Use Extension Defender to protect Chrome

Over the past couple of weeks news broke that some extensions for Google’s Chrome web browser were hiding what they were doing. It wasn’t malware, but adware that was the problem. The news was broken by Amit Agarwal, and you can read about it from here. Since this came out, Google has taken steps to remove these add-ons.

However, if you’re still worried, and perhaps you should be, then there are ways to check what is going on with the extensions you have installed in Chrome.

Extension Defender is perhaps the best way to check what is going on with all of those add-ons. It works in much the same way as an anti-virus or anti-malware program would, even getting daily updates of definition files.

Once you’ve installed it, and it’s free from the Chrome Web Store, you’ll fine the icon residing on your menu bar (you may need to click the arrow to the right of the URL bar). This brings up a new tab with an option to “Scan now”.

The scan is quick, it’s over in a few seconds. As you can see in the image below, it found three items of concern. All of these are disabled in Chrome, but I never actually removed them. One is the Feedly extension that Amit Agarwal wrote about in the above reference. Another is an image zoom program that I replaced with “Hover Free”.

A handy remove option is included at the right, saving you the trouble of heading into Settings to take care of the problem. It’s simple, free and constantly updated. I recommend you give it a shot.

Google brings cards to search results, here’s how it works

Google is continuously testing, tweaking and updating it search algorithm. It’s a work in progress to keep the company ahead  in the market, as if there is any danger of that lead dwindling.

The latest update rolled out involves Google Now-style cards, which are included with each result, though not readily obvious to most users when glancing down the results page after doing a search. The idea behind this is to add extra information about each results, so you can get an idea about what it is before you even click on it.

There is nothing you need to do as far as enabling this new feature, it’s now built right into the search engine. To get started, head to the Google website and do a search.

In the results, you’ll notice that there is now a little grey arrow at the bottom of each, all the way over on the far right side. Clicking on this will present the new Now-style card.

As you can see from the above image, the card will display brief information about the site, including a description and who owns and operates it.

This can help to avoid all sorts of malicious debris on the web, including potential malware sites and the simple misinformation that is abundant online. It’s an excellent addition to the search engine that brings greater control to the user.

Drft: A New Distraction Free Writing Tool For The Web

Productivity can be improved only by reducing the distractions. You need a peaceful environment around you to concentrate on the work. We’ve discussed about few pleasant noise making web apps to focus on your work. Especially people who work on computers all the day will get easily distracted. That’s why writers always choose a distraction free environment around them. It will reflect in their work space too. So, today I’ve come with a new tool for writers called “Drft”, which gives a clutter free interface to write without any distractions. Here’s how it works.

You need to create an account to start with Drft. As of now, you can open an account based on the invitation. Once you get an invite and complete the registration process, you will be redirected to the home page. It is a very simple web application with minimal interface. You will see a menu bar on the top and three icons in the editor window. Click “New” on the menu bar to start writing. Your document will be saved automatically as you write. The first icon in the menu bar will let you switch to night mode, which will turn the background into black and text into white. If you are working in low light, this mode would be helpful.

The second icon in the editor will let you save the text manually. The third icon will let you switch to the full screen mode for distraction free writing. All your documents will be available on the “Saved” category on the menu bar. In the Saved section, you will get a link to share that document. Also, you can see the different revisions of the document over there. It lets you share, edit and delete the documents from there. Settings of the application will carry all your profile information and few other options like spell check, word/character count, language, etc.

If you are looking for a simple text editor to write, Drft is worth giving a try. Share your experience with the app in the comments. Thanks for reading, do share this post with your friends.

Go To Drft

5 Must Have Chrome Extensions To Protect Your Privacy

The Chrome browser is secured by default. The recent update for Chrome, brought new privacy and security features to the browser. Also, there are many security extensions available for the browser to protect the user’s privacy online. If we unknowingly click any malicious link, these apps will let us know about the security threats. Also, it will not let  you download the harmful applications to your PC. So, privacy extensions are essential for all types of users to protect their data and privacy online. Today I’ve come with a list of best privacy extensions available for Chrome. Lets have a look at those apps below.

Adblock Plus

Adblock Plus is one of the must have extensions for all the users. It not only blocks the ads, it prevents adwares and protects your privacy. Adwares always comes with malicious links and steal the user data like email id, contact no., etc. By removing the ads, it will give a clutter free interface to all the websites you visit. So, it will improve the readability on websites. Another important function is, it will block all the text and video ads on YouTube. You don’t need to wait to skip an ad on YouTube, if you install this extension.

Privacy Manager

Privacy Manager is one of the widely used security extensions for Chrome. Once you install it, you will get plenty of handy security options in your browser. Cookies play an important role in security threats. Cookies from unknown websites can steal the user data easily. This extension will help you to remove those cookies. Also, you can review all the cookies stored in your browser and remove the suspicious ones. Some of the advanced options like hyperlink audition, network prediction and management, header requests, etc., are handled by this extension.

Safe Preview

We get plenty of links in our emails and in our social accounts everyday. We will not know, whether it is safe or not. We have seen many FB spams, start posting unwanted contents on our wall without permission. Safe Preview will help you to avoid those links. Before opening a link, it will help you analyze it. If you are about to open a malicious link, the app will protect you. It checks the links with six different security applications before you proceed. You can customize the options in the settings of the application.

Do Not Track Me

Most of the websites you visit will track you even after you close the web page. They will install their cookies in your browser and track all your activities. Do Not Track Me will help you get rid of those websites and protect your privacy. It helps you to mask your email, contact numbers, browsing history and credit card details. It will avoid those unwanted spam emails, text messages and telemarketing calls. Also, it will show you the analytics of sites which are tracking you on the web.

AVG Privacy Fix

AVG Privacy Fix is a popular security extension for Chrome. It stops all the popular websites like Google, Facebook and other social networking sites from Tracking you. If you have logged in to your email id and browsing in the same window, Google can easily track all the website you visit. This extension will fix those issues and clear the cookies of those websites. Cookies from harmful websites and marketing or advertising companies will be removed automatically.

These are five best privacy extensions for Chrome, if you know any useful privacy extensions please share with us in the comments. Thanks for reading, do share this post with your friends.

Smart Rotator lets you set screen rotation for individual Android apps

On your Android phone and tablet, there are some apps you will use in portrait mode and others in landscape. While some apps can be used in either mode, it’s likely that you tend to stick with the same orientation for particular titles. Sure, you can lock rotation from with Android’s settings, but this is not always ideal; this is where Smart Rotator can help.

You can download a copy of the app from Google Play â€" it is free, but ad-supported.

Launch the app and you’ll be presented with a list of all of the other apps you have installed.

Click any of the apps in the list and you can then choose when it should run in its default orientation, or choose between portrait and landscape.

You may have to spend a little time getting everything set up to your liking, but it’s well worth the effort. From this point forward you can be sure that you’ll know exactly how your apps will look when you launch them.

5 Best Android Apps To Keep You Fit And Healthy

Everyone loves to be fit and healthy, but we will always find reasons for not following the diet or doing workouts. Today everyone has a busy lifestyle and it is not possible to workout consistently. Also, our foods have become totally junk it makes most of the people fat.  We don’t need to workout everyday, at least three days a week is more than enough. Especially who don’t have much physical activity in their work, should work out properly. All we need is a little push to do our exercises. So, today I’ve come with few best fitness apps for Android, to motivate you to workout and stick to the diet. Let’s have a look at the apps below.

Calorie Counter â€" My Fitness Pal

Calorie Counter is a popular fitness application across different devices. It has a database of more than 3 million foods around the world. So, as soon as you enter the food you are going to eat, it will tell you how much calories you are going to consume. Also, if you enter your current weight and the goal you need to reach, it will tell you how much calories you need to intake everyday. Around 350 types of exercises were available in the app to support your weight loss or weight gain. You will get weekly, monthly and yearly report, which you can share with your friends.

Nike+

Nike+ is yet another popular fitness app for different platforms. If you have a Nike Fuel Band, you can track how much calories you burn everyday using this app. It gives a report of your everyday run and the information about your last run. Create a songs playlist inside the app to motivate you while running. In Facebook, you can tag friends who are running with you and share the map with your friends and family members. Not only on the road, it perfectly tracks your run on the treadmills and other such devices.

Noom Weight Loss Coach

Noom Weight Loss Coach is an all-in-one fitness application for Android devices. It helps you to track both diet and exercises, to maintain your fitness. Quickly find healthy foods using the color codes and track how much calories you consume everyday. Health and fitness related articles will be available in the app to get useful tips and tricks. Also, you can clarify your doubts and support other users on the forums available. Home Screen widgets are available to motivate you to reach the goal.

Abs Workout

In fitness, abs is considered as one of the toughest part to get into a shape. You need a lot of consistency in diet and workouts to achieve great results. Abs Workout app is designed for all types of users and it has complete instructions to do the workouts. The app helps you to achieve good results in just 6 weeks. You can switch on the counter in the app, while you do the exercises. Also, the workouts can be easily tracked using a checklist in the Calendar option inside. It has both free and premium versions. If you like the app, you can purchase the premium version to get more features.

Nexercise

Nexercise is loved by most of the users and it has the caption as “Fun Weight Loss”. It has separate sections to track different types of fitness activities like Aerobics, biking, yoga, etc. You can keep a note of all the activities you have done and it lets you unlock different badges on the app as you reach your goals. There is an inbuilt weight loss program, which gives workout and diet tips to lose weight quickly. More than 200 work out techniques were available in the app and you can share all your activities with your friends, right from the application.

Please mention, if you have any favorite fitness apps for Android. Also, try your favorite apps from the above list and share your experience with us in the comments. Thanks for reading, do share this post with your friends.

Fix the disappearing “Windows 8 Mode” in Chrome

A while back Chrome began its slow steady march to Metro, or Modern UI, as Microsoft would now prefer you call it. The current browser allows users to morph back and forth between desktop and Start versions by heading to the settings and clicking the option that appears in the initial dropdown menu.

It gives the user the opportunity to relaunch the web browser in Windows 8 mode or, conversely, relaunch in the more conventional desktop mode.

In the most recent version of Chrome, which is numbered 32, there have been some users experiencing issues. The problem is that the link, seen above, has simply disappeared. You may not see it, but it’s still there. Here’s how to get it back.

The problem involves hardware acceleration, and that’s the first thing you’ll need to check. In case you don’t know this off the top of your head, and few of us do, head to Chrome, open a new tab and type about:gpu.

Look for an option titled “use hardware acceleration”. If it’s disabled, then enable it. If it says it’s not available then you’re sadly out of luck. That means that the latest version of Chrome simply will not function in Metro mode for you, but the desktop version will still continue to function just fine.

Use Twitter As A Control Center For Other Popular Web Apps Using CtrlTwit

Compared to other social networks, Twitter has many client applications and supporting tools available. Also, we have many browser extensions and mobile apps were available to enhance the user experience in Twitter. It is because of the instant update of world happenings and all the trending stories on the web. Today I’ve come with another interesting web app called “CtrlTwit” for Twitter, which lets you control few popular web apps from your Twitter application. You can send commands from your Twitter account to perform an action in another web app. Here’s how to do it.

To start with CtrlTwit, you don’t need to create an account. All you have to do is, just send a tweet with appropriate  keywords to perform the action. For instance, if you find an interesting YouTube link in your Twitter timeline and want to subscribe to that channel, just reply to that tweet as “@Youtube Subscribe #CtrlTwit”. Pretty cool, isn’t it? CtrlTwit lets you do five more action in five different web apps.

On Dropbox, you can check, how much space left by sending “@Dropbox how much space left? #CtrlTwit”. All you have to do is, just log into the particular web app, you want to perform the action. Right now CtrlTwit supports Dropbox, Instagram, Pocket, YouTube, Meetup and YouTube. In Instagram, you can like any picture from your Twitter timeline using the link. If you find any interesting link on your Twitter timeline, instantly save that to your “Pocket App” using CtrlTwit.

Find a new or a nearby place in FourSquare and reply to any Meetup link in your timeline with “Yes, No or Maybe” using the commands. As of now, the supporting web apps are limited, you can suggest your favorite web apps to CtrlTwit developers on their website. If you spend more time with Twitter, this app will help you to perform actions on other web apps without leaving your timeline.

Check commands for other apps on their website. You don’t need to download or install any app to do this, anyone on Twitter can easily perform all these actions from their timeline. Try the new CtrlTwit feature in your Twitter account and share your experience with us in the comments. Thanks for reading, do share this post with your friends.

Go To CtrlTwit

Boot straight to the desktop in Windows 8.1

For many people moving up from Windows 7 or earlier, one of the most upsetting aspects of Windows 8.1 is the fact that you are immediately presented with the Start screen. As many people still use legacy applications, it makes sense that you might prefer to boot to the desktop instead.

There is nothing to stop you from manually switching to the desktop every time you turn on your computer, but you can save time by opting to load it by default. Start by right clicking the taskbar and selecting Properties.

Move to the Navigation tab and tick the box labelled When I sign in or close all applications on a screen, go to the desktop instead of Start. Click OK.

When you restart your computer, the desktop will be the first thing you see so you can get on and launch applications using desktop or taskbar shortcuts.

Of course, there are other options that you can use as well. If you decide to boot to the Start screen, rather than clicking the desktop icon you could press the Windows key and D shortcut.

Silence notifications when you’re using your Android phone

When you are using your phone, you can see what is happening on screen and therefore do not really need to have reminders and notifications sounding. If you would prefer to keep things a little quieter, you might want to take a look at Shush. This handy free app can be used to keep your phone quiet when it is unlocked, but ensure that it sound alerts at other times.

You can grab a free copy of Shush from Google Play, and once installed you will find that it is very simple to use. Fire up the app and make sure that the option labelled Enabled Shush is ticked.

You may find that there are no customizations needed, but if you like there is the option of having your phone vibrate instead of remaining completely silent.

While the app itself is free, there is potential to extend its features slightly. Head to the Apps tab and there is an in-app purchase available that can be used to configure exceptions for different apps.

For the most part this is an app you can install and forget about. Whenever you are using your phone, notifications will be silent, but when the screen is locked they will sound as normal.

How to disable UAC in Windows 8.1

The User Account Control has been an annoyance to Windows users over the past few versions of the operating system. It’s a box that pops up frequently when you go to install an application. It’s for your own good and perhaps most users should not ignore this warning, as what they are doing could be a recipe for disaster.

But experienced users may find it beneficial to disable this “feature”. There are all sort of warnings I should post with these instructions, but I’ll trust that if you read a tech blog then you at least have a bit of sense about what you are doing and the possible ramifications of the action.

So, if you are using the latest iteration of the Microsoft operating system then here is the easiest way to carry out the task of disabling the UAC.

To get started, head to the Charms menu â€" you can access this by moving your mouse or finger to the top or bottom corner of the right side of the screen. Click on “Search” and type “uac”.

The sought after object should be the top result â€" “Change User Account Control settings”. There are four degrees of settings for this, and by default it is set up to number three, which is “Notify me when apps try to make changes to my computer”.

You can choose where you would like drag the bar to, but all the way to the bottom is where you can disable all notifications. That’s all there is to it. Click “OK” and you’ll be all done.

How To Create Your Own Flipboard Magazine?

Flipboard is one the widely used news reader apps for mobile devices and the web. This app gives a unique style of reading to all the blogs and websites in the Internet. It lets you catch up all the trending stories, articles from subscribed blogs and much more. Also, it brings your social news feeds from Facebook, Twitter, etc. It is a one stop place to get all the updates. One of the important options in Flipboard is creating your own magazine. Though it sounds complex, the process is dead simple and anyone can easily do it. You can add your own links and articles to the magazine and share them with your friends. Here’s how to do it.

If you are new to Flipboard or if you don’t have an account, first create one to start with the magazine. Instead of creating a new account, you can use your existing Facebook account to sign up with Flipboard. This Facebook account connection will bring your timeline to the Flipboard news feed. Once you complete the registration process, you can add all your favorite blogs and websites to your Flipboard account. You can create a magazine from your mobile devices or from the web interface. Wherever you create a new magazine, or add links to the existing magazines, it will be synced to all your devices.

To start with magazines, first you have to find the content. Collect all the interesting links and articles from your Flipboard subscriptions and trending stories. As soon as you found it, tap the “+” sign on the article, you will get a pop up as shown in the screenshot. In that select the “Create Magazine” box in the middle. It will open another window where you have to give a title to your magazine, add description if you need and choose a category from the list. Also, you can choose a magazine cover from the gallery.

You can make your magazine, private or public just by enabling the option in the same window. Also, create a common or shared magazine by using the contribution from your friends. There is a bookmark button in the web interface called “Flip it” for browsers, to add links to your magazines as you browse. The search option in the app lets you quickly search and add links to your magazine. To view the created magazines on the app, tap the red ribbon on the home page.

Watch the video tutorial above to understand more about magazine creation in Flipboard. You can create any number of magazines inside Flipboard. Don’t forget to share your magazine creating experience with us in the comments. Thanks for reading, do share this post with your friends.

Inkpad: An Excellent Vector Drawing App for iPad Comes with A Zero Price Tag

Even though we had few tablet devices before, iPad is the first official tablet introduced by Apple. After that, many tablet devices came into the market, but still no one matches the quality of iPad. The stunning retina display, 10 hours of battery backup and creative applications are the biggest strengths of iPad. Especially for designers and artists, iPad is a very useful device. The powerful processor in iPads can render high quality images very smoothly. That’s why we have plenty of professional designing apps available for iPad. Today I’ve come with one such app called “Inkpad”, a free vector drawing application offers professional quality designing tools for free.

Adobe Illustrator is the commonly used vector drawing app for iOS devices. It is used by most of the professionals to draw or edit pictures in iPhone and iPad. Inkpad is a good alternative to Adobe Illustrator and it has all the tools and options to express your own ideas. Once you download and install the app in your iPad, you can see a set of sample images in Gallery when you open the app. You can choose any one of them and edit the image or create an image from scratch using the “+” button on the top right corner. Also, you can take photos or choose the existing image using the “Camera” icon near the “+” button.

After you select the image, you will redirected to the workspace, as shown in the screenshot above. You can see drawing tools on the left and options like layers, text, patterns, etc., are available at the bottom. At the top you have four basic options to resize, preview, settings and share. The settings option will let you enable or disable grids, rulers, assign grid spacing and much more. Your workflow will be saved automatically and you can resume image editing at any point of time.

Layers are one of the important options in the app, which lets you edit images in different layers. You can create any number of layers you want and all of those layers will be available at the right bottom corner. You can easily rename, rearrange, edit and delete those layers using the options over there.

The interface is very simple and easy to understand. It is an excellent app for people who are learning vector drawing. For designers and artists, it is a must have application in their iPad. Try this app in your iPad and share your experience with us in the comments. Thanks for reading, do share this post with your friends.

Download Inkpad for iPad

Tweedle: A Simple and Clutter Free Twitter Client for Android

Twitter is a massive social network with more than 500 million users. You can catch up all the breaking news and trending stories on Twitter. Apart from the official web application and mobile app, there are plenty of Twitter clients and tools are available to enhance your Twitter experience. Especially mobile apps are very convenient to catch up all the important updates on the go. Previously I wrote about useful apps for Twitter lovers, today I’ve come with a new Twitter client called “Tweedle” for Android users. It supports both Android Smartphones and Tablets.

Tweedle is a free Twitter Client for Android. You can download the app from Play Store using the link below. Once you complete the installation, connect your Twitter account to start using the app. It supports multiple Twitter accounts, you can add more accounts in the settings of the application. On the home page, you can see your timeline, mentions and direct messages with just a swipe on the screen. Tap the “Menu” button on your device, to access your “Profile” and “Settings” of the application.

In the top menu bar you’ve the option to search and compose a new tweet. The app has a very simple interface and pretty easy to understand. In “Profile” of the application, you’ve five different options. First, it has your profile information like no. of tweets, followers and following numbers. Next it has your tweets, mentions, lists and favorites. Just swipe left and right to access all these categories from your Profile. You can catch up all your Twitter conversations quickly using the profile options of the application.

“Settings” is the most important option in the application. It lets you customize all the functions and layouts of the app. You have three main categories in the Settings window. The first one is the “Quick Links”, where you can customize “Columns, Notifications and Filters”. In the first option “Columns”, you can add or remove columns to the homepage. You can add columns like favorites, retweets, trends, etc. In the second option “Notifications”, you can set notifications for mentions, messages and activities on your timeline. Using “Filters”, you can block tweets from your timeline mentioning a particular keyword you specify.

In the Second category “Interface”, you can change themes and look of the application. Also, you can change fonts, time format and much more using this option. Last one is the “Accounts” section, where you can add more Twitter accounts to the app. Anyone can easily understand the app and it gives a clutter free interface with good readability. If you are a regular user of Twitter, try this app on your Android device and share your experience with us in the comments. Thanks for reading, do share this post with your friends.

Download Tweedle for Android

Download Videos From All The Popular Video Sharing Sites Using SaveDeo

YouTube is the first web app to introduce the concept of video sharing in a separate website. It was acquired by Google from its developers and it is now one of the biggest video sharing sites on the Internet. Even though YouTube is the most used website, still we have many useful and entertaining video sharing sites available on the web. Accessing the videos in offline is not possible in any video sharing sites, so the only option is, you have to download the video to your PC or mobile devices.

There are plenty of web apps available to download videos from separate video sharing services. In spite of using different web services, you can use “SaveDeo” to download videos from different video sharing services. It supports all the popular video sharing services and lets have a look at the features and functions of the app below.

To start with SaveDeo, you don’t need to register or sign up with your social accounts. Go to SaveDeo’s website, there you can see a text box with download button and the list of supported video sharing services. You can download videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, Flickr, etc. Services like Vimeo offers full HD videos and Instagram has many cool fifteen second videos to watch. SaveDeo lets you download videos from all these web services in a single place.

Once you copy and paste the link over there you will be redirected to another window, where you can see the video’s screenshot on the back of the window and different formats and quality to download the video. You will get video formats like MP4, FLV, 3GP, etc., and audio formats will be in M4A. More than 15 popular video sharing sites are supported by SaveDeo. To see all the supported web services, click the “Supported Sites” option in the top menu bar. Choose any one of the web services over there to see the instructions to download videos from that site.

Also, there is a “Save Video” button in the menu bar, you can drag that to your browser bookmarks bar for saving the video instantly as you browse. It is a one stop web service to download all your favorite videos. Download videos from SaveDeo and share your experience with us in the comments. Thanks for reading, do share this post with your friends.

Go To SaveDeo

How to check if anyone else has logged into your Microsoft account

Security is a major concern for everyone, particularly online. Facebook users will be familiar with the idea of being warned whenever a login is made from an unknown device or from an unusual location. If you use a Microsoft account to access the likes of Outlook.com and other online services, it is possible to keep an eye on the activity that has been taking place in your account so you can spot anything suspicious.

Fire up your favorite web browser and pay a visit to your Microsoft account. Log into your account with your username and password. To the left hand side of the page click the Recent activity link.

If you have set up the security measure, you will be sent a text message containing a code and you need to type this in order to proceed.

You will then be shown a list of activity in your account. You will be able to see when your account was accessed, and based on time and location you will be able to determine whether anyone else has been accessing your account.

Should you spot any activity that does not seem to relate to you, click the This wasn’t me button. You will then be guided through the process of changing your password as a security measure.

Windows 8.1: How to disable hot corners

One thing that Windows 8 introduced, and which has persisted in the 8.1 update is the hot corners. The phrase may not be familiar to you, even if you use the operating system. If you aren’t familiar then this is the view you get when you move your mouse pointer, or finger, to the corners of the screen. To the right, you’ll get the Charms Menu, to left you’ll find open “metro” or “modern” apps.

For the most part this is useful, especially Charms. But not everyone is going to love this functionality â€" after all, it can get in the way when you are least expecting it.

You can disable this functionality if you so choose and, no doubt, some of you are dying to do exactly that. Here are the steps to follow if that is what you wish to do.

Get started by right-clicking on the desktop taskbar, and choosing the “Properties” option.

Tap on the “Navigation” tab. Under the “Corner navigation” heading, you can disable the top left (open apps) and top right (Windows charms) corners. Both options are listed near the top and are checked by default.

I doubt that many will wish to turn off this rather useful functionality, but the options can get in the way at times, especially when they pop-up unexpectedly. So, it’s good that you can get rid of them if you wish to.