record your screen

2011-10-09T10:44:00.000+05:30

This is one of the best web-based screen recording tool i have ever come across, it enables you

to capture your computer screen as video without any software installs or any software downloads.

This free web based screen recording tool makes it incredibly easy to record a screencast and also share it instantly with your friends via your social networking pages.

The web based tool is called the ScreenR. It can not only video record your screen but supports voice record via your system mic. Follow few simple steps and you have done it.

Steps involved to record you screen are -

1. Go to screenr.com
2. Launch the screen recorder to capture the computer screen (upto 5 min).
3. Login to publish the video online
4. This video can also be downloaded on your syatem.

Here is a quick video demo on how Screenr works

If you want to create a simple and straight forward video tutorial… it would be hard to find a better and simple tool then Screenr. Try and share us your feedback

Google's Nexus Coming Soon

2011-10-08T22:08:00.002+05:30

After the recent launch of Apple iPhone 4S, Google and Samsung were to launch the big Android

Phone ... however the recent development both companies have agreed postpond the dates as they agreed tha this is not the appropriate time for the announcement of a new product out of respect for Steve Jobs.

There has been lot of hype on what this new product would be and how Google and Samsung would be associated.

Samsung had released a series of video teaser in market as well.

That product, by the way, is expected to be Samsung's Nexus Prime running Android Ice Cream
Sandwich. The Nexus Prime will be the first phone to run the Android 4.0 operating system. The phone’s massive display will run at a sharp 1280 by 720 pixel resolution, or the equivalent to a 720p high-definition screen.

This 9 mm thin phone will have 1 gigabyte of RAM, 32 GB of built-in storage, and near-field communication (NFC) support.A Camera of 5-megapixel rear camera and a 1.2 MP front camera. It can record video at up to 1080p HD resolution.

Askwiki would be following the developments...

Update: Right after we posted this, Gizmodo posted the a video which is supposedly a leak of new Android operating system on the new Samsung phone. Also specs as below..

Aakash Tablet - $35 Made In India

2011-10-07T09:37:00.000+05:30

Earlier this year Askwiki had share how global investors are keen to fund this project of $35 tablet. Earlier this week the Telecom and Human Resource Development minister Kapil Sibal recently launched the tablet - Aakash - priced at $35.

The original prototype named Sakshat was unveiled in 2009.

About 500 students from government engineering schools were at the launch and were among the first to get their very own Aakash devices.

Here's a quick review of the Aakash tablet by Gadget Guru

The Aakash is designed and built by UK firm Datawind, Below is an interview with its Chief Executive Suneet Singh Tuli.

The manufacturer Datawind has also announced that it will start selling the commercial version of Aakash (named as Ubislate 7) in November. The price for commercial will be INR 2,999. This retail version will be available via normal stores, and online stores, but the exact availability details are still not out.

A brief Technical specifications of the Aakash Tablet:

Operating system: Android 2.2
Screen: 7″ resistive
Processor: 366 MHz + HD video co-processor
RAM: 256 MB
Flash memory: 2GB + 2GB Micro-SD (expandable up to 32 GB)
USB ports: 2
Network: WiFi (GPRS & 3G options)

Steve Jobs - the Apple founder dies at 56

2011-10-06T09:16:00.000+05:30

On Wednesday 5th October Apple announced the death of its visionary co-founder Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs was 56.

Jobs passed away after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Jobs had undergone a liver transplant in April 2009 during an earlier planned six-month leave of absence.

He returned to work for a year and a half before his health forced him to take more time off. He told his employees in August, "I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come."

CNN's Dan Simon shares Steve's lasting Legacy

Steve Jobs: A life in technology : CNET Video

Apple Announces iPhone 4S - Quick Preview

2011-10-05T08:28:00.002+05:30

Apple yesterday unveiled the next step for its signature smartphone -- the iPhone 4S. There is no iPhone5. Instead you get the same look of the iPhone 4.

There are two main reasons why one should buy the iPhone4S - Firstly its digital camera ability, it now has a 8 megapixel camera and a new lens arrangement that offers more accurate and sharper images as well as high-def video and the second reason is a new faster microprocessor called A5.

iPhone 4S will be available in black or white and sell for $199, $299 and $399 for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB respectively with a two-year contract.

Apple is keeping 3GS in lineup for 8GB and its free. Also, the iPhone 4 drops to $99 for 8GB..

All About Android - Life History

2011-09-29T09:12:00.009+05:30

Android is an operating system for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers.

It is developed by the Open Handset Alliance led by Google. Over the years the android penetration has exponentially grow globaly.

Also Google has been releasing free upgrade version of Android.

Below is the video on the current state of Android, followed by an infographic on the Android Story so far

Infographic on the Android - Full Screen View

For all the latest new updates on Android you can visit : Android Updates

and subscribe too

Happy Birthday Google - Video Graphics

2011-09-27T08:14:00.003+05:30

Its the lucky 13th anniversary of the debut that changed the World Wide Web forever - Google.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin begun collaboration on a search engine, which was then called BackRub.

They registered the domain name on Sept. 15, 1997. The company as such was incorporated in Sept. 7, 2008. But Google began celebrating its birthday on Sept. 27, in 2005.

Below we are sharing two prespective of google - The Google Story and The Hungry Beast

The Google Story

The Hungry Beast

Virtual Tour of International museums on Google

2011-09-26T20:42:00.008+05:30

Its called the GoogleArtProject - a concept started off as one of the company's "20% projects" which allows Google employees to take a fifth of their time away from their regular day job, to work on innovations.

The Google Art Project currently provide a virtual 360 degree tour of 17 international museums around the world. These museums include the famous National Gallery and Tate Britain in London and they have recently added the Met, MoMa and Frick in New York.

The painting can be viewed online by anyone for free and that too in high resolution as the images are captured using the gigapixel photo-capturing technology.

Its a boon for Art Lovers and for people who are unable to visit each museum and can now discover and view more than a thousand renowned artworks online.

Check it out via below link.
GoogleArtProject or Alternative Link

Check out behind the Scenes video of the GoogleArtProject

Thanks for Sharing Adil.

Google's Eric Schmidt Interview at Dreamforce 2011

2011-09-21T00:09:00.004+05:30

Salesforce.com's Marc Benioff interviewing Google's Eric Schmidt on various topics from the early days at Google to future plans of Google, from the latest Android story to the future of cloud computing.

What companies need to focus on to succeed in a fast moving and quickly changing technology environment.

The entire Dreamforce Keynote speech can be seen on the below YouTube Video

Best of Online Graphs and Charts Creators

2011-09-08T09:50:00.004+05:30

On presentations Graphs and Charts are the best way for visual representation of information and data. Using a well designed graph or chart one can clearly convey the message.

Whatever type of data presentation you prefer (pie charts, bubble charts, bar graphs, network diagrams etc.), you have been creating charts in graphic editors manually or use special desktop-software.

There are several online tools are available that can help you create comprehensively designed flowcharts and graphs within few mins.

These tools being online one can use in anywhere with connection to the internet. Sometimes you can find these services are higher quality software.

Here are few of them which i liked and hence recommend..

1. With Hohli Charts you can generate dynamically charts, developed by Anton Shevchuk.

2. ChartGizmo you can now create charts for your website, blog and social network profiles. ChartGizmo may be useful for those who need to visualize financial, scientific or other type of data.

3. Plotr is a lightweight charting framework, it draws simple and effective charts. It’s free, and there is no use of Flash

4. With Rich Chart Live you can create enjoyable and captivating Flash Charts from your web browser.

Google Plus - The Infographic

2011-09-07T08:41:00.003+05:30

Google Plus is the most talked about social nework these days and is considered to be the NEXT BIG THING! Its already opened up for public and is building up its network

This infographic is designed by IdentyMe which goes to share some stats about Google Plus. - Click here for full screen view

Google acquires Motorola - most expensive acquisitions of this era

2011-09-04T13:39:00.001+05:30

Google and Motorola Mobility recently announced that they have entered into a agreement under which Google will acquire Motorola Mobility for $40.00 per share in cash, or a total of about $12.5 billion.

In a blog post, Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page writes that Google has acquired Motorola not only because of its strength in Android smartphones and devices, but also for being a “market leader in the home devices and video solutions business.”

However one significant benifit would be with Motorola’s 17,000 patents on its side, Google has essentially put an end to the Android patent wars.

Also with Google pledging to keep Android as an open ecosystem and confirming to run Motorola as a separate business, Google also plans for producing its own hardware devices so that it can build Android prototypes. With the Motorola Mobility acquisition, Google will add over 19,000 new employees to its exisitng 29,000 with their existing supply chain, customer service, and hardware development skills.

Firefox for Androids is now available

2011-08-31T08:18:00.006+05:30

Good news for all you Firefox lovers. The Mozilla Mobile Team was working tirelessly to make Firefox awesome on android tablets and mobiles. Firefox is now available on the Android Market.

This Web browser from Mozilla brings the best of desktop browsing to your mobile device. It’s fast, easy to use and customizable, with the latest security and privacy features to help you stay safe online. Firefox for mobile is offered in more than 10 languages too

What’s New in Firefox for Android ?

Focus on Web content: Features like tabs, one-touch bookmarking and browser controls that stow away when not in use help users focus on the websites they visit

Save to PDF: Capture important websites, like directions or a boarding pass, to view offline

Share Page: Share websites via apps like email, Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader and more.

Firefox offers thousands of ways for users to customize the features, functionality and look of their mobile Web browser with Firefox Add-ons

Go to Android Marked to Download the Beta version

Simple trick to crack a protected PDF file

2011-08-24T08:28:00.001+05:30

Removing a Password from a PDF File can be very easy by using this simple tool. This small software is called BeCyPDFMetaEdit.

Follow the below steps...

1. Download the software from the following link. Download Now

2. Install and launch the program, provide the location of the PDF file.

3. Before you select and open the PDF, change the mode to “Complete Rewrite.”

4. Switch to the Security tab and set the “Security System” to “No encryption.” Click the Save button and your PDF will no longer require a password to open.

Simple isn't it.. try it, test it..

Very Affordable Android Tablet Now Available

2011-08-07T09:39:00.003+05:30

Micro-Star International (MSI) a Taiwanese PC manufacturer recently launched an Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread operating system powered range of tablets. With prices starting from Rs 13,999 (approx $ 313) the company aims to cash in on the burgeoning 'tablet' market.

While the bigger brands like Apple's iPad and Research in Motions's PlayBook are priced above Rs 25,000 (approx $ 559), the smaller competitors are focusing on price conscious customers.

These tablets will be available in two variants -- 7-inch (Rs 13,999) and 10-inch (Rs 14,999) in India. These tablets with multi-touch capacitive displays sport a 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor and 512 MB RAM with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth® 2.1.

They come equipped with a 2 MP rear as well as front camera for video calling. Adobe Flash 10.1 support is present and therefore no compromise has been made towards delivering a good web browsing experience. It also has Micro-SD card slot (Max 32 GB), and the weight: 795g for Enjoy 10 and 395g for Enjoy 7.

As per the company the series is designed to offer productivity on the go and help connect with friends.You can order the tablet online from http://in.msi.com/TabletPC.aspx

The Logic Behind a Credit Card Number

2011-07-24T09:31:00.005+05:30

Any credit card or a debit card has a 16 digit number that’s unique in the world. But did you know these are not just random string of numbers but it reveal a little more than you think.

The first six digits of the credit card number is known as the Issuer Identification Number and this is to identify the institution that issued the card. VISA cards follow the series 4xx while MasterCard uses 51-55 as the prefix.

The first digit of the card represents the category of industry which issued your credit card. Taking away the 6 identifier digits and 1 check digit leaves the 9 digits in the middle that form the “account number”. and the last digit of the 16 is known as the “check digit” which is generated in such a way as to satisfy a certain condition.

Below is a visual illustration on how one can verify if a given credit card number is valid or not using simple addition.

( Click to view open in new Window )

Check this on your card number.. and share your feedback !!

Facebook is Taking Over the World ? - Infographics

2011-05-27T09:42:00.002+05:30

Few months ago in India Facebook had just passed Orkut as the dominant social networking site.

Four months ago there was about 7 million Facebook users in Brazil. Now it’s almost doubled to 13,409,220 Facebook users there.

In South Korea there was about 1.6 million Facebook users in the end of October 2010. Now the active user count has more than doubled to 4,010,980 and the penetration in online population is 10.17%.

Here's an infographics with some stats..

http://adf.ly/1cJZm or Click Here

How Did Americans Feel About the Bin Laden Mission

2011-05-21T08:03:00.002+05:30

A joint USA Today/Gallup poll asked the American public how they feel about the U.S. mission to kill the Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Here's an infographics on how did Americans feel about the Bin Laden mission.

Click the image for enlarged view or click here

Inside Google Apps Data Center

2011-05-01T18:20:00.004+05:30

If you are interested to know about the technology and various security procedures in Google's data centers, check out this detailed video presentation.

With more businesses, schools and individuals using Google Apps it becomes very important for Google to ensure keeping any data safe and secure.

Watching the video just reinforced the trust in Google's data center.

New Technology Updates in India

2011-05-01T17:41:00.006+05:30

This is a dedicated AskWiki page to get the latest news updates on new Technologies and Gadgets in India -

Add this page to your browser's Favorite tab or subscribe to receive free email alerts.

Is BlackBerry PlayBook much better than iPad ?

2011-04-20T23:30:00.003+05:30

With its newly release BlackBerry PlayBook, Research in Motion joins the growing tablet market and sets its sights on the Apple iPad 2 and Motorola XOOM.

The BlackBerry tablet powerful QNX operating system - called Neutrino - which allows the PlayBook to perform multitasking at amazing speed. Enhancing its multitasking capabilities that that of an iPad.

Google also is in plans to fight Apple for a share of the tablet computer market and very soon would releasing its answer to Apple's iPad. Here's a first hand comparison between the two.

Apple might lose its lead status as early as 2012, say some experts. But it’s all good news for consumers, who might get to enjoy sinking prices. Other brands are also fast catching up like HCL.

HCL launches three new tablets

2011-03-30T07:41:00.002+05:30

HCL recently launched three new tablets with the price ranging from Rs 14,990 to Rs 32,990. The tablets are running on Google's Android operating system.

These made-in-India tablet PCs will be available in 7-inch and 10-inch screen sizes.

The entry-level HCL ME AE7 comes with 800 MHz processor, 7-inch display, memory specification of 256MB DDR2; NAND Flash 2GB (in-built), Micro SD card for expandability up to 8GB besides 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi support.

The mid-level HCL ME AM7 and the top-end HCL ME AP10A are more feature-rich.

more info at http://hclmetablet.com/tablet-ae7.htm

An iPad 2 review from its developers

2011-03-29T07:57:00.002+05:30

The iPad 2 is 33 percent thinner than its predecessor. The new CPU is said to be up to twice as fast, with graphics performance up to nine times better than on the original iPad, while power requirements have been kept the same.

Battery life is, consequently, unaltered, with Apple promising 10 hours. Pricing, too, has been left unchanged.

In terms of new features, iPad 2 now has two cameras – one for video calling and other for recording video. And this thing now comes in two colors – black and white.

Here is a brief about whats new in iPad 2

AskWiki - Google Android News Updates

2011-01-09T11:20:00.004+05:30

A dedicated AskWiki page to get the latest news updates on Google Android Operating System.

This Page reports every news that concern Global Android users. Reviews on new phones hitting the shelves, budding applications and technologies that impact Android. Sourcing information from various forums, blogs, community for you to be up to date.

What more, you can subscribe for below news feeds for FREE via email or get updates on your mobile via SMS for Free..

Subscribe via Free Email |
Subscribe via Free SMS

Free Theft Recovery Software for Mobiles

2010-12-30T08:07:00.006+05:30

How dependable are you on your mobile ? Do you have critical or important information on your mobile ? Well i am sure you would surely value your mobile phone and would not like it to be misplaced or stolen. But do you have a backup plan in case its stolen ? Will you be able to trace and retrieve your mobile phone when lost ?

Well, here is a free mobile software that you can use. Its called mGuard, from vapssky. mGuard basically provides protection and safety from theft or losing your mobile device and helps to retrieve it back.

mGuard keeps track of the SIM changes of your device by sending SMS notifications to a predefined mobile number selected by the user.The targeted secondary number to which the SIM change notification has to be sent can be the owners secondary no. or a friends no.

To Download this free software visit http://www.getjar.com/mobile/12396/mguard-theft-recovery/ or register here

A detailed PDF User manual is also available here.

For more info visit http://www.vapssky.com/

PC to Phone Free Call Now Available

2010-12-14T08:17:00.003+05:30

Don't waste a single penny and make free call to countries like Australia, Canada, China, India, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, the UK* and the USA absolutely free. A Christmas and New year bonanza by a major voip provider. The service is provided by PennyTel which is one of Australasia's best Broadband Phone service providers.

All you have to do is complete a free registration and validate your email. Then after login you have to click on the PennyTel Softphone option (see below screen) at the left bottom side of the page. A dailer would load... Thats it.. You dial you calling number with the country code and connect

I registered myself for the service and have been using their softphone to make calls. The call quality (using the softphone is good) and call lasts for as long as you want to talk. So try it to believe it. Vistit http://www.pennytel.com.au/

In case you already have a softphone application on your system, you can configure the settings as per PennyTel SIP and make free calls from there.. if you need some help in config, feel free to email me/ or leave a comment below.

Learn to Speak Different Languages via Google

2010-12-05T08:13:00.005+05:30

Google Translate which is a free translation service recently added an addon feature on to their existing translation service. Google Translate which provides instant translations between 57 different languages now also provide translated voice option.

So now apart from just translating text one can also listen to the translated words and sentence by clicking on the listen icon. Moreover these sentences could also be read phonetically in roman language. Learning new language wasn't that simple ever before.

Just Try it : http://translate.google.com/

Below is a video of two girls who used Google Translate service to order food from an Indian restaurant, just check it out and find if it really worked

Understanding Wikis and Blogs

2010-10-17T13:40:00.002+05:30

Wiki a technology for creating collaborative websites, in other words its a content management system designed to allow various people to create and edit web pages without any knowledge of HTML.

Blog is a type of website that is usually arranged in chronological order from the most recent ‘post’ (or entry) at the top of the main page to the older entries towards the bottom.

Whats the difference between a blog and a wiki ?

A blog may aid in brainstorming or generating discussion on various new topics frequently or daily. A wiki, however, is less about new content every day, and more about evolving the same content over time with collabration with various people.

Understanding Social Media and Social Networking

2010-10-16T18:24:00.005+05:30

Have been receiving quite a few responses on my article explaining Twitter. Most of the readers liked the video which explained twitter in simple english. There are similar videos available on youtube and one can find them brief searching. In the coming days i would be sharing some of videos at askwiki covering various topics.

Today I thought of sharing something on Social Media and Social Networking

Social Media simply put is the democratization of content and the understanding of the role people play in the process of not only reading and disseminating information, but also how they share and create content for others to participate. It's a fusion of sociology and technology. Twitter. Facebook. Delicious. These are all examples of social media.

Social Networking is using an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, e.g., who share interests and/or activities.

Twitter Hacked With Mouse Over Virus

2010-09-21T22:43:00.003+05:30

Twitter the microbloging site was hacked recently. If you mouse over malicious tweets you may get infected, even if you don't click them open. The bug redirects users to third-party websites without their consent. Twitter has successfully patched the "XSS attack," according to the Web site's status blog.

The repair is complete and the site is back up and running. The hack affects users of the Twitter site, and hasn’t impacted users who use third-party applications, such as Tweetdeck.

International Investors keen to support India's $35 Tablet

2010-09-05T09:23:00.005+05:30

If you have been skeptic about the Indian $35 proposed laptop plan, its time to know some real fact, which could surely change your view on this Indian government project. Very recently the Union Minister for human Resource Development, Shri Kapil Sibal unveiled a low cost computing-cum-access device currently priced at $35 with wi-fi, full video capability, a nifty e-book reader and 2 GB RAM.

The minister himself displays the product at Gadget guru on NDTV and Gadgetguru (NDTV) did a hands on review of the product. Infact after this review of the product international investors are now keep to support this project.

OLPC’s founder Nicholas Negroponte has written an open letter to the Indian Government where he has provided them with plenty of choices and offered them full access to their technology for ‘free’!

Nicholas has invited the Indian Government to send a team to MIT and OLPC at the earliest so that they can share their thoughts with the Indian Government. Along with free technological resources, OLPC also has plenty of advices to offer for the Indian Government.

Check out this hands on review on the product by Gadgetguru (NDTV)

So what would one get in this $35 tablet
- Linux operating system, Open Office, 5″-9″ touch screen and browsers.
- A touch screen and a built-in keyboard along with a 2 GB RAM memory, wi-fi connectivity, USB port and powered by a 2-watt system to suit poor power-supply areas
- Video-conferencing facility, a Pdf reader and an unzip tool

HCL Technologies has won a contract to manufacture 100,000 of the Indian governments $35 tablets, to be rolled out before the 10th of January 2011. The Indian government is allocating Rs. 30 crore (around $6.4 million) for the project.

Bloggers Unite

2010-09-04T08:30:00.006+05:30

BLOGGERS UNITE - is an initiative by Askwiki to create a directory of good quality blogs.

In case you are a blogger or you know a very good blog and wants it to be listed, please drop me an email and details, will review and accordingly place the blog here.

It may also go under our featured blog section. The blogs listing here surely yields you increased web traffic.

So come join the Askwiki Bloggers Unite Initiative..

Featured Blogs : Bloghash

Technology Blog : Digital Inspiration , My Digital Life , Bloghash ,

Lifestyle & Health :

Gadgets & Gizmos :

Blogging Tips :

Software Reviews :

Internet Tools & Tips : Technacular

Sports & Travel : Sportsline24x7

Google Introduces Free Phone Call Service via Gmail

2010-08-28T16:50:00.005+05:30

On Wednessday Google introduced its free phone call service within its Gmail service. Currently calling to any United States and Canada landline or mobile/cell number is absolutely free and for other countries the rates are at the lowest.

How low ? well, real low here is an example - If you are using a conventional voice-over-Internet-Protocol calling plan or Skype Call service a call to Argentina - Buenos Aires per min would cost you $ 0.21 where as the same call via Google costs $0.02. You can see the whole comparision chart at skype and the call rates from Google.

Rates from Skype Vs Rates from Google (or the detailed rate list)

If you have a Google Voice account, the other person will see that number in their caller ID. You can also answer their calls from within Gmail; an incoming call will generate an alert in the bottom right corner of the Gmail window, which you can click to answer.

If you don't have a Voice account, the other party will see a special number Google has set up, 760-705-8888. Calls to that yield a message advertising the new Gmail feature.

So go ahead and try the free phone calling option from Goolge and do share your views below

The unhackable PlayStation 3 has finally been hacked

2010-08-22T13:47:00.003+05:30

Yes thats true, the unhackable PlayStation 3 has finally been hacked, this means that you will be able to play PS3 games without using original disks. This is possible if you have a ModChip which is a USB device and is called 'PS Jailbreak'.

This modchip is now available for pre-order and soon would be available in global markets . Though it will give you the freedom to play without original games disks, you have to shell out a cool $169 to get your hands on this modchip.

This chips can be bought online via OzModChips.com, OzModChips is a Melbourne based business that imports and sells modchips directly to the consumer and in bulk to businesses. Once you have it in hand you can easily plug it into your PS3 and install it using instructions which can be downloaded from the product website.

Could 'Google Me' be a 'Facebook Killer'

2010-08-05T21:46:00.002+05:30

Facebook the social networking giant could very soon face some real threat from the internet giant Google. Google is planning to create a super social networking site by combining Orkut, Google Buzz & Google Profiles. The service code named as 'Google Me' is aimed to take on Facebook headon.

Google is in various stages of talks with the various vendors and companies like Playdom, Electronic Arts' Playfish, and Zynga Game Network, these are the vendors of the Facebook hit Farmville. Google recently also took a financial stake in Zynga.

In one of the recent statement Eric Schmidt said "The world doesn’t need a copy of the same thing." So woud Google Me be something different ? Could 'Google Me' take on Facebook which already has more than 500 million active users as of July 2010. Well only time will tell.

Whats your opinion ? Share your views via comments.

Indian Government may ban Gmail in India

2010-07-10T13:21:00.002+05:30

Indian Government may ban Gmail in India... Unbelievable ? but it might happen if Gmail does not agree to make data going through their networks available to the Indian security agencies in a readable format. The data services being offered by companies like Gmail and Skype are highly encrypted because of which Indian security agencies are finding it difficult to keep a watch over the content being transmitted through them.

The Government has also decided to amend the IT laws would force companies such as Skype to give complete access to their networks or set up a local server in India to allow security agencies to track content.

After China-made telecommunication equipment, after bringing the satellite-based mobile communication services under tighter security norms, it probably time for internet.

Source : Business Daily

Quick tools to test your internet speed

2010-06-30T23:24:00.003+05:30

Many of the ISPs (Internet Service Providers) continue to describe their services in terms of kilobits (kbps), rather than using kilobytes (KBps) or megabytes (MBps).

This makes it easy for potential customers to compare transfer rates against their existing dial-up modems.

A dial-up modem is capable of speeds close to 56 kbps, line noise, network traffic and other interference can cut data transfer speed significantly. Under the best circumstances, a 56 kbps modem will generally operate at about 53 kbps or 6 KB/sec. Below are some conversions that might help when looking at high-speed ISP.

Understanding kbps will no doubt become handy in determining the best value for your money when switching ISPs.

Also there are some new quick tools which could help to check your actual connection speed. Testing your connection will tell you if you are getting the speed promised by your Internet service provider.

1. SpeedTest.net : This is a free broadband speed analysis tool that allows anyone to test their Internet connection. During an online speed test the website will send your computer a file and then measure how long it takes to download. It performs three key measurements checks to determine the overall quality and performance of your Internet connection. Click here to open the html page.

2. Pingtest.net : Use Pingtest.net to determine the quality of your broadband Internet connection. Streaming media, voice, video communications, and online gaming require more than just raw speed. Test your connection now to get your Pingtest.net rating and share the result with others.

Your Office Photocopy machine could be a digital time bomb

2010-05-18T08:12:00.006+05:30

Have you ever used your office photo copy machine to scan important personal document? like your credit card, income tax papers, social security document, medical records, bank records etc. If the answer is yes then you have a potential threat of these critical data to be stolen.

Did you know most of the digital copier built after 2002 has a build in hard drive and it stores an image of every documents copied, scanned or emailed by the machine on the copier's hard drive. This makes any office copy machine packed with highly-personal or sensitive data and a potential digital time-bomb.

Over a period of time most of the office copier machine are sold out to third party vendors and if somebody is in a identity theft business it seems this machine would be a pot of gold. Retrieving images and data from the copier's hard drive is a very simple process.

Check out this investigative video. This would be surprising and this could be an eye-opener

Advanced technology has opened a dangerous hole in data security, specific precautions can help to minimize risk. The first step could be sharing this awareness.

Also get your office IT dept. to periodically clean the copier's hard drive data.

Source: labnol , cbsnews

Digital Camera Buying Guide - Video

2010-04-29T07:45:00.002+05:30

There are thousands of compact digital cameras available in the market, some are compact and portable, some have more advance features and some are expensive.

But when you are buying a digital camera there are few things you need to remember. Watch this video to find out how to buy the right one for you.

The Basics of Blogging - With Video Tutorials

2010-04-13T22:26:00.002+05:30

The Internet in today's time has changed the nature of work, allowing people to set up virtual offices and work from anywhere and at anytime. With plenty of online tools readily available, setting up your virtual identity is very simple. Blogs or Web-Logs is one such identity. Blogging has been adopted in a very big way on the internet, as it gives an individual the power of media.

I myself have been blogging part for the past 4 years and it has been really exiting. I get more excited when I get responses, emails and comments from my blog readers.

Today i thought of sharing the basics of blogging, its simplicity and its effectiveness and the easy tools available online.

What exactly is a blog ? how is it so powerful ? Well here's a video explaining a blog in simple english.

Now that you understood what a blog is, you would now like to set up one for your self. Below is a video tutorial explaing simple steps to setup your own blogs within minutes..

Hope both these videos were helpful, This is in response to all the email inquires I have been receiving on blogging and starting a blog// thank you all for your email/comments.

Google to acquire one company a month

2010-03-07T07:49:00.005+05:30

In a recent interview to Reuters Television, Google Inc Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said acquisitions are "turned on again". Eric Schmidt in the interview went ahead to say " My estimate would be one-a-month acquisitions, and these are largely in lieu of hiring".

Google, the world's No. 1 Web search company has historically maintained a steady pace of acquiring small and privately held companies over a stretch of period. However post September 2009 Google has been in a acquisition spree, it has already acquired 9 companies post September 2009, the latest being announced on March 3rd.

Here is a insight on some of the major and the recent mergers and acquisitions Google had.

The Famous ones...
In June 2004 Google acquired Baidu, which was a very promiment Chinese language search engine. The deal went through for approx. $5,000,000. The next major acquistion was of YouTube in the October 2006. YouTube was one of the most famous video sharing website. The deal was closed at approx $1,650,000,000.

The Recent ones...

Date	Company	Service Area	Google Product
September-09	reCAPTCHA	Security	All Products
November-09	AdMob	Mobile advertising	Adsense/Adword
November-09	Gizmo5	VoIP	Google Voice
November-09	Teracent	Online Advertising	Adsense
December-09	AppJet (EtherPad)	Collaborative real-time editor	Google Wave
February-10	Aardvark	Social Search	Google Search
February-10	reMail	Email Search	Gmail
March-10	Picnik	Photo Editing	Picasa
March-10	DocVerse	Microsoft Office files sharing site	Google Docs

Get all your questions answered via crowd sourcing

2010-03-06T08:10:00.003+05:30

Ever heard the term 'online crowd sourcing' ? Well let me explain the concept, we all know internet has huge amount of information and most of them are available for free because it is supplied to us by people like you and me.

So if your are looking for something or wanted to know about something you can source the information via the internet. One very handly free service is provided by Aardvark.

Aardvark provides a service that helps you find the answers to your questions, it attempts to get answers to you from reliable people, send questions to others that have tagged their profile to answer those types of questions or who feel they can contribute.

Crowd sourcing comes easy here, because the more you participate, the more you benefit the larger community. So its simple.. you ask question where you do not have the answers and you answers question for which you have the answers.. Try it to know it better..

By the way, an update: In February 2010 Aardvark was acquired by Google, and continues to operate as part of the Google family of products.

A Virtual PDF printer Totally Free

2010-02-23T22:07:00.004+05:30

Exclusively for all Askwiki readers here is a free version of a PDF printer driver. Using this free PDF printer driver you can now convert any of your printable office document into a PDF format document.

It also offers the ability to optimize PDF output for printing to standard laser printers or for onscreen viewing. No watermark is added to the output document and no limitations.

PrimoPDF basically installs as a virtual printer and is accessible from any program that offers a Print option. It provides secure PDFs with 40-/128-bit encryption, allowing the highest level of security for your PDF files.

Settings include password to open, password to change, disable printing, disable text/graphics copying, disable commenting, disable text editing, disable page addition.

This tool also comes very handly in offices also, especially for converting various work related word files to PDF format. Links to download provided below..

Link 1 ( via Ziddu)
Link 2 ( Direct Download, ad supported)

Do try it and share your views via below comments..

A quick brief update on Apple's iPad

2010-01-30T22:52:00.002+05:30

Three years after launching 'iPhone' Apple, the computing giant recently launched a new product. It's known as the 'iPad'.

iPad basically is a tablet computer, magazine sized touch screen that can do various tasks like surfing the web, watching movies, emailing, etc.. its like a bigger version of iPhone with more capabilities.

The Device ?
The device weighs just 1.5 pounds, compared with a few pounds for the typical laptop. At a mere half-inch thick, the iPad is also thinner than most laptops, including Apple's super-thin Macbook Air. With a maximum of 64GB of storage, the iPad can hold as many photos, movies and songs as most laptops.
The Pricing ?
The most basic iPad, with 16GB of flash memory, will be priced at $499. A 32GB version will cost $599 and a 64GB version will cost $699. The WiFi-only versions of the iPad will be available in the United States in March at Apple retail stores, the Apple web site and selected dealers. So other contries have to wait...

This sleek gadget aims to revolutionise the publishing business the same way as Apple iPod transformed the music industry and iPhone transformed the telecom industry.

Here is a brief official video of the iPad from Apple.

Friends, what do you thing of this new product? Share your views on the comments below..

If you hack Google, Google will hack you back

2010-01-17T12:36:00.006+05:30

This seems to be the message Google gave back to the Chinese hackers in the recent cyber attack. Recently when Google was attacked by a group of Chinese hackers it began a secret counteroffensive of breaking into the computers of the hackers and gathering evidence of the origin of these attacks and other relevant information.

Google's delta force found evidence that the hackers had attacked 33 other companies, like Adobe, Symantec., and that the onslaught actually came from Mainland China and not Taiwan. As per Google the evidence also suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists, however the hackers were not successful.

The sophistication of the these attacks strongly suggests support from Chinese government agencies. With this incident Google announced that it will no longer censor search results on Google.cn and they will maintain this stance, even if it ends in shutting down Google.cn.

Source: Official Google Blog and NYT

China's attack on Google explained

Related Post :
Why China Banned YouTube ?
An Inside in China internet Censorship
China Now leading the Internet Supremacy

How to read complete articles from Wall Street Journal for Free

2010-01-14T08:18:00.004+05:30

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is one of the best quality newspaper in the United State. It is also the largest circulation news paper. The online version of the Wall Street Journal is equally good with high quality contents, however its a paid subscription service. The subscription goes to $89 annually to access its premium contents.

In one of my previous article i had shared a trick to read complete articles of WSJ.com following a simple trick using the mobile2.wsj.com method. Here i am sharing one more trick that would enable all to read full articles from the Wall Street Journal.

This time Google comes to our rescue. The method is by using Google cache.

Eg. Below is a link to an article on Wall street journal. ("Google Seeks to Tap Power Markets")
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704854904574644721659940760.html
The complete article is not available for all, one has to subscribe to read the complete article directly.

However if you want to read the complete article all you have to do is copy the article link and google it.

ie., go to google.com and search for "http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704854904574644721659940760.html " you would get a result as below screen shot. On this result page click on the 'cache' link ( highlighted red) and wow you could read the complete article for free..

Try it for your self.. and enjoy reading

Tracking Flights on Google Map - Real Time

2010-01-07T10:23:00.003+05:30

The freely available Google Maps mashup enables developers to create real time web applications. An recent article at Labnol inspired me to research on real time flight tracking mashups available online.

Labnol described about a brilliant mashup that displays movement of incoming and outgoing flights from Amsterdam Airport called Casper (link ad suported)which can be configured for some select airports as well.

Below are some more Live Flight Tracking google map mashups. (all links are ad suported)

Gmaps Flight Tracker is a simple mashup which provides inbound flight information on several of the most popular airports in the U.S. including NY, Atlanta, Boston, etc. It works pretty well though it appears to only display flights relatively close to the arrival airport.

Air Traffic Zurich is mashup which shows on-line real-time air traffic over Switzerland and some more countries in Europe.

Flightradar24 which shows live aircraft traffic in the airspace above whole of Europe. Howver only aircrafts equipped with an ADS-B transponder are visible on the map.

Radarvirtuel covers contries like France, UK, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Finland, Cyprus, USA, Canada and Brazil.

Well, if you are interested in finding the real time flight status, any flight across and city in the world, the below link could come handy..
FlightStats

Friends if you come across any more online real time flight tracker, please do share via comments below.

Burj Khalifai - the tallest building in the world

2010-01-06T10:53:00.004+05:30

The Burj Khalifa was opened to public on January 4, 2010. The 160-plus storey structure is now considered the world’s tallest building. The Burj Khalifa represents the technological advances man has made in the 21st century.

Burj Khalifa formerly know as Burj Dubai became the tallest building in the world in just 1,276 days, with the help of more than 5,000 consultants and skilled construction workers pooled in from around the world.

Here is a animated comparison of the Burj Khalifa against some other tall buildings around the world.
Click here (Ad supported) or Click here (SWF format)

This mammoth man-made structure will be mostly residential, but will also be home to the worlds highest observation deck at a vertigo inducing 517m high, as well as the worlds first 6 star rated Armarni Hotel. The tower was constructed by a South Korean company, Samsung Engineering & Construction, which also did work on the Petronas Twin Towers and Taipei 101.

Here is an animated overview of the Burj Khalifa and the place around..

Sources: tubespider.blogspot.com

Some Record Facts of Burj Khalifais

Burj Khalifais the tallest skyscraper to top of spire: 828 m (2,717 ft) (previously being Taipei 101 – 509.2 m (1,671 ft))

Burj Khalifa is the building with most floors: 160 (previously Willis Tower – 108)

Burj Khalifa has the world's highest swimming pool (at the 76th floor)

Burj Khalifa has the world's fastest elevators at speed of 64 km/h (40 mph) or 18 m/s (59 ft/s)[26] (previously Taipei 101 – 16.83 m/s)

Create your own High Quality Calendar Online

2010-01-05T13:51:00.002+05:30

In one of my previous article i had shared a collection of high quality wallpaper, today i am sharing a cool online website using which you can create your own calendar images.

Below is a calendar image that i have created using this free online service.

The creation process is very simple and the output also is good quality.. ( your calendar images can also be used as your desktop wallpaper)

This free service is provided by calendarika ( link provided below this post)

Steps involved to creating your online calendar.

Step 1. Select from the designs/layouts available
Step 2. Upload a background and a foreground image (this could be you or your loved ones)
Step 3. Save the output image on your desktop, this could be used as a wallpaper also.

I tried various combination, like background image was a beautiful waterfall image and foreground was a group photo of my friends, and the output calendar image was so beautiful. Another combination, i kept the background and foreground image both of my best friend, for the month of JAN ( his birthday is in Jan) and wow the output was so good.. I really liked this free service.

Try it out for your self, click the below links to visit Calendarika
Link 1 ( Ad supported)
Link 2

How to know if a person is at invisible mode on Gtalk/Gmail

2010-01-02T11:22:00.003+05:30

The invisible mode is one of the most used feature on Gtalk, this feature helps one to be invisible for others your contact list while you use the Gmail/Gtalk service.

Generally there is no way anyone could know if you are online if you set status to invisible mode, but there is a small simple trick though.

Below is a trick to know if a person is logged in at an invisible mode.

You just need to follow below 3 steps..

Step 1. You login to Gtalk/Gmail chat as usual.

Step 2. Set the chat as 'off the record' with target user. This can be done by clicking on the inverted triangle button in chat window as follow.

Step 3. Now try sending chat to that target user when he is invisible or offline, you could say a 'hi'

-- If the target user is invisible, then he will receive your chat message.

But if the target user is not actually logged in then you would receive a alert message back ".... can't receive messages right now."

This really works, try it for your self...

High Quality Desktop Wallpaper Collection

2010-01-01T23:15:00.010+05:30

This new year, gift your desktop computer some new high quality wallpapers. Below i am presenting some of my favorite wallpapers which can be easily downloaded by clicking on the image.

So pick your favorite.

If you would like to have some more wallpapers, e mail me and i would reply with more high quality desktop wallpapers.

If you are aware of some website, please share to all via comments below..
ll
Update:
Few readers have shared some links to me via email.. so you could try them also..
From desizntech
From designora

About Askwiki Author

2009-12-31T09:42:00.002+05:30

Hi Friends,

My name is Rishil Babu, the author of Askwiki Blog. I am a part-time blogger and had been blogging for the past 3 years. Askwiki is one of my oldest and most successful ventures so far. Its a technology blog that i have been designing and authoring from my initial days of blogging.

I believe "Knowledge Grows When Shared" So in all my blogs i intend to share information, tips, references that would help my readers.

I am passionate about Technology and Internet and so I like to explore more on these subjects. Online tools, web application, new website services, useful softwares are available at plenty on the internet and i like to try, test and experiment on them.

On Askwiki i share my views on these and also some tips and tricks that could be useful to Askwiki readers.

Why Askwiki ? Whats the USP ?
Well, I try to ensure that the information provided on Askwiki is crisp, short and precise. Not very lengthy or theoretical.

Over a period of time i have been following various technology bloggers and websites and now have good active community where we share information and tips. This is what then i bring to Askwiki readers..

Independence or Freedom is a essential part of a blog, as we are not sponsored or affiliated to any organisation or enterprise, the contend on this blog is highly un-biased and factual.

and i intend to keep it that way...

Thats it from me, hope you are enjoying my articles at Askwiki. Do send in me your feedback and opinions on my articles or blog via contact author page or through my social networks.

2009 has been a wonderful year for Askwiki and 2010 is going to be much more exciting.

Signing off, Regards,
Rishil Babu

Wishing All Askwiki Readers a Wonderfull Year Ahead

2009-12-31T09:05:00.009+05:30

Dear Readers,

Wishing you and your family a wonderful 2011, may this new year bring you lots of joy, good health and success all the way.

As we say good bye to 2010, i wanted to thank each one of you for reading my articles at Askwiki. 2010 has been a great year for Askwiki and myself too. Askwiki managed to cross some milestones (shared below) and managed to get in to some new ventures ( will be sharing this soon..).

This is just the beginning for a long exciting journey in 2011.

Milestones for Askwiki in 2010 ( all image sourced from Google Analytics)

1. The traffic on Askwiki has been steadily increasing, with few random dips in between. From Sep 10 it had crossed the 2000 mark. -- meaning the contends on askwiki is very much appealing and liked.

2. Significant percent traffic source is from search engines, more than 83% as of Dec 10 -- meaning many articles are spidered/linked by various search engines.

3. Askwiki has significant percentage of traffic from the US, its the next highest from India. -- meaning Askwiki has gone global.

4. Subscribed Readers to Askwiki has steadily increased. As of Dec 09 Askwiki's dedicated reader count is at 400. -- meaning Askwiki family is strong and growing stronger.

Once again i would like to thank each one of you who have been reading Askwiki, for being the strength of the Askwiki Blog. I can assure you 2011 would be much more exciting than ever..

-- Remember, if you like the articles on Askwiki do share it to your friends, and/or you can subscribe to Askwiki and be a part of the Askwiki family.

Whats new in 2011 for Askwiki ? - Well, the all new Askwiki is here for 2011.

Best tool for Project Planning & Scheduling

2009-12-02T18:05:00.002+05:30

If your work involves lots of planning and scheduling complex projects, i just came across a brilliant and simple project management and planning web-based application, ideal for project managers.

Lot of project managers have been using the Gantt Charts for analyzing and planning, but now with this application planning and scheduling has become much simpler. The tool is called 'Tom's Planner'. Just like Gantt Charts which helps you to monitor whether the project is on schedule. If it is not, it allows you to pinpoint the remedial action necessary to put it back on schedule, the same is available on Tom's Planner but in a more user friendly way. Of all the other online collaboration tools i had reviewed this one seems to be in the top three.

The features of Tom's Planner are so simple and easy to use that anyone who ever worked on excel can operate on the application. The site also has a one minute tutorial briefing the range of features offered by the application. As its is a web-based program, there is no software to be download so users do not have to be concerned with the usual download security concerns or having administrative privileges on the Office LAN network.

Click here to have brief overview of the tool.

Users can right-click to add contents , drag and drop details, and do pretty much everything you'd expect to get from a desktop application. You can also export contend/plan to Microsoft Project, export to an image, or publish the schedule online for your team.

P.S. Tom's Planner services is free during its beta period, after which it go paid, but according to their signup page, anyone who joined during the app's beta will get at least a full year of free service, so it really seems worth a try. Click Here to open Tom's Planner

Wishing All AskWiki Readers Happy Deepavali

2009-10-17T09:21:00.006+05:30

The significance of Deepavali is the removal of darkness and ignorance from the mind and filling it with goodness and knowledge.

On this auspicious occasion wishing all AskWiki readers a Happy Deepavali and a Prosperous New Year...

http://diwaligreets.blogspot.com/

Thank you all for sharing your valuable comments and suggestion on my blog articles, this keeps me charged up and going on. Hope in the coming times also our bonding strengthens.

Download any online file with a single click

2009-10-11T09:31:00.003+05:30

Be it RapidShare, Megaupload, Mediafire, zShare or any file hosting site which makes you to wait for seconds or even minutes before the download link apprears and then you click more links to finally download the file. This unfriendly method of download would soon be a thing of the past with skipscreen. By using this skipscreen addon one can bypass the download delays on the hosting sites.

Skipscreen is a free and handy Firefox plugin designed to auto-clicks through the ad-screens of the hosting site. Once you click on a download link, SkipScreen will do all the work until the file starts downloading. So if you a hardcore file downloader this is a must have addon.

Just to share Skipscreen has already crossed 1 million download and the download only seems increasing. Click the below link to try it for yourself. Download Skipscreen

Below is a video explaining Skipscreen features.

Do Know the real rockstar from Intel's Ad ?

2009-10-11T08:56:00.002+05:30

-
Intel had recently released a multi-year global campaign to showcase the advances it has made over the chip technology. Do you recollect the recent Intel Rockstar TV Ad ? In this particular Ad Intel had focused on Ajay V. Bhatt, the co-inventor of Universal Serial Bus (USB).

Who exactly is Ajay Bhatt ? Well he is an Indian computer architect working with Intel and currently holds a position of Intel's Chief I/O architect. He has been very instrumental in driving definition and development of technologies such as USB (Universal Serial Bus), AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) and PCI Express.

Just to share Ajay Bhatt himself was not in this Tv Ad, probably because he doesn't want his real fans to recognize him in public. His role in the Ad was played by a actor Sunil Narkar.

Google Voice is in trouble in US

2009-10-10T10:58:00.002+05:30

Google had recently launched its revolutionary Google Voice service. Google Voice allows consumers to use one Google issued number for home, office and cell. The free service also transcribes voice mail and offers unlimited free texting. This service also seems to be a possible threat to the telecoms giants.

However within months of its release the service has landed itself in to trouble with the US regulators. The Federal Communications Commission of the US has set up an investigation on the service to find if Google is violating any telecommunications laws by blocking the connection of some calls to rural areas.

While the FCC has issued an clarification letter to Google, Google maintains that Google Voice is merely a "call management" service — not a phone service — and therefore isn't subject to FCC oversight.

This isn't the first time Google has drawn the attention of FCCs. Couple of months ago too there was a dispute between AT&T, Apple and Google after Apple blocked Google Voice software from its iPhone App Store.

How to download flash files online without any addons

2009-10-08T08:14:00.000+05:30

Many a times we come accross interesting flash files like any video files or any high quality flash game file from a game website, and we wish to download it to our system. Well there are softwares and browser addons which would let you download these files ( some whith limitation) but there is an alternate way to download flash online.

If you are using Mozilla Firefox, then folow the below method.
Go to the webpage where the flash files embeded
a. Click Tools - Page Info from the browser menu bar
b. Click the Media Tab on the Page Info Windows
c. The media tab has a complete list (with preview) of Images, CSS Files and Shockwave Flash files that were downloaded by the Firefox browser while loading the page.
d. Scroll down the list and locate the required swf file.
e. Click the "Save As" button to save the file on your system

If you are using Internet Explorer or Chrome, then folow the below method.
a. Click Tools - Internet Options
b. In the General Tab, click the Settings button available in the Temporary Internet Files group.
c. Click View Files to open your Temporary Internet Files folder. Depending upon your IE settings, the Temp. folder can contain tens of thousands of files.
d. Click View - Details. Now click View - Arrange Icons By - Internet Address. Depending upon the webpage, there could one or more Flash files (Shockwave Flash Object) under the Inernet Address.
e. Once you find the right flash file, right-click and choose Copy. Then paste the swf file in any other directory. ensure to keep the page and IE open to avoid purging of the cache file.

Thats it simple trick you could use without using any addons or software

What Google thinks about its competitors

2009-09-27T19:22:00.010+05:30

"Don't be evil" has always been the motto of Google. However ever wondered what the mighty Google thinks about other companies? especially its rivals? Although Google does not officially share its view on its competitors but a small Google search would spill the beans.

I tried using Google search on few companies like Yahoo, Microsoft, FaceBook & Google itself and below are some screen shots of the results... Try it out for yourself.

However Google claims that the search suggestions are obtained by only comparing your partial query with popular searches on the net.. Hey if you find some more interesting results do share it with me.

How to Control laptops via internet using twitter

2009-09-05T08:21:00.002+05:30

Yes, Remotely controlling your laptop via twitter twits is now very much possible. You basically have to install a small application on to your laptop (mac book) or your desktop and leave your system connected to the internet.

Now from you twitter account your could send various commands as twits on to your system which it would recognize the command and act upon. There are two application that i am sharing below.

1. TweetMyPC : Using with a user can then initiate the shutdown, restart of logoff the system by updating the status at Twitter. TweetMyPC is freeware, Windows only and requires .NET 3.5 or higher on your system. TweetMyPC checks for status updates every minute and runs most of the time in the Windows system tray.

2. TweetMyMac : This more for Mac users, using this tiny application you can remote control your macbook. Infact this has more additional command options, some interesting ones are listed below.

a. iSight - Snaps an image from your Mac's iSight camera. Your Mac will then reply with the picture posted on TwitPic.

b. open [App] / quit [App] - Opens/Quits the application. You do not need to specify the apps path, but you must enter it's full name, eg "open Address Book".

c. screensaver - The screensaver will be activated on your Mac.

All the above with other basic commands like shutdown, restart, sleep, etc..
You could download the TweetMyMac application from

How to undo a just send email on Gmail

2009-08-30T20:11:00.002+05:30

Suppose you had something quite interesting to share with your friend. You go to your Gmail compose option and draft the content and select the recipient from your address book and hit send. And just then to your shock you remembered that instead of your friend you have emailed it to your boss... & Gmail doesn't have a recall option... oops!!.

Well to your rescue Gmail recently added a small handy feature that can save your day.. Activating this feature would hold your email for few seconds after you hit send and you get an undo option to stop the transmission of the email.

Some would find this feature good to have and some whould say why delay the send email even for a sec. Well i would say the feature is optional to the user and infact google should allow the user to have control to set the time for hold.

To activate turn on Undo Send in Gmail Labs under Settings, and you’ll see a new “Undo” link on every sent mail confirmation for few secs. Click “Undo,” and google would grab the message before it’s sent and take you right back to compose.

Collaboration and Web Conferencing on the cloud

2009-08-28T08:22:00.003+05:30

Do you feel your businesses needs a better way to connect and collaborate ? Well we have just the right solution for you. A tool which is easy for people to access, work with, and share all their content, wherever they are.

Box.net as one of the most popular and trusted web-based services for accessing and sharing content from anywhere. Today many fortune 1000 companies around the world use Box to easily connect with the content and people that matter most.

Box.net is also promoting an open platform that lets users take advantage of the best services and applications available. Through its OpenBox platform, many of the third party applications including Google, Microsoft, Autodesk, Zoho, WordPress, and Picnik have been integrated into Box, enabling Box users do more with their content online.

Box.net recently added a new service from Fuze Meeting, which brings its web conferencing and real-time collaboration capabilities to Box. Using Fuze Meeting, one can start a web conference and share files on the Box account at one click. It’s a great way to share presentations, project plans and any of your content with colleagues and clients , wherever they are.

Since it’s web-based, you don’t have to download or install any software, letting you join web conferences in an instant. Do thy the service and share your comments below...

Our World and the Future of Technology

2009-08-23T15:36:00.003+05:30

Current technological advancements have made the world smaller and have made things easier for all of us. Each and every invention is a small step in mans' endeavor to achieve his goal towards perfection.

Technological developments have made communication much easier. Telephones and cellular phones help us talk with others no matter where they are. People and businesses are communicating globally without making travel arrangements. With the push of a button we are making important transactions.

Time-saving electrical appliances and tools enable people to have much more leisure time to spent at our free will. Computers were originally developed to use for doing calculations and have come to the point that people cannot function normally without them.

So whats the future of Technology ? Well, you need to know some facts to answer this question.. Watch this amazing video below to do some fact findings... Enjoy !!

Tip to customise images size on Blogger

2009-08-19T07:32:00.004+05:30

While blogging most of us would have uploaded images on to blogger post, within blogger.com there is an option (as shown below) to size a particular image. ie., small, medium or large.

However there is trick to size the images as per your requirement (customizing image size) while uploading any image on blogger.

This is how you do it.

1. Upload your image on to your blog post as usual and then open the 'edit html' option to find the URL of the image.
eg. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_K9tvXi_Ack0/Sotbb8Vo2-I/AAAAAAAABzQ/fIAGW87qbRE/s200-h/todaysmanager.JPG

2. Refer the above highlighted part on the URL, this is nothing but the pixel size of the image.

3. If you change the size of this URL, the size of the image to changes.. the size could be eg. s200 or s400 or s800 etc...

So customize the URL address to customize the image size.. Thats it...
Some sample images provided below, have a look

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_K9tvXi_Ack0/Sotbb8Vo2-I/AAAAAAAABzQ/fIAGW87qbRE/s200-h/todaysmanager.JPG

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_K9tvXi_Ack0/Sotbb8Vo2-I/AAAAAAAABzQ/fIAGW87qbRE/s400-h/todaysmanager.JPG

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_K9tvXi_Ack0/Sotbb8Vo2-I/AAAAAAAABzQ/fIAGW87qbRE/s800-h/todaysmanager.JPG

Mozilla Firefox crosses the one billion-download mark

2009-08-03T08:20:00.001+05:30

Cheers to Mozilla. Firefox has come a long way since its online debut in November 2004. Volunteers from all over the world continue to contribute to the coding, testing and spreading of Firefox to communities across the globe, this is one of the main reason for the success.

The Mozilla Foundation continues to be dedicated in making the Internet better for everyone by promoting choice, innovation and participation online and this Mozilla's mission.

To maximize the marketing potential of this event Mozilla also is touting the 1,000,000,000 + you site website.Lately Firefox has truly achieved real success, eating steadily into Microsoft Internet Explorer's dominant market share to become the second-most used browser. The newest version is downloaded between 40 and 60 times a second worldwide at present.

So guys if you are a Firefox fan, its time to celebrate.. Some handly links to speard the Firefox spirit are shared below, check them out and enjoy!!

Mozilla Firefox Download Tracker
Spread Firefox Site
The One Billion Plus You Site

How to create quality charts using Flash

2009-07-18T08:56:00.001+05:30

Flash is an excellent technology for dealing with data visualization, now there are tools online that can help you to create flash charts online for free and that too the process is very simple. Here am sharing you some Flash component which can be used for creating animated and interactive charts for the web or desktop applications.

1. Open Flash Chart : Open Flash Chart is an open source Flash-based graphing and charting solution developed using ActionScript 3. Open Flash Chart’s features include interactivity of your charts with tooltips, the ability to resize your charts client-side, and being able to save your graphs as images. Here is a sample

2. Black Box Chart : Black Box Chart is a free Flash component for charting data on the web. Black Box Chart offers you an interactive solution for data visualization, clicking on data points of bar graphs outputs the data value. The Black Box Chart editor is a tool that you can use for creating and editing your charts using a graphical user interface (GUI). Here is a sample

3. Fly Charts : Fly Charts is a Flash component for graphing data. Fly Charts has an Online Wizard to help you quickly create your Flash charts, making it extremely accessible even to non-developers. Fly Charts has many outstanding features such as the ability to zoom into any section of a chart, the capability to become scrollable if the chart is too big, client-side interaction with JavaScript, and error-handling for missing data. Here is a sample

Friends if you know any more tools, please do share via comments below..

The Pirate Bay to be sold by August 2009

2009-06-30T17:00:00.003+05:30

The Pirate Bay website which is termed as one of the world's largest facilitators of illegal downloading is all set to be sold to a

gaming company called the Global Gaming Factory X by August 2009. The Pirate Bay was in controversies many a times, the recent

being when the website's servers located in Stockholm were raided by Swedish police causing it to go offline for three days.

What exactly does The Pirate Bay website do ? Well basically it indexes and tracks BitTorrent (.torrent) files available online. In other words this website is useded by thousands of people to download free softwares, games, video, movies the site is used for free.

The website features efficient browse function which enables users to see what is available in categories like Audio, Video and Games as well as more specific categories like Audio books, Highres Movies, and Comics also enabling them to download these

files absolutely free. The contents which are mostly illegal can then be sorted basis categories by file name, number of seeds or leechers, dates posted, etc.

Global Gaming Factorywill acquire the site’s domain names and sites for SEK 60,000,000 ($7.8 million) - SEK 30,000,000 in cash and the rest in newly issue shares. Once taken over the Pirate Bay would have a new business model and probably a paid service.

Before it disappears do check out the website and its features...

Google Voice all set to rock the world

2009-06-23T21:58:00.005+05:30

If Google does something it does it humongous. After firmly setting its feet in advertising, analytics, office software and others various other areas. Google Voice seems poised to redefine how many of us use phones in general. Recently Google announce its intend to release Google Voice.

Google Voice - allows users to use a single virtual number which can be programmed to ring at any number of the user’s selected phone number, be it home, office or cellphone. It can also be programmed to direct your calls to voicemail during the evening and weekend hours. So wherever you go your call will reach you instead your caller to find and reach you.

Google Voice is also said to provide various other useful features, some of them are listed below. Click on the respective feature to know more including video demonstration at TechnoWiki.

* Call screening - Announce and screen callers
* Listen in - Listen before taking a call
* Block calls - Keep unwanted callers at bay
* SMS - Send, receive, and store SMS
* Place calls - Call US numbers for free
* Taking calls - Answer on any of your phones
* Phone routing - Phones ring based on who calls
* Forwarding phones - Add phones and decide which ring

* Voicemail transcripts - Read what your voicemail says
* Listen to voicemail - Check online or from your phone
* Notifications - Receive voicemails via email or SMS
* Personalize greeting - Vary greetings by caller
* Share voicemail - Forward or download voicemails

* Conference calling - Join people into a single call
* Call record - Record calls and store them online
* Call switch - Switch phones during a call
* Mobile site - View your inbox from your mobile
* GOOG-411 - Check directory assistance
* Manage groups - Set preferences by group

Google Voice is a product of Google's March 2007 acquisition of GrandCentral. Google Voice is currently available for GrandCentral users only, but will be open to new users soon. This service is expected to be free to all.

Here's David Pogue takes a look at Google Voice, a service that unifies all phones and voicemail.

By far Google Voice seems to be a great application. It makes managing phone calls much easier, and it's free. What do you think ? Share your views below...

A better way to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages

2009-06-09T07:40:00.001+05:30

Social bookmarking is the way forward if you are looking for a better way to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages.In a social bookmarking system, users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share. These bookmarks are usually public, and can be saved privately, shared only with specified people or groups, shared only inside certain networks, or another combination of public and private domains. The allowed people can usually view these bookmarks chronologically, by category or tags, or via a search engine.

All over the World is the trend that we trust each other more and more than Engines and experts. Userdriven reviews are getting increasing attention all over and now big companies are starting to realize that too. Tagging is the future and Social Bookmarking the tool!

Here is a short video explanation of the features and benefits of Social Bookmarking sites like Delicious.com... in simple english...

New simple ways to convert Video files online

2009-05-30T09:03:00.003+05:30

Many a times you come across some online videos which you would like to download on your computer or your mobile phone. Mostly these are Flash/FLV format videos that you see on websites like YouTube, Daily Motion etc.. well i would like to share some quite simple methods to download these video files in your required format.

Here are some tools that would do the trick.

1.Movavi: I would say Movavi Online Video Converter is the easiest way to get your videos in the format you want. Steps to follow are simple.. go to the website, then either fetch it the URL of the video file (eg. This from YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8us3ZOPo3MU ) or alternatively browse/attach an existing file from your computer.

Then select the download format (this site has almost all formats) Then hit "Convert". Soon you would get a converted link to download the file... as simple as that. Try it to know its simplicity.
The Link

2.KickYouTube: Its the best way to download video files from the YouTube website. KickYouTube is a clone site of YouTube with a "kick" feature. This "kick" directly allows you to download videos in your required format, be it 3GP, AVI, MP4, etc... All YouTube files are available at Kickyoutube site.
The Link
Here is an video demo of the kick effect

Downloads: 25111 Views: 33975

Twitter explained in plain english video

2009-05-24T10:14:00.002+05:30

I’ve been Twittering and I must admit its addictive. I think its real-time updates feature is what mainly draws people to Twitter where they share updates on what they are doing or their brief thoughts. In one of my previous post i had shared details on How twitter was born. Now here i wanted to share how twitter works and what is twitter all about.

Here is a plain English video explaining twitter. Credits: Commoncraft

Simply put, a Tweet is a message sent on Twitter. To send or receive a Tweet, you have to create a free account with Twitter. Once you have an account, you can begin building your network of contacts. You can invite other users to receive your Tweets, and you can follow other members' posts.

Tweets can only have up to 140 characters before the system cuts off the rest of the message. Tweets can only contain text -- members can't include pictures, video or other computer files with Tweet messages. Some people call Twitter micro-blogging -- very short messages. Users can update people about what's going on, like a blog, but the messages themselves are limited in length by system constraints.

So tweet yourself and the know how good it works for you. Hey, by the way here is a twitter song i liked... i should rather say the twitter dance song. Enjoy

If your are looking for some cool and useful twitter resources do visit..Technowiki which has a brief list of twitter resources... So happy twittering !!

The Best of Online collaboration tools.

2009-05-12T07:22:00.003+05:30

It’s more than clear that 2009 will be a challenging year for a great many businesses, as global recession takes its troll. Most organizations these days are now actively engaged in activities that are taking a look at what they can do to make the best of the current economic situation. So organisazations needs to be more productive and efficient.

One good use of technology and internet is using online collaboration tools as these help increase productivity by streamlining scheduling of meetings & enabling employees to avoid conflicts. With more organization seeing "software-as-a-service" its essential to be aware of some good available tools. Here let me share some i found usefull.

Collaboration tools and online storage applications offer many possibilities: online collaborative editing, synchronizing across computers, sharing multiple files and discussion boards, and sharing windows and documents on the spot,

1. Central Desktop is a full work suite for project teams including spreadsheets, file sharing, calendar and more. It was created for business teams, not the IT department. That is why no technical knowledge or programming experience is required.

2. HyperOffice A pioneer in software-as-a-service since 1998, HyperOffice provides “out-of-the-box” online workspace solutions to growing businesses. Available under pay-as-you-go plans, HyperOffice includes all the tools teams need to be effective – business email, document management, calendars, task management, customer portals, mobility, online meetings, online databases.

3. Colligo software enables mobile teams equipped with wireless capable laptops to instantly and securely network together no matter where they are working - at the client site or on the road. Once connected, they can share files, share an Internet connection, share a printer, collaborate on a document, chat, compare calendars and much more.

4. CrossLoop is a free secure screen sharing utility designed for people of all technical skill levels. CrossLoop extends the boundaries of VNC’s traditional screen sharing by enabling non-technical users to get connected from anywhere on the Internet in seconds without changing any firewall or router settings. It only takes a few minutes to setup and no signup is required.

5. OpenTeams.com is web-hosted collaborative software to foster a more innovative culture. In addition to project collaboration, blogging, social networking, community building, and knowledge management, OpenTeams is an innovative initiative development solution where employees collaboratively seed and mature new ideas for additional revenue, productivity, and cost-savings.

6. ProjectSpaces is a simple, secure and powerful web-based workspace to help your project teams, workgroups, committees, partners, and others quickly and easily connect, share and collaborate. ProjectSpaces is easy to use and can be set up in just a few minutes. It was created for the average computer user - not techno geeks. You can share documents with project team members regardless of geographic constraints. At one glance, view and access your most recent tasks, announcements, events and discussions on your project homepage. Participants have the ability to directly update status of their tasks and other information.

7. Google Docs & Spreadsheets is a free web-based word processing and spreadsheet program that keeps documents current and lets the people you choose update files from their own computers. You can, for example, coordinate your student group’s homework assignments, access your family to-do list from work or home, or collaborate with remote colleagues on a new business plan. Google Docs & Spreadsheets allows you to import your existing documents and spreadsheets, or to create new ones from scratch. You can edit your documents from anywhere. Google Docs & Spreadsheets accepts most popular file formats, including DOC, XLS, ODT, ODS, RTF, CSV, etc. Besides, you can publish your documents and spreadsheets online with one click, as normal-looking web pages, without having to learn anything new.

8. Huddle is a network of secure online spaces that combine powerful document, project and team tools with the simplicity of social networking site. It is ideal for brands, advertising, marketing, PR, design, legal and accountancy companies as well as freelancers and consultants. Use huddle to manage multiple projects from one interface, securely share and approve documents, deliver superior client service and add value to your existing relationships.

The Google Bus: A Google India initiative.

2009-05-11T18:05:00.000+05:30

The Google Bus project: It's a mobile bus designed to showcase the benefits of Internet usage to the people across the cities of India. Its a good menthod to directly connect to the Indian masses. Currently the project was limited to Tamil Nadu initially and Google had promised to visit other areas in the country, if they get a good response to the program. Google Bus will be soon seen on Bangalore roads as well.

Here is the list of places and schedule for the Google Bus:-
04 May Kolar
06 May Mandya
08 May Mysore
13 May Bengaluru
14 May Hassan
17 May Arsikere
18 May Shimoga
21 May Bhadravati
24 May Chikmanglur
27 May Tumkur
30 May Chitradurga
02 Jun Davangere
06 Jun Hubli-Dharwad
11 Jun Belgaum
15 Jun Gadag
18 Jun Hospet

Also here are some interesting featured videos

1.Featured Internet Bus Video:-

2.Internet For Communication:-

3.Internet For Information:-

4.Internet For Education:-

The secrets of Dark Matter and Dark Energy revealed

2009-05-07T14:06:00.002+05:30

Ordinary matter makes up only a few percent of the content of the universe, almost a quarter of the content is made of dark matter and the rest is made of dark energy.Dark matter is hypothetical matter that is undetectable by its emitted radiation, but whose presence can be inferred from gravitational effects on visible matter.

In this video Patricia Burchat answers questions like:
What is universe made of?
What is the twenty first century view of the universe?
What are the laws of physics that govern the fundamental constituents of the universe?

Other relevent topics and videos...
NOVA scienceNOW | The Dark Matter Mystery | PBS

Beyond the Light: Dark Matter - Chandra X-ray Observatory

Now run your web apps on Google's infrastructure

2009-05-05T12:28:00.002+05:30

Google App Engine is an application-hosting tool that any developers can use to build scalable web apps on top of Google’s infrastructure. The goal of Google is to make it easier for the web developers to build and scale applications, instead of focusing on system administration and maintenance.

For developers provisioning and configuring multiple machines for web serving and data storage is an expensive and time consuming excercise. Google App Engine helps to deploy web applications by dynamically providing computing resources as they are needed. Developers write the code and deply rest is taken care by Google App Engine.

Sudden increase in web traffic can be overwhelming for applications of all sizes, so Google App Engine can take care of the surge in web traffic when the web app gain popularity. Google App Engine makes it easier to scale from one user to one million by taking advantage of Bigtable and other components of Google’s scalable infrastructure.

Easily integrate with other Google services is an added advantage for developers. It’s unnecessary and inefficient for developers to write components like authentication and e-mail from scratch for each new application. Developers using Google App Engine can make use of built-in components and Google’s broader library of APIs that provide plug-and-play functionality for simple but important features.

Some limitations as well.. As of now only the first 10,000 developers to sign up for the beta will be allowed to deploy applications. Secondly the service is completely free during the beta period, but there are ceilings on usage. Applications cannot use more than 500 MB of total storage, 200 million megacycles/day CPU time, and 10 GB bandwidth (both ways) per day.

Watch a video demo of a sample app from creation to deployment on the Google App Engine.

Our Source.

Explore some sample apps in the App Gallery.

The White House now gets into social networking

2009-05-02T13:03:00.002+05:30

Recently the Obama administration had revamped WhiteHouse.gov, and also created several other websites including recovery.gov to track the economic stimulus bill and transparency.gov to monitor spending. It recently had also announced plans to launch data.gov a site which would make a broad array of US government data available to the public.

And now the white house is available on social networking sites like MYSpace, Facebook and Twitter. Content from President Barack Obama's website WhiteHouse.gov is being fed in real time to White House profile pages on MySpace and Facebook.

The White House has more than 60,000 fans on Facebook and more than 8,000 friends on MySpace within a few hours of the pages going online while more than 14,500 people had signed up as "followers" of the White House Twitter stream.

Obama's "New Media" team has already created a channel on YouTube upon his taking office and the White House is also present on photo-sharing site Flickr, video-sharing site Vimeo and on Apple's iTunes.

Here are the links on Facebook, MySpacce and Twitter. So if your are Obama fan.. join the club.

Best tools for Collaborating real time documents online

2009-05-02T06:57:00.001+05:30

Collaborating online with others has never been easier. There are a number of options for everything from sharing images and video to presentations, tasks and more. Some services require you to create documents online while others allow you to create them off. Here i am sharing my favourite three tools for collaborating documents in real time.

1. EtherPad offers real-time editing and collaboration of plain text documents. It includes a mini chat room and shows each user’s edits with their own color in real time. Also nice is the ability to save and restore revisions. Here is a video demo.

2. Google Docs offers all three office apps for creating documents, spreadsheets and presentations. They also offer good sharing features which means you can collaborate with others in real-time at the same time on the same documents.

There’s also an option to post the document to a blog or website and have any changes updated automatically by itself. This makes it sort of like a wiki and a blog publishing platform. A downside to Google Docs is that you can’t chat with others inside Google Docs, but then again, you can always use Gtalk

3. ThinkFree provides a slick suite of online apps like Google Docs. You can use the web versions of their apps or install a desktop client that syncs with your online account which will allow you to work offline.Google claim to let you work offline via Google gears but you can’t create new documents offline, only view existing ones. Thinkfree allows you to do everything just like the full blown Microsoft Office suite.

Free and effective online tools to fight virus attack

2009-04-16T16:42:00.002+05:30

Standard dial-ups used to be the best way of keeping your home PC protected from viruses and worms, but no more. Today's technology and the ever increasing complexity of computer viruses and worms have now made you dial-up internet connection also vulnerable. So its very much essentials to safeguard your home computer against latest genre of viruses and worms.

The VBS.Netlog worm is a good example (although harmless) of a virus/worm that can invade your system while online. Another virus that gained wide spread fame was the 911 Virus that invaded systems, formatted the hard drives (destroying any data on them) and even dialed 911 through the modem. Both of these worms or viruses spread through the Internet not via email but through accessible shared drives on computer connected to the Internet even on dial-up.

Apart from getting the latest version of anti virus there are copuple of online solutions. Of which one is free online virus scan. Here are couple of option you can use.

1. No Virus Thanks: If you have a suspicious file you can submit it in the form below and our system will analyze your file with 24 AntiVirus Engines and will report back the analysis result.

2. A similar alternative is provided by kaspersky. Only one file of up to 1 MB can be checked at any one time.

3. Trend Micro™ HouseCall is an application for checking whether your computer has been infected by viruses, spyware, or other malware. HouseCall performs additional security checks to identify and fix vulnerabilities to prevent reinfection.

Hope these can come handly.. If you have some more tools please do share..

Google Street View - the end of privacy ?

2009-04-12T17:24:00.002+05:30

Google Street View is an application that allows one to take a virtual walk along the streetsides of various places on the earth.It provides a 360 degree perspective from the point of view of a pedestrian at that point.

Hundreds of people have already complained about the service that allows users to view millions of photographs of homes, people and cars, in 25 cities and towns. Although Google obscures faces and numberplates, critics say it is voyeuristic and has become a tool for burglars.

How is it done ?
Google Street View displays photos taken from a fleet of specially designed cars/bikes mounted with 9 directional cameras for the 360° views, GPS units for positioning, Laser Range Finders for the measuring of buildings and 3G/Wi-Fi aerials for whereabouts on 3G and Wi-Fi hotspots.

Recent Updates on Google Street View.
On March 18, 2009, United Kingdom and Netherlands images were added.As of March 2009 the Google Street View camera car was also seen roaming the streets of Taipei, Taiwan.

Future Plans of Google.
In the more immediate future, Google plans to release Street View for various Canadian cities, but modified so that faces and license plates are blurred, due to concerns raised by Canada's federal privacy commissioner.

A real time Twitter search engine tool

2009-04-05T20:21:00.003+05:30

Amongst the recent speculation that Google is in talks to acquire Twitter, i thought of sharing you details of a new social search engine called the OneRiot, which recently has added a new Twitter search on its site.

So what's so different about it ?. Well, OneRiot is a company looking to index the web in real time like finding the pulse of the web. Like other search engines they keep a running record of the contents of the Internet. However, unlike other search engines, they prioritize that information based on its current popularity.

This makes OneRiot's search results relevant, fresh, friendly, and pulsing with the real-time energy of the web. And with the newly added twitter search OneRiot is indexing weblinks that are being shared via tweets. It’s an interesting perspective for web search, specific to Twitter and socially driven. For each link shared on Twitter, OneRiot will note the user who initially found it, how many tweets have shared it, and when it was last shared through Twitter.

Such a feature offers yet another way in which to aggregate and comprehend data surrounding and being distributed through Twitter.

What’s it mean for you? There’s yet another way to track the activity of your keywords of interest as they make their way across the web. So try it out.. http://twitter.oneriot.com/

A most dangerous computer virus to strick on 1st of April

2009-03-30T00:56:00.001+05:30

No, its not an April fools day build-up but a real big threat to thousands of computers around the globe.

A new sleeper virus that could allow hackers to steal financial and personal information has now spread to more than eight million computers already. Its said to be one of the most serious security threat that time has ever seen. Its Known as the 'Conficker/Downadup'.

It's so bad, Microsoft has a running $250,000 bounty for the author, dead or alive. An extraordinary behind-the-scenes struggle is taking place between computer security groups around the world and the brazen author of a malicious software program

What exactly is it and What does it do ?
Conficker, also known as Downup, Downadup and Kido, is a computer worm that surfaced in October 2008 and targets the Microsoft Windows operating system. Upon infection, the worm saves a copy of its DLL form to a random file name in the Windows system folder, then arranges to load thereafter itself at boot as a system service with a randomly-generated name.

The worm launches a brute force dictionary attack against stored administrator account passwords to help it spread through admins' shares.

How can I prevent it infecting my machine ?
The best way is to get the patch and install it company-wide. The second way is password security. Use long, difficult passwords -- particularly for administrators who cannot afford to be locked out of the machines they will have to fix.

If you are on a network or have a full-time connection to the Internet, such as a DSL or cable modem, disconnect the computer from the network and Internet. Disable or password-protect file sharing, or set the shared files to Read Only, before reconnecting the computers to the network or to the Internet. Because this worm spreads by using shared folders on networked computers.

Reference Links:
Protect yourself from the Conficker computer worm

Detailed Analysis of Conficker

W32.Downadup Removal Tool

Hyundai to release more watch phones

2009-03-28T09:25:00.003+05:30

Hyundai is all set to bring a watch phone to the UK market for around £200 Sim free. The MB-910 is a touchscreen mobile phone condensed into a watch, with GPRS connectivity on the 132 x 176 pixel screen.

The Hyundai MB-910 includes talk-time of up to 3 hours and 70 hours on standby, users can use the bundled headset, or talk directly into the watch itself for that secret service look.

The Alternative from Hyundai:

Hyundai's W-100 being the recent to be launched. Hyundai's W-100 sports a 1.3-megapixel camera, a 176 x 144 resolution touchscreen, Bluetooth, support for English / Chinese languages, an integrated MP3 player and a microSD slot for loading up your tunes.

Why did China Ban Youtube ?

2009-03-26T22:32:00.004+05:30

In most of China, YouTube has suddenly become inaccessible from 23rd March. Google has confirmed that YouTube once again is down in China, apparently a victim of Chinese censorship. China has a history of blocking websites which carry messages it views as politically unacceptable.

Some speculate that Chinese officials could be upset about footage of Chinese soldiers beating Tibetans appearing on the YouTube site.

Another possible reason for the blockade is the US Navy's recent release of videos depicting five Chinese ships apparently trying to snag a Sonar array cable trailing behind the USNS Impeccable, which appeared on YouTube.

China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) indicate that approximately 253 million people across China have access to the Internet re-enfourcing its internet supremacy.

The Chinese government in January began a crackdown of what the government calls “vulgar” websites. Under the crackdown, 91 sites were blocked in just three days. China warned Google and Chinese search engine Baidu that they needed to do more to censor “inappropriate content.”

Whats your take on this censorship statergy of China? do post in your views and thoughts below.

Tips: Here are some easy hacks to access YouTube from China.

How to retrive deleted emails from Outlook

2009-03-15T10:21:00.001+05:30

Did you system recently crashed? Did you lost data including your important emails from Outlook, or did you happen to accidentally delete any emails from Outlook.

Well now there are softwares to retrive those deleted emails form Outlook, but often the best email recovery program are commercial and require purchase license to use. Here we bring you a freeware that could come handly at the time of crisis.

Derescue Mail-Cure is free email recovery software can recover EMail from a damaged dbx file or deleted email dbx file or drive. The mail fragment can be saved as EML file. Mail-Cure supports Outlook Express and Foxmail format. Even if the file name is lost by deleted or formatted,

Mail-Cure freeware can scan the lost EMail from hard disk drive.

Download it for free from here.

Just how big is the U.S. Bailout Plan? a $2.5 trillion dollar plan..

2009-03-14T21:41:00.003+05:30

The White House plan to rescue the nation's financial system through bailouts, the US administration officials are committed to flood the financial system with as much as $2.5 trillion US dollars...

With terms like "billions" and "trillions" tossed around very frequent nowadays, it seems Billion is the new million, and trillion is the new billion. But how big is this ONE TRILLION... you would be amazed to know the below facts..

But first list try to visualise how One trillion dollars looks like... check out the below video.

And now the facts. Did you know One TRILLION DOLLARS...

.. can pay for all the goods and services produced in Australia in one year.
.. can fund the military of every NATO country combined.
.. can pay the rent for every renter in the US for 3 years.
.. is enough to run the US federal government for 103 days

they say if you start spending a million dollars every single day since Jesus was born, you still won’t have spend a trillion dollars.

1 million seconds is about 11.5 days, 1 billion seconds is about 32 years while a trillion seconds is equal to 32,000 years

Quite a loooooooooooot of money... to turn around the Global Recession ?? do post your comments below..

The World Wide Web turns 20 years

2009-03-14T20:18:00.002+05:30

On March 13 of 1989 a software consultant named Tim Berners-Lee proposed a solution based on a distributed hypertext system (a global hypertext system) which eventually gave birth to the World Wide Web.

Tim Berners-Lee working at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research handed a document to his supervisor Mike Sendall entitled "Information Management : a Proposal". "Vague, but exciting" is how Mike described it, and he gave Tim the nod to take his proposal forward.

A mere two decades after its inception, the Web has revolutionized almost every aspect of our lives, from business to healthcare to relationships.

Happy Birthday to the World Wide Web - and sincere thanks and respect to Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

Heres a small documentary video on the topic.. enjoy!!

Now share you likes with your friends... literally

2009-03-08T00:19:00.001+05:30

If you like it then share it... a new online startup that allows you to find things you like and share them with your friends. In other words it lets you share personal recommendations about virtually anything with the world.

This recently launched start-up Likaholix is actually developed by two wonderful Google employees, Bindu Reddy and Arvind Sundararajan. Previously, Bindu was a Group Product Manager at Google whereas fellow colleague, Arvind was a Senior Staff Engineer at Google.

The interface of Likaholix is simple and clean. You simply search for what you might like and click the Like button once you’ve found it. You also have the option to add a note telling why you liked something. It automatically crawls the net to find movies, music, books and other things that you may find interesting.

Likaholix is also useful as a place to find recommendations. You can easily tell what your friends like, which provides you with a trusted recommendation and possibly an entire discussion thread detailing why people like something. The next time you’re looking for feedback on a major purchase or you can’t figure out which brand of laptop you should buy, you might appreciate having access to a database full of stuff that people you like…like.

Try it now... Sign up

The Global Recession - Explained

2009-02-25T00:23:00.004+05:30

“It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose yours. Harry S. Truman”. The US defines a recession as a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales.

Since the US economy represents about 20 percent of the global economy, trouble in the US can spread more or less quickly to throughout the world causing what is called “Global Recession”.

How did this Recession start ?.. it started with the crisis of credit. Check out the video below to understand the whole concept

The Crisis of Credit Visualized - Part 1

The Crisis of Credit Visualized - Part 2

What does it mean to Be in Recession, well it means..

1. Lower Incomes
2. Rising Unemployment
3. Lower inflation
4. Higher Government Borrowing
5. Fall in sales of houses.
6. Fall in Business and consumer confidence
7. More spare capacity in the economy.

Can this Recession effect me ? Why can't it... thousands are already impacted by losing their jobs..

Layoff Tally sheet 1 Layoff tally sheet 2

So what is the government doing about it ?... Well they are releasing economy recovery stimulus packages.

The recent being one by the US

AT&T and Pantech releases dual-sliding Matrix Pro

2009-02-19T09:54:00.002+05:30

AT&T and Pantech have officially announced the Matrix Pro. As the smartphone successor to the dual sliding Pantech Matrix, the Pro model maintains the same form factor while adding Windows Mobile 6.1 application to the mix for a much better result.

It includes an upgrade from dual-band to tri-band 3G. It also has a 2 megapixel camera, aGPS, threaded SMS, Video Share, stereo Bluetooth, microSDHC support.

The compact and elegant design of the Matrix Pro fits snugly in your hand for optimum comfort when typing e-mails with the QWERTY keyboard or dialing phone calls with the numeric pad.

The design of the handset has also been refined to an extent and the specs have be freshened up a bit. The Matrix Pro will be available beginning February 24th, for a respectable $179.99 in the US markets.

More info:

Solar powered mobile handset coming soon

2009-02-15T12:29:00.002+05:30

Known to be the world's first solar-powered touchscreen handset the 'Blue Earth' from the Samsung's stable is soon to be released in the markets.

The device even takes energy saving a bit further with a built-in "eco-mode" system. It sets low screen backlight brightness and duration with a single click. It also switches the Bluetooth module into a special "low consumption" mode.

There's also a built-in pedometer and some associated software that translates the distance you've walked into equivalent CO2 savings versus making the journey in a vehicle--it even presents the data in the number of trees you've saved.

It's got a giant solar panel on the back that'll apparently charge it enough to make a phone call anytime the sun's peaking out. The body of the phone is made of a material called "PCM," a plastic made from recovered water bottles

Samsung has yet to announce pricing or availability, something to watch out at next week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. However do share your views on the concept ?? very eco-friendly ?

Welcome to the era of cloud computing

2009-01-31T17:05:00.003+05:30

How dependent are you on your computer? Currently most of us does depend a lot on our PC for data, personal information and using various application. Well the next era would be an era of cloud computing, where information and applications would be hosted in cyberspace rather than on specific processors and silicon racks.

Software and files which are traditionally stored on a user’s own desktop or a local server would be a thing of the past. Cloud computing, also known as software as a service (SaaS), instead stores resources remotely and delivers them over the internet. Data and services can then be accessed from any computer, irrespective of location or even operating system. All you need is a web connection...

Infact the begining has already been made by the internet gaints, namely Apple's Mobileme, Microsoft's SkyDrive and now its time for Google's GDrive.

Here's a brief about all the three services and guess who would be the best ??

Apple's Mobileme: For $99 per user, Apple's MobileMe will provide everybody an organized Web home for all of their important stuff. MobileMe will integrate PCs with a Web space in applications that serve both platforms. It will act as a repository of documents and files that iPhones or PCs or Macs or even iPod touch devices can access.

Microsoft's SkyDrive: Store, access, and share your files with friends or co-workers, from anywhere online. Free 25 GB online storage means you can easily get to your stuff with just a few quick clicks. So now with SkyDrive keep your Internet Explorer favorites in sync between computers, and access them anywhere from your SkyDrive. Leave comments on any file in SkyDrive and see all of the recent comments people have left for you. You set the passwords and you decide who sees what, so you have confidence that your data is in your control.Uploading content is as easy as dragging and dropping the files from your computer onto the Web.

Google's GDrive: Google’s GDrive would basically provide online storage through Google servers – enough for the entire contents of your hard drive. Using GDrive You’d be able to access all your desktop files remotely, via a web interface, and there’d be tight integration with a host of Google services – Docs, Gmail, Picasa, etc

So now, whos the best?? Well i vote for GDrive... because GDrive will probably offer unlimited storage free of charge - unlike SkyDrive that will offer 25GB free and that’s limited to 50MB per file.

So whats your take on Cloud computing ?? Do comment below..

Create your own animated mobile walpapers

2009-01-30T08:27:00.004+05:30

Bring life to you mobile phone, create your own animated mobile walpaper or mobile screen saver in 3 simple steps. You have plenty of templates to choose from. Some of my favourite images below.

Step 1. Go to http://reddodo.com
Step 2. Select your favourite template
Step 3. Edit it and save the image.... thats it you get hi quality mobile wallpaper.

Check it out and post your comments...