Friday 31 May 2013

Tech: Google Offers a New Bag of Gmail Sorting Tricks

Google has come up with a new way to let Gmail users sort their in-boxes -- a customized tab approach that appears to be particularly suited to mobile devices. It's not being force-fed -- users can stick with the old system if they like. In addition to streamlining the user experience, Google no doubt wants to streamline its ad targeting -- particularly on smartphones and tablets.

Google unveiled a new Gmail design to give users more organizational control over a cluttered in-box.

The revamped in-box is an option; users who like the approach can separate their email into four tabs: primary, promotions, social and updates.

Primary is for the mail from friends, families or colleagues that a user would want to read and perhaps save. Promotions include messages from daily deal sites like Groupon or notifications from stores about sales.

The social category includes the notifications Facebook and other social networks send when a friend posts a picture of the user, for instance.

The updates tab is for mail concerning receipts or bills.

The tabs are customizable, so users can pick and choose between those likely to get the most use in their in-box. However, it's not possible yet to create new tabs. Users can drag messages between categories or flag email from certain senders to always appear in designated tabs.


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Monday 27 May 2013

How to back up text messages

It helps a lot if you use an Android phone, where your only hard part is deciding which app you want to use for the job.

And on that operating system, one of the most popular choices is the free SMS Backup+. Once you connect the app to your Gmail account, it automatically backs up your texts and multimedia messages to Gmail (or any other e-mail service that supports IMAP synchronization), where you'll find them under an "SMS" label.

There's also a newer competitor named Uppidy that copies texts to a password-protected page — which makes for a slightly cleaner presentation than shoveling them into an e-mailbox. But storing picture and video messages requires buying a $1.99 "Uppidy+" app.

Your wireless carrier may also have solutions of its own. AT&T offers a Messages app that syncs text messages, plus voicemails and your call log, between your phone, tablet or computer. Verizon recently introduced a similar service, also named Messages — although it syncs only the last 90 days' worth of texts.

Uppidy also makes a desktop iOS-message backup app for Macs and Windows PCs, as well as a Blackberry text-backup tool.

If you only want to back up one or a few special messages — maybe because they're from somebody particularly beloved or famous, maybe because they demonstrate the unintentional comedy of phone-keyboard autocorrect — you don't need to go to any of these extremes. Just take a picture of the screen (press the power and home buttons in iOS, press and hold the power and volume-down buttons on most Android phones) and copy or share that image at will.


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Teens Starting to See Facebook as Old and Creepy

It's hard to give up Facebook once you're addicted to it, but it seems teens may be pulling away from the social network, and that could deter the next generation of adolescents from even signing on. The trouble with Facebook, as some teens mentioned in some recent focus groups, is that it's old, and stupid and annoying. Too much drama and not enough privacy. Twitter, on the other hand, is fine. Teens expressed waning enthusiasm for Facebook, saying they disliked the growing number of adults on the site.

Despite those observations, findings do not suggest a massive exodus of teenagers from Facebook. They are still very present on the site, with 94 percent of online teens maintaining an active page. They also maintain a larger footprint on it, compared to Twitter. A typical teen Facebook user has 300 friends, while the typical teen Twitter user has 79 followers.

That 94 percent figure doesn't mean much. It's only the trend that counts, and it's clearly moving away from Facebook. Facebook will continue to lose appeal with teens, predicted Epstein, for two reasons:
1) Teen culture views parents and adults as the enemy, and as it happens, parents and adults have joined Facebook in droves; and

2) Teen culture wants everything to be new, and Facebook is rapidly becoming old.

Finis!


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Sunday 26 May 2013

Gizoogle

Have you heard about Gizoogle?

Gizoogle is a site that lets you translate anything on the internet into GANGSTA slang.

You can enter a search term, a website address or a Twitter @ handle, and there it is! Full of gangsta shitniz talks.

The site is intended as a satirical caricature of the google search engine.

In it's history, Gizoogle was originally created by John Beatty, who started the site in 2005 as a joke and now it currently possesses over 4,000 translations.

The website is only intended for mature audiences farmiliar with the gangsta slang used by Snoop Dogg, and anybody under the age of 13 should not visit the website without adult supervision.

The slanguage used has been quoted from Snoop Dogg himself and is commonly used in movies, conversations and music he has written. Gizoogle was created in honor of Snoop Dogg.

You shoud check it out,
1. Goto gizoogle.net
2. Type in your twitter name @name
3. Click the first result
4. Read your tweets
5. Drop your comments here later.
:-)



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Friday 24 May 2013

Tech: What You Don't Know About Using Two Different Antivirus Softwares At A Time

I have seen people who run more than one antivirus program on a computer. They probably don't know it's best to use only one.

The fact is that you should "Never install more than one Antivirus and Firewall! Rather than giving you extra protection, it will decrease the reliability of it seriously! The reason for this is that if both products have their automatic (Real-Time) protection switched on, your system may lock up due to both software products attempting to access the same file at the same time. Also because more than one Antivirus and Firewall installed are not compatible with eachother, it can cause system performance problems and a serious system slowdown."

If you use more than one antivirus i advice you uninstall one for better performance of your system.


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Wednesday 8 May 2013

3 must-do steps to recover from a phishing scam

Phishing scams continue to fool even digitally savvy people.

It's a sinking feeling, when you realized you've been had by a phishing scam. In the frenetic digital world we live in, it can happen to anyone.

So you've clicked on a link that now seems very suspicious. You're concerned that the bad guys may be in control of your computing device. Or perhaps you've typed some account information into a web form , and you're having second thoughts about the authenticity of the form.

Recovering will require work. Here are three things you can do if you believe you've fallen prey to a phishing scam delivered by e-mail, a social media posting or even a phone call.

1. Update and scan: If you have clicked on or downloaded anything that might infect your system, then make sure you install or update anti-virus software and run a full scan of your system.

2. Contact credit agencies.
If you have disclosed any personal information or you're worried your account may have been accessed, you can place an alert with any one of the three major credit bureaus signals to potential creditors that you could be a victim of identity theft.

3. Update account logons.
If you have reason to believe that any of your email or social media accounts are compromised make sure you change the passwords immediately.


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Moon rocked by biggest meteorite explosion on record

A boulder-sized meteor that slammed into the moon in March caused the biggest lunar explosion ever observed by NASA.

The strike, which packed as much punch as five tons of TNT, was so bright that anyone looking up at the moon at that moment could have spotted it -- no telescope required.

"On March 17, 2013, an object about the size of a small boulder hit the lunar surface in Mare Imbrium," said Bill Cooke, from NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, in a statement on Friday. "It exploded in a flash nearly 10 times as bright as anything we've ever seen before."

NASA has been monitoring the moon for signs of explosions caused by meteoroids for the past eight years, detecting more than 300 strikes since the program began. One of the program's goals is to identify new streams of space debris that pose a potential threat to the Earth-Moon system.

A NASA satellite orbiting the moon is on the hunt for the newly formed crater, which scientists estimate could be as wide as 66 feet.
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Yahoo confirms the purchase of Tumblr for $1.1 billion

Yahoo is buying online blogging forum Tumblr for $1.1 billion as CEO Marissa Mayer tries to rejuvenate an Internet icon that had fallen behind the times.

The deal announced Monday represents Mayer's boldest move yet since she left Google 10 months ago to lead Yahoo's latest comeback attempt. It marks Yahoo's most expensive acquisition since the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company bought online search engine Overture a decade ago for $1.3 billion in cash and stock.

Yahoo is paying all cash for Tumblr, dipping into some of its remaining stash from a $7.6 billion windfall reaped last year from selling about half of its stake in Chinese Internet company Alibaba Holdings. Taking over Tumblr will devour about 20% of the $5.4 billion in cash that Yahoo had in its accounts at the end of March.

In trading Monday, Yahoo shares were up 0.7% to about $26.70 each.

The company says that "per the agreement and our promise not to screw it up, Tumblr will be independently operated as a separate business" with founder David Karp, 26, staying on as CEO.

Tumblr, a service started six years by Karp, a high school dropout, now figures to play a pivotal role in Mayer's attempt to reshape Yahoo. To take on the challenge, Mayer ended a highly successful 13-year career at Google, which she helped surpass Yahoo as the Internet's most influential company.

Since coming to Yahoo, Mayer has concentrated on improving employee morale, redesigning services and bringing in more engineering talent through a series of small acquisitions that have collectively cost less than $50 million.

Yahoo is scheduled to discuss detail of the acquisition Monday afternoon in New York, where Tumbl is based.

Mayer has been on an acquisition streak as part of Yahoo's efforts to reach a younger, more mobile audience.

Image-intensive social media platform Tumblr — popular among a younger crowd — aligns with that strategy.

Until now, Yahoo's deals have been mostly with smaller startups. In March, it announced it was scooping up social recommendation site Jybe and mobile news reader Summly, run by 17-year-old Nick D'Aloisio. It then said it would shut down Summly and incorporate it into existing Yahoo products.

Among its most recent announcements, mobile games developer Loki Studios this month said it would be coming into the Yahoo fold.

Mayer spoke briefly to USA TODAY late Friday after accepting an innovation award at a fundraiser in San Francisco for disadvantaged students.

"We're focused on building the service (with acquisitions) and enriching the customer experience," said Mayer, who added she will be at the New York event.
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Friday 3 May 2013

Tech: 5 email tricks every person needs to know

On a given day, an estimated 144 billion email messages are sent and received around the world. This doesn't even include spam!

Compare that with an average of 175 million tweets per day, and it's clear most folks and companies still prefer email when it comes to exchanging messages.

As someone who receives more email than I can count, I've had to cook up special strategies for dealing with it. Experts say up to a quarter of a person's work week is spent dealing with email.

To lighten your load, here are 5 email tricks I use every day in my inbox management.

1. Send less (and better) emails

Email follows one law you've probably heard or never heard before: You get what you give. If you're sending out dozens of messages, you're going to receive that many back and more. If the email you send isn't clear, you'll end up sending more messages to clarify it.

Instead, look for other ways to communicate. If a quick text, call or IM can get your message across faster, use that instead. If you're dealing with a co-worker, taking a trip to their office might be easier and more productive.

With the email you can't avoid sending out, make it clear and concise. Anticipate questions and answer them before they're asked. Try to keep it as short as possible, as well. If a list or short sentence will do, don't stretch things out into paragraphs.

If you're frequently sending the same message to multiple people, save time with a template you can copy and paste.

2. Filter and Automate

Nearly every email program or service lets you set up some form of automated message filtering. This can be as simple as setting up folders to separate important mail from the clutter. Advanced systems can color code and label email for you based on sender and other rules.

Start by routing messages from important contacts to a folder labeled "Urgent" or something similar. Create a "Read later" folder for routine or subscription messages. You can create as many subfolders and folders as you need, so set up a system that works best for you.

Act on the email you receive, and then either archive or delete the messages. The quicker it is out of your inbox, the better. Remember, your inbox is a delivery system, not a storage system!

If you want even more advanced filtering options, use programs like Outlook or the free Thunderbird. These are a must for anyone with multiple email accounts. They add all sorts of management features that most webmail can't touch.

3. Use temporary email

I'm sure at some point you've made the mistake of giving out your real email address online. Shortly afterward, a flood of email you don't care about appears in your inbox.

In most cases, you just needed to give it to a site so you can receive a confirmation email proving you are who you say you are. For those situations, it's better to use a temporary email account. Mailinator is a good site for this. Its email addresses only last for an hour or so and then all the email is erased.

Some people create a second email address. That's the one they give out to new or questionable sites. Their main email is reserved for friends, family and reputable sites. You should also keep business and personal email accounts separate.

4. When to use BCC

There are many ways to send email to multiple people. Usually, people simply use "To:" or "CC:" and fill in all the email addresses. For most mass mailings, however, "BCC:" is a better option.

Using it means recipients only see their own email address. That's a plus when they might not know other people on the list, or your email might be forwarded to strangers. You don't want a spammer getting their hands on a large list of your friends' names and addresses.

BCC can backfire, though. In an office setting, using BCC on an email makes you the only target for replies. If the email is about a project with a team, include other team members' addresses in a "To:" field to help you carry the weight.

Whenever you include multiple people in an email - office or personal - make sure each knows why they're included. Don't be afraid to explain that in the body of the email.

5. Turn off notifications

One of the biggest email annoyances is notifications. These come from Facebook, Twitter and other social sites.

You might get an email every time someone interacts with your profile. If you're an avid social networker, these notifications can take over your inbox.

Go into your settings on each site to turn off notifications.

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Wednesday 1 May 2013

TECH: HoverCam Mini 5 (Versatile document scanner that fits in your pocket)

The HoverCam Mini 5 is a portable scanner that doubles as a webcam.

The new HoverCam Mini 5 that I've been reviewing is cool, at least for people whose offices tend to move with them.

It doesn't resemble your typical scanner, portable or otherwise. Mini 5 comes from a San Diego company called Pathway Innovations & Technologies, which refers to it as the "Swiss army knife" of document cameras. It's an apt description.

Unlike your average scanner, the Mini is small and light enough to fit into your pocket. (Yes, I know there are apps that can turn your smartphone into a scanner.)

The design is clever.



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