Google Hangouts gets its own website

Google Hangouts finally gets an all-new dedicated website.

Google has launched a new website – hangouts.google.com – showing a pane with all your frequently accessed contacts. It shows three big buttons on the right side – Video Call, Phone Call and Message. Users can even click on a contact and pin it to favourites.

“We are launching another way to use Hangouts today. From our new site you’ll be able to take advantage of the best of Hangouts in the browser, along with an inspiring image to get you through the day. Check it out and let us know what you think,” Google engineer Jordanna Chord writes in a Google+ post.

On starting a video call, users can share the screen, YouTube playlists and also draw right there on the video, just like before.

This also means, users won’t require to log into Gmail or Google+ to access Hangouts.

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Why You Should Consider Using A Custom Android Kernel(How to customize Android according to our need)

Do you want the best performance out of your Android device? Or maybe you want the best battery life? If you’ve already rooted your device or even installed a custom ROM onto it, it may be a good idea to check out the realm of custom kernels.

If you haven’t yet tried a custom ROM but are interested, you should check out this general guideline to the process.

Here I’ll show you why you might want to use a custom kernel, as well as where to find them.

About the Kernel

The kernel is the piece of software that bridges the gap between the operating system (and installed apps) and the hardware in the device. Everything you do on your device involves the kernel. Increasing the volume while playing a video? Android doesn’t directly tell the speakers to increase output. Instead, it tells the kernel that it wants to increase the volume, and the kernel talks to the speaker to increase its output.

But why the middle man? In very simple terms, it makes Android a lot more flexible. Google can worry about creating all of the functionality in Android, but not have to worry about how that is exactly executed on each device. Since there are so many devices that have all sorts of hardware, Google can’t worry about providing compatibility and drivers with each device. It’s the manufacturer’s job to create the kernel that has all the drivers necessary to make everything work on the device.

Customization

The kernel, in this regard, is extremely customizable. Not only does the manufacturer have to plug in the necessary drivers to get all of the hardware to work correctly, but there are a lot of variables that they need to set. They can mess with all sorts of things, such as:

• the minimum and maximum frequencies that the CPU can scale up or down to
• how busy the CPU should be before it enables extra cores that it normally has disabled to save battery
• the frequency the CPU should boost to whenever it detects touch input (to ensure a smoother wake up)
• the CPU governor (which determines how quickly it tends to ramp up the frequency or not) that should be used
• change the voltage of the CPU during all possible frequencies
• the maximum frequency of the GPU
• enable USB fast charge (for USB 3.0 ports)
• configure the I/O scheduler that is used

How A Replacement Kernel Benefits You

That’s great and all, but what can a custom kernel do for you? There are many different custom kernels for virtually every Android device in existence, so you’ll have a lot of options to choose from. Depending on your needs, you can pick kernels that are optimized for performance, or ones that are optimized for power savings. Others have a good balance of both.

There are some developers who switch out some drivers with others (for varying reasons), or develop their own patches for problems they identify. A lot of developers also try to include upstream Linux kernel patches, or use their own toolkits for compilation. For example, for my Nexus 5, there’s one developer who uses his own toolkit, which includes the latest version of GCC, a Linaro toolchain with optimizations specifically for the CPU architecture used, and maximum optimization flags for the compiler.

Developers can even add some additional features from other kernels that don’t officially exist for your device. For example, there are some kernels for the Nexus 5 that include the “double tap to wake” feature that first appeared on the LG G2.

Most of all, a handful of kernels allow you to access the configurable variables yourself, so that you can use the code that the kernel developers release but tweak it to adjust its behavior to your liking. However, you’ll want to research some of the options available before you actually start to change values for them. In other words, a custom kernel can provide improvements, extra features, specialization, and extreme configurability.

Where To Find Android Kernels

It’s rather easy to find a kernel for your device. Assuming that you have your device rooted and a custom recovery installed, you can browse through the XDA-Developers forum, look in the subforum for your specific device, search through the threads for any that have a [KERNEL] tag in the thread’s title, download one that you like, and flash the .zip file via your custom recovery.

There may also be a sticky thread that may contain a list of popular kernels available for easy searching. Once you’ve decided on a kernel you’d like to use, just download it (it should be in a .zip file) and flash it using the custom recovery. Be sure to adhere to all instructions that the kernel developer may provide, and any of their instructions would override any of my advice.

Conclusion

Custom kernels can make your device that much better. If you happen to choose a kernel that isn’t right for you, you can always find another one and flash it to replace the currently-installed one. Once you’ve found one that’s right for you, congratulations! You’ve just made your device that much better for you.

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How To Configure Android USB Tethering on Mac OS X

Most modern smartphones are equipped with Wi-Fi tethering, which allows you to share your phone’s data connection with a computer over Wi-Fi (yes, even Windows Phones). Theoretically, Android phones can also be tethered over USB instead of Wi-Fi. This has a number of advantages; you won’t get interference from other wireless devices, and the difference in latency is remarkable.

On Windows this usually works as advertised, but Mac OS X is missing some essential USB network drivers. Without those drivers, Android USB tethering is essentially unusable.

This incompatibility is rarely mentioned by Google and Apple alike (as in: not at all), so you’re left to your own devices. Here’s how to solve it.

1. Install the HoRNDIS driver

As mentioned above, the problem stems from a driver problem. Luckily, Joshua Wise took matters into his own hands and developed the HoRNDIS (pronounced horrendous) USB tethering driver for Mac OS X.

Go to the HoRNDIS website and download the latest binary. The HoRNDIS driver comes as a package, so just double-click it and follow the steps to finish the installation.

It’s usually a simple process. However, if you’re on Mavericks (OS X 10.9) and you upgraded from a previous version of the HoRNDIS drivers, you might experience some small issues. If your phone starts appearing multiple times within your Network System Preferences, there might be some issues with your network preferences. Read through the relevant section on the HoRNDIS website to resolve these issues.

2. Enable USB Tethering on your Android Phone

Make sure you’re connected to a network on your smartphone, either Wi-Fi or mobile data. You can enable USB tethering in a subsection of the Wireless options. We’ll show the steps for Android 4.2, but this looks very similar in other Android versions as well.

Open the Settings app and go to Wireless & networks (sometimes found under other). It’s tempting to toggle USB Internet here, but don’t. This is a different feature, although the name sure is confusing. Instead, go to the Tethering & portable hotspot subsection.

Here, toggle the USB tethering option. You can, in theory, also keep your Wi-Fi hotspot in stand, but it will probably be less taxing for your phone (and your mobile data connection) to turn this off.

3. Connect to your Smartphone on your Computer

On your Mac, open System Preferences and browse to the Network settings. In this pane, your computer keeps a list of all the available network interfaces (like Wi-Fi, Thunderbolt and Bluetooth PAN). In this list, you should be able to find your smartphone.

If the indicator light next to the connection is green, you’re already connected! If not, just double-click the connection to establish contact with your phone. You can use the advanced settings to customise your internet connection if you want to use custom DNS servers or proxies, but most users should be all set up at this point. If you’re not planning on using it, you could even turn off your Wi-Fi connection entirely!

That’s It!

You have nothing to keep you back from tethering your socks off now. Do you use tethering a lot yourself? Share your tips and experiences with us in the comments section below the article!

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The Top 10 Trends In Data Warehousing

Before the iPhone and Xbox, prior to the first Tweet or Facebook “Like,” and well in advance of tablets and the cloud, there was the data warehouse.  For 30 years, businesses have centrally stored data for analysis and data-driven decision making.

For all of that time, the data warehouse has been the business-insights workhorse of enterprise computing. The big trend in the mid 1990’s, when I covered these systems as a tech journalist, was the emergence of data warehouses that were a terabyte in size, which at the time was considered a huge amount of data. Today’s leading-edge systems are a thousand times larger—measured in petabytes.

Data warehouses have had staying power because the concept of a central data repository—fed by dozens or hundreds of databases, applications, and other source systems—continues to be the best, most efficient way for companies to get an enterprise-wide view of their customers, supply chains, sales, and operations.

For this reason, businesses that have data warehouses are upgrading and augmenting them with technologies such as Hadoop and in-memory processing, which help with “big data” workloads that are 10 times or 100 times or 1,000 times bigger than before. Meanwhile, businesses that have relied on piecemeal data-analysis solutions in the past are now establishing data warehouses to get a more complete picture of the enterprise. For more on that, see my recent article, “Healthcare’s Next Innovation? The Answer Is In The Data.”

In other words, data warehouses aren’t just bigger than a generation ago; they’re faster, support new data types, serve a wider range of business-critical functions, and are capable of providing actionable insights to anyone in the enterprise at any time or place. All of which makes the modern data warehouse more important than ever to business agility, innovation, and competitive advantage.
A new white paper from Oracle explores the top 10 trends and opportunities in data warehousing. Here’s a recap of that Top 10 list along with my own take on each trend.

1. The “datafication” of the enterprise requires more capable data warehouses. Mobile devices, social media traffic, networked sensors (i.e. the Internet of Things), and other sources are generating a growing stream of data—some would say a fire hose of data. IT teams are responding by adding new capabilities to data warehouses so they can handle new types of data, more data, and do so faster than ever.
2. Physical and logical consolidation help reduce costs. The answer to datafication isn’t to throw more money at these systems. Or put another way, ten times the data shouldn’t translate into ten times the cost. So burgeoning data warehouses must be consolidated, through a combination of virtualization, compression, multi-tenant databases, and servers that are engineered to handle much larger data volumes and workloads.
3. Hadoop optimizes data warehouse environments. The open source Hadoop program, with its distributed file system (HDFS) and parallel MapReduce paradigm, excels at processing very large data sets. That makes Hadoop a great companion to “standard” data warehouses and explains why a growing number of data warehouse managers are now using Hadoop to shoulder some of the heaviest workloads.
4. Customer experience (CX) strategies use real-time analytics to improve marketing campaigns. Data warehouses play a pivotal role in CX initiatives because they house the data used to establish a comprehensive, 360-degree view of your customer base. A data warehouse of customer information can be used for sentiment analysis, personalization, marketing automation, sales, and customer service.
5. Engineered systems are becoming a preferred approach for large scale information management. If you’re not careful, data warehouses can become a complex assembly of disparate pieces—servers, storage, database software, and other components—but that doesn’t have to be the case. Engineered systems such as Oracle Big Data Appliance and Oracle Exadata Database Machine are preconfigured and optimized for specific kinds of workloads, delivering the highest levels of performance without the integration and configuration headaches.
6. On-demand analytics environments meet the growing demand for rapid prototyping and information discovery. If you’re familiar with cloud computing’s software-as-a-service model, then you’ll appreciate the concept of “analytics as a service.” Technical breakthroughs such as Oracle Database 12c’s pluggable database feature make it easy for administrators to provide “sandboxes” in a data warehouse environment for use in support of new analytics projects.
7. Data compression enables higher-volume, higher-value analytics. The best way to counter non-stop data expansion is—what else?—data compression. Your organization’s data may be growing at 10X, but advanced compression methods, such as Oracle’s Hybrid Columnar Compression, can match that. Using compression, companies can capture and store more valuable data, and they can do it without 10X the cost and 10X the pain.
8. In-database analytics simplify analysis. Ideally, your data warehouse will have a range of ready-to-use tools—native SQL, integration with the R programming language, and data mining algorithms, for example–to jump start and facilitate data analysis. These kinds of in-database analytics capabilities minimize the need to move data back and forth to other systems and applications for analysis, resulting in more streamlined and optimized data discovery.
9. In-memory technologies supercharge performance. The emergence of in-memory database architecture brings race car-like performance to data warehouses. The term in memory is highly descriptive, of course. It refers to the ability to process large data sets in system RAM, accelerating number-crunching and reporting of actionable information.
10. Data warehouses are more critical than ever to business operations. While it’s true that data warehouses have been around for years, their value keeps growing because they represent a company’s crown jewels—prized data on customers and business performance. And organizations are finding new applications for data warehouses, as described in the example above, where healthcare providers are using enterprise data warehouses to improve patient care and streamline operations.

Taken together, these Top 10 trends describe a new generation of data warehouses that are bigger, better, and faster than ever before, transforming data into information and information into actionable insights, enabling businesses to forge ahead with unprecedented speed and agility. For an in-depth report on all of this, download the Oracle white paper, “Top 10 Data Warehousing Trends and Opportunities for 2014.”

And, for an enlightening discussion on the full range of issues businesses face as they look to seize these opportunities, you can access this informative, on-demand webcast, featuring a keynote presentation by Gartner analyst Mark Beyer. The webcast explores the data warehousing report in greater detail, provides Gartner research and analysis, and offers case studies and best practices in how to get the most from your own data warehouse.

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22 File-Sharing Tools for Easy Collaboration

Working online means we often have files we want to share with teammates or clients. While emailing attachments is still a popular choice to send files, it has restrictions on file size. It's also not conducive to collaboration, as it doesn't allow for multiple people to work on the same file at once.

Instead of overflowing email inboxes with attachments, we can make use of a variety of file-sharing tools, all cloud-based, with many including storage facilities to track your transfers. These tools also save you from the setup, cost and maintenance of running your own home server (VPN), and make it easy to upload files to share with friends or colleagues, access remotely (on any device), or store for later.

We've identified 22 of the top file-sharing tools to save you from inbox overload, and allow you to securely store, share and manage your files and documents.

File-Sharing Tools

1. Dropmark

Dropmark provides simple collaboration and file sharing in the cloud, with drag-and-drop facility from your desktop to browser, so your files are automatically uploaded to the cloud. You can invite colleagues to view and collaborate privately, and organize files into collections with sharable shortlinks.

You can view every collection as a fullscreen presentation, mixing images, websites and more. You can even drag in audio or video from YouTube, Vimeo, SoundCloud or your desktop to create custom playlists and podcasts. With the Dropmark for Mac app you can just drag and drop to your Mac menu bar and upload directly to your account.

Price: $5 per month - $40 per year

2. Dropbox

Arguably one of the most popular cloud storage and file-sharing services available, Dropbox provides effortless file synchronization, with support for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android and Blackberry. You can set up share files or folders to work in collaboration with others -- once you create a shared folder and add people to it, it will appear in their Dropbox, so any member of the folder can add, delete or edit files within it.

You can also share with non-Dropbox users by creating a link to a file or folder. Users can then use the link to preview the contents through their browsers. Once you install Dropbox on your desktop, simply add files to your Dropbox folder and it will automatically sync those files to your Dropbox account (meaning you have access to your work anywhere).

Price: Free - $15 per month (Business)

3. Hightail

Hightail provides online file sharing and storage, with the ability to send files up to 2GB, and share, edit and update project folders with clients and colleagues. With unlimited file storage you can use the provided mobile and desktop apps to access your files wherever you are. Security is paramount, with password protection, identity verification and file tracking, along with 128-bit SSL encryption in transit and 256-bit AES encryption at rest. Mobile file sharing gives you direct access to your projects, with any changes updated instantly, data encryption to and from your device, and the ability to digitally sign documents on your mobile or tablet.

Price: Free - approx. $24.99 per month (Teams)

4. SugarSync

SugarSync provides cloud storage and file sharing capabilities, allowing you to browse, access, back-up and sync online. Sharing large files and folders is incredibly easy; you can share public links to your files, collaborate on shared folders, sync folders of information across teams and apply folder permissions.

To share, just generate a public link for any file or folder and share it with your team. When the recipient clicks the link, he or she is able to download its contents with no registration required. With the folder permissions feature you can share a folder as "read-only" so recipients can view the files, but cannot make changes.

Price: $7.49 per month (Individual) - $55 per month (Business)

5. Dropcanvas

Dropcanvas provides a simple drag-and-drop interface to upload your file and generate a shortlink to share with collaborators. There's no registration required, but you can log in to save your storage links. There's no effort or thought needed to use the service -- just drag and drop a file onto the canvas, where you are then provided with a link to share your files. There's also a share button for easy access to Facebook, Twitter and Reddit.

Users get unlimited storage, with a limit of 5GB per canvas. Anonymous uploads last a minimum of 60 days, and you can delete your uploads by simply clicking the Edit icon in the toolbar.

6. Google Drive

With Google Drive you can create new documents, spreadsheets and presentations, and share files or folders with anyone, choosing who can view, edit or comment on your content. You can collaborate at the same time, on the same document, and see changes as they appear. You can open more than 30 file types in your browser, even if you don't have the program installed on your computer.

Google Drive tracks every change you make, and each save creates a new revision, so you can look back as far as 30 days automatically or choose a revision to save forever.

Price: Free - $799 per month (Providing 16GB Storage)

7. Minus

Minus offers easy drag-and-drop uploading without registration, with a file size limit of 2GB. Guest uploads expire after 30 days, and registering for an account offers personalized domains, up to 50GB of free storage space and your files remain indefinitely without expiring.

Uploading is insanely simple -- just drag your file to the canvas and it's immediately uploaded with a shortlink to share your file, and an option to add effects (using Aviary), a description, and share on social media or via email. The iOS and Android apps allow you to upload and manage your account while on the go.

Price: Free

8. WeTransfer

WeTransfer is a hassle-free file-transferring service that allows up to 2GB per transfer in a simple, secure environment. To send files, just click Add Files, type in the email address of the person you're sharing with (along with your own email address) and then hit the transfer button. You can also easily share via social media with the Share button.

Both you and your recipient will receive a confirmation email, where you can view and download your files. The Plus account allows transfers of up to 10GB, including entire HD videos and sets of photos and work files, you can also present your work in style with custom backgrounds and URLs.

Price: Free - $10 per month (Plus)

9. Box

Box offers simple, secure sharing from anywhere, helping you securely centralize all your content and keep it in sync with your teammates. With the Personal plan, you're allocated 10GB of personal storage, with a 250MB file upload limit. You can share photos, presentations or any type of link, and the recipient views the file from within his or her browser.

Real-time updates and email notifications let everyone know when a team member comments on an important document or uploads/downloads files. With the Box native apps you can view and share files from any devices.

Price: Free - $35 per month (Enterprise)

10. Dropsend

Dropsend is an application to share large files up to 4GB, ideal for sending JPGs, PDFs and MP3s in a fast, simple and secure way. There's no software to install, and you're able to back up all your files in the cloud and store important information so you can access it anywhere.

Just type in an email address, browse for a file and click Send, with the option to send more than one file at a time. The recipient simply clicks the link in the email (without the need to register for a Dropsend account), and when you send a file, it's recorded in your Sent Folder to keep track of what you've sent.

Price: Free - $99 per month (Business)

11. Sendspace

Sendspace allows you to send files as large as 300MB with even larger files spilt into parts. Drag files or click Browse to upload, and you can add a description, enter your recipient's name and your own email address and click Upload. A file can be downloaded an unlimited number of times by as many people as you want, for as long as you want, as long as the file stays active. A file becomes inactive if it hasn't been downloaded at least once during a set period.

While you can send files without registering, you're unable to see if it was downloaded by the recipient. As a Lite user, you can download up to 1GB a day, or 4GB with the Max account.

Price: Free - 15.99 per month (Pro Plus)

12. itrnsfr

itrnsfr makes sending large files easy, with a limit of 2GB per file and the ability to transfer an unlimited number of files at once. Just upload your file and add the recipient's email address. This will then be delivered to their inbox, where they can view and download the file. You can add multiple recipients emails and watch your files being uploaded, with the ability to cancel at anytime. Clicking the padlock button enables you to encrypt your files with a set password.

Price: Free

13. TransferBigFiles

TransferBigFiles does exactly what its name suggests -- it provides an easy way to send and receive files that are too big for email attachments, with the ability to add up to 20GB. To create a new transfer, add your files or folders, which instantly upload to the secure TransferBigFiles server, and a new transfer page will be created. You then add recipients, a custom message and choose to receive notifications if the file has been downloaded.

It features password protection and the option to allow recipients to share the files. If you're sending work to clients, you can customize the download page to match your branding.

Price: Free - $50 per month (Business)

14. SendThisFile

SendThisFile allows you to send large files protected with encryption, with history tracking and file sharing control. There is no restriction on the type of file you send, and once the upload is complete an email is automatically sent to your recipients. Every SendThisFile account comes with a FileBox account to receive your files, which can also be easily integrated into your website and customized to suit your branding.

You can audit activity logs, export your file transfer history and receive an email confirmation that your recipient has successfully downloaded your file.

Price: Free - $595 per month (Dedicated Server Plan)

15. Onehub

OneHub lets you securely store, organize and share files in the cloud. Just drag and drop files directly into your browser, share multiple files, or use the FTP gateway or Onehub sync for OS X. Using Workspaces makes it simple to stay organized and control exactly what your invited users can see, with comments, messages and dashboards.

Integration with Google Drive means you can create and edit your Google files from inside Onehub, and even simultaneously collaborate on the same document with teammates. You can upload your company logo and choose colors that match your brand.

Price: $9.95 per month (Dropbox) - $99.95 per month (Business)

16. Droplr

Droplr offers an easy way to send files, with no folders, syncing or waiting -- just simple, secure and fast file sharing. There's no learning curve; all you need to do is select a file that you need to send to someone, and Droplr gives you a short, secure link to that file. You can share files of up to 2GB, with unlimited storage, custom branding and domain URLS and the ability to embed images and files in your favorite forum, blog or website.

With the Team Management feature, you can enable and disable users with ease, to help manage your project and collaborators.

Price: $4.99 per month (Lite) - $9.99 per user per month (Team)

17. CloudApp

CloudApp is a Mac OS X app that provides a quick way to send screenshots, documents, code snippets, audio, videos, ZIP files, bookmarks and more. Free users can upload 10 files (of 25MB each) per day, while purchasing a Pro account removes the limits and allows for custom branding and files of up to 250MB.

Install the application from the Mac App Store and drag the files you want to share onto the Cloud icon in your menu bar, and you'll receive a unique URL to share, with the ability to keep track of the number of views and downloads a file receives.

Price: Free - $45 per year (Pro)

18. Egnyte

Egnyte provides enterprise file sharing and collaboration in the cloud, with seamless access to your files from any device. With private sharing you have access to content stored behind a firewall using any device, without the need for a VPN. The local file access and cross-office collaboration tools enable remote teams to collaborate without being in the same room.

Users have a single view of their files, with control of where they're stored based on data classification. There's several ways to upload files, including desktop sync, map drive, web browser and FTP transfer.

Price: $8 per employee (Office) - $15 per employee (Business)

19. Ge.tt

Ge.tt is an instant, real-time file-sharing service, which lets you share all types of documents, including documents, videos, photos and more. You can use the service without signing up for an account, but registering brings the benefit of reusing and tracking any content you previously shared. Your files are ready to share immediately, with no need to wait for files to upload, and you can easily track how many people have downloaded or viewed your files.

Ge.tt is browser-based, so there's no need to install any third-party software or plugins, with the added advantage of using the provided API to integrate Ge.tt into your own website or workflow.

Price: Free

20. 4shared

4shared is a service that allows you to upload, share, search and download your videos, music, pictures and documents, with 15GB of free storage as soon as you join. It supports all operating systems, with the ability to upload and download multiple files at the same time, with detailed file and account statistics. You can organize your documents, creating folder structures and access them anywhere.

As soon as you upload your file, you'll receive a download link that you can share with any verified 4shared user. You can even share entire folders by clicking Activate next to the folder you want to share.

Price: Free - $77.95 per year

21. MediaFire

MediaFire lets you store all of your media and makes it available to you anytime you want it, on both mobile and tablet devices. You can share your photos, videos, songs and documents, as well as collaborate on projects, shared folders, and files. You can also control who can edit and view them.

With up to 50GB of free space, you can back up important files and make sure they are stored securely and privately. MediaFire features unlimited downloads, download resuming and zero wait or queue times, using the web interface, desktop app or mobile applications.

Price: Free - $24.99 per month (Business)

22. OneDrive

Microsoft OneDrive lets you store, sync, share and easily collaborate on files, photos, videos and documents securely, with the ability to synchronize your files with your devices to access your content offline. With built-in integration with Microsoft Office, you can work on the same project files and documents in real time, seamlessly collaborating and sharing files.

You can share entire folders, such as photo albums, without attaching anything -- simply send an email with a link to only what you want to share and everything else in your OneDrive stays private.

Price: Free - $100 per year (200GB Storage)

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

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How To Block/ban websites on Android without any software

Okay, I know this is very old school. But still, I bet not many people have tried this. You can use this method to block ad serving sites on your cell (without any software), or to block Facebook on your friends cell or to block whichever site you want on any Android .

The method is same as what we saw here for windows machines. Only difference is, this time it will be on Linux So the path to hosts file will be different. First of all, you will have to root your Android. If you haven’t done this yet then go here or search Google and do it now ;). After this download any good file explorer from play store. Now navigate to the /system/etc/ and look for hosts file. Open this file with any text editor. Something like this will already be there in the file.

127.0.0.1  localhost 
::1        localhost

The first column is for IP address and the domain name goes in the second column. So when you type localhost in your browser it automatically redirects it to 127.0.0.1. In simple words, for any domain resolution request your device will first check hosts file for resolution and if it is not there then it will go to DNS server. So if you add anything here then it will not go to DNS server for name resolution.

You can try this on your friends rooted Android and watch him jumping on his phone after few hours :D. Add below entry to his phone’s hosts file, save it and restart the phone.

173.194.70.147     facebook.com

This IP address is of Google, so when your friend types facebook.com in his browser, he will be redirected to Google. If you want to block it then just replace the Google IP with 127.0.0.1 and as there will be no site hosted at this address, he will be greeted with “Webpage not available” message every time ;).

Obviously, Facebook has too many sub-domains and domains, so if you want to block it completely then you will have to list all of them in this file. You can use this trick to block any website you want.
To unblock any site, just reverse the process. Delete its entry from the hosts file, save it and restart the phone.

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How to easily recover deleted/formatted files and drives

It often happens that we lose an important file or data by accidentally deleting it using shift + delete or remember it only after formatting hard drive partition, or it gets corrupted because of some virus attack. There isn’t really a way to recover these files manually, but thanks to software like EaseUS Data Recovery wizard, we can still recover the lost data with few mouse clicks.

EaseUS Data Recovery wizard is a free data recovery software (pro version also available) which can recover data even after it is emptied from recycle bin or formatted. It works with almost all kind of data storage devices like HDD, SD card, USB drive, RAID etc.

This tool is very easy to use, after downloading and installing the software from the link given below; when you start the software you will see a screen with three main options.

Deleted File Recovery, Complete Recovery and Partition Recovery. Deleted File Recovery will help you recover the data which is emptied from recycle bin. Complete Recovery will help you recover data which is lost due to drive corruption or formatting the entire drive. Partition Recovery will be useful when entire partition is lost due to re-partitioning or damaged boot manager.

You just need to select the appropriate option from the main screen, select the type of files which you want to recover and select the location from where you want to recover the data. Once you select the drive or location it will search for the lost files and show you the list of files which can be recovered.
You can check the preview and select files which you want to recover and click on recover button. It will ask you for the location to save the recovered file and then it will recover the files for you. You can recover up to 2GB data using the free version. The free version has got almost all features that you will require but the only constraint is 2GB limit. You can buy pro version in case you want to recover more data. There are three more versions available which you can check here.

You can download the free version using the link given below.

Recovery software free download (4.7 MB)

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Make your Android look like Windows 8 phone

Tired of looking at the same old Android interface? Worry not, we have this cool app to completely change look and feel of your boring screen.

Launcher 8 is an Android application which can help you give your Android device Windows 8 phone look. It is free and easy to use. Just install it and start using. It has been around for some time on play store with more than 1 million downloads till date. It perfectly simulates the user interface of Windows 8 phone on Android device.

The app is highly customizable. For example there are variety of options for customizing the tiles. One can change the tile color, size, layout and the icons of the app as well. The app drawer can be set to grid view or list view, a different Windows 8 style lock screen, picture frames, support for widgets, one touch calling are some of the amazing features of this beautiful app.

If you love to try new things then this one is for you. It might feel little uncomfortable at first but once you start using it, you will definitely love it. You can download this app from Play store or you can use this page and install it directly on your phone from your PC ;).

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Connect Debuts A “Living” Address Book That Maps Your Nearby Friends

Connect, a new location-based address book and friend-finder utility launching today for both web and iPhone, will tell you who’s nearby, allowing for more “serendipitous” encounters. If that idea sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because a crop of location-based social apps, including Highlight, Banjo, Glassmap and others, caught the tech world’s attention around the time of Austin’s SXSW conference back in 2012. But Connect is taking a different angle: Instead of tracking users via GPS, which co-founder Ryan Allis says can be a bit “creepy,” the app aggregates data from social networks to show you friends’ locations in real-time.

More importantly, perhaps, is that Connect can serve a larger purpose beyond just telling you who’s nearby – it’s a fairly smart address book, too, as the app lets you search for contacts by a number of fields, including not only their name, but also their company, job title, school, interests, relationship status, gender, city, and more.

To get started with Connect, users are asked to add their iOS address book (on mobile), plus their Facebook account, as well as their Google address book and other social networks like LinkedIn, Instagram, Foursquare, and Twitter, for example. After doing so, the app will display your nearby connections on a map, based on their check-ins (as on Facebook or Foursquare), or their geo-tagged posts (like with Twitter or Instagram). The map view can be toggled between an “All” view (all recent check-ins) and a “Now” view, to show only those that have just taken place.

To access the smart address book section, however, you have to tap the small “person” icon at the top right of the main screen, then tap into the search box to display the filtering options. Though this feature is not as key to Connect’s larger mission of connecting nearby users, it’s arguably the more practical one for those no longer enamored with location-based check-in services.

A variety of settings lets you configure and control how Connect will alert you to nearby friends, which gives you some flexibility in how you choose to use this application. For example, you could just turn on a setting that pings you when out-of-town friends are in your area, when friends are traveling, when they’re nearby, and more. You can even drag a slider to designate how many miles from the center of town your “nearby” alerts should be, or designate certain contacts as favorites to limit your alerts.

This makes Connect a powerful utility in terms of how finely it can be adjusted to meet your specific needs, but it also could make it difficult for users to easily understand what Connect does because it offers so many different use cases, ranging from professional networking to dating possibilities and everything in between.

Ambient Location Apps 2.0?
My personal interest in the app is contact search and filtering, not really the real-time location-based element. That latter item is something I could use in spurts, like at a conference or while traveling out-of-town. But while it will surely be handy then, that’s a more limited use case since I’m not typically trying to “bump” into people for chance encounters while out running errands (though your mileage may vary).

It’s also worth noting that many of the apps pitching similar “serendipitous” connections during SXSW 2012 later fizzled; after the event wrapped, many realized there’s only so much “real-time networking” one needs to do every day. (Well, that, and some tended to be battery hogs by using your GPS too heavily. Oh and we have Tinder and Grindr for hookups now, so we’re, um, good there.)
But the smart address book element is something that could potentially see Connect competing with other utilities like Brewster, recently acquired Cobook, or even LinkedIn’s own Contacts app which lets you aggregate your connections from a variety of sources, too.

Connect has been in development for the past 18 months, and ran a beta during the fall with some 16,000 testers, who encouraged the company to add a cross-platform check-in feature – another blast from the past, reminiscent of old services like Check.in or Footfeed. (Connect’s twist? You can include a duration.)

The Team
In addition to co-founder Ryan Allis, who previously sold his emailing marketing service, iContact to Vocus for $170 million, the founding team includes Anima Sarah LaVoy, an Oxford MBA whose interest in people tracking has roots in her passion for political organizing; Zach Melamed, previously of LaunchRock; and Lilia Tamm, previously of the Singularity University.

Explains LaVoy, she had the idea for something like Connect before she met Ryan. “I had contacts from four or five different fields and interests,” citing those she knew from university, her city, from her political work, and more. “I realized these relationships were the most important thing I had to keep track of…and I didn’t have any way to do that,” she says. With Connect, she says that now changes.
Adds Allis, the app isn’t limited to just your contacts, or those you know on LinkedIn – it has a broader reach. “Other apps, like Foursquare or Highlight, have the ‘empty room’ problem,” he says. That is, they’re not as valuable until a large number of your friends get on board. Connect, at launch, is able to find all your friends, provided they’re using some sort of social network.

And, if your friends aren’t as active socially, it could still make for a handy address book.

The eight-person San Francisco-based company is self-funded with a $2.5 million personal investment, thanks to the sale of iContact. Interested users can sign up here, or grab the app from iTunes. An Android version will arrive later this spring.

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Opternative Is The First Online Eye Exam That Writes You A Prescription

“Do I need glasses?” is a question you usually have to get an in-person eye test to answer. But today, online eye exam provider Opternative is coming out of stealth to get you a doctor’s prescription for glasses straight from your computer or phone. Opternative’s test takes five to 10 minutes and costs around $35 — 75 percent less than in-person exams. With $1 million in funding, it plans to launch this summer.

“Doing eye testing day in and day out, I thought ‘there has to be a better way to do this’”, Dr Steven Lee tells me. The co-founder of Opternative graduated from optometry school in 2007 and has been practicing ever since. He realized that with advances in computers and phones, he could probably replace that clunky ‘What’s better? One or two’ machine.

In 2012, Dr. Lee met seven-time entrepreneur Aaron Dallek, and they started the Chicago-based Opternative. [Disclosure: A close friend from college works there.] The startup offers a quick, online eye exam that requires no special equipment. Once your results are reviewed by an opthamologist, they can digitally write you a prescription for glasses you can get filled anywhere.

A Google search for ‘online eye exam’ will bring up several, but they’re not medical-grade. You take a few basic tests and the result is “you should go see an eye doctor”, but they aren’t accurate enough or legally licensed to actually give you a prescription. Dr. Lee says “They’re very gimmicky. They’re all lead gen” designed to provide lucrative referrals to affiliated offline eye care professionals.

Dallek tells me Opternative system truly works because “everyone sees the world a little bit differently. Some people see it fuzzy. Some see it stretched. And about 25 percent of people see the world clearly. We’ve created these images that look different depending on what your prescription is.”

Opternative is only releasing this one screenshot, but the co-founders walked me through a demo. Once you calibrate the test to your screen size by measuring a credit card, it shows you a series of tests for astigmatism, color blindness, contrast, and distance reading.

Since people with astigmatism see the world stretched at certain angles, Opternative shows a fan of red and green lines. The stretching causes the red and green to bleed together into yellow that users can pick out to identify the angles where they have astigmatism. By asking for your shoe size and then telling you to take heel-to-toe steps away from your screen, Opternative can accurately measure your sight at different distances. It all feels clever and easy — almost fun.

Along with providing the test directly to consumers for around $35, Opternative is exploring the potential to embed its test on partner sites of eye-care professionals, and some large online eyewear retailers (think LensCrafters) have expressed interest. For a licensing fee, e-commerce sites like Warby Parker might eventually be able to give you the test and immediately send you the right prescription glasses.

While traditional in-person eye exam places might see Opternative as a dangerous competitor right now, the startup hopes to partner with them down the line. Dallek explains he wants Opternative to be “not just an online eye exam but the gold standard digital eye exam” that doctors could administer in their offices.

There are competitors like EyeNetra and PeekVision targeting India and Africa with auto-refractors that measure your eye itself and not how you see, but their tests aren’t accurate enough for the first world. Maybe one day Opternative’s online test could make it affordable for more people in the developing world to get their eyes checked right.

For now, Opternative has raised $1,000,001 (cute) in a seed round led by Tribeca Venture Partners and Chicago Ventures to get to market. It’s currently in private alpha testing as it navigates FDA approval. It will take a lot of work to overcome the regulatory hurdles and become accurate enough for mass usage. But Opternative is now taking signups for early access, and could be available by this summer.

If Opternative succeeds, it could make eye exams so convenient that everyone gets the right prescription, rather than waiting years between checkups or denying they need help. It’s a beautiful world out there, and Opternative wants you to see it clearly.

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20 beautifully designed smartphone apps

It’s no secret that designers must start designing for mobile. With more and more people starting to browse the web from their phones, web designers have to get hip to making sites good and viewable on smartphones. It’s imperative because we’re not just taking a look online, but we as consumers are beginning to purchase, request info and more from our phones. And we have to be set up, as businesses, to convert in any environment.

The next part of learning this new skill is creating the front end of a mobile app. Many businesses have decided they don’t just want a mobile friendly site any more, but they want something their audience can carry along with them all the time. They want their owns apps.

It can be something useful to the lives of their customers or it can be as simple as a nicely designed RSS feed. Regardless, designers have to continue to learn how to design for mobile.

There are so many different experiences one can design for and different techniques one can use. Mobile interface design is challenging, yet a gratifying process when complete and seen in use. Today, we’ve gathered some of the most beautiful mobile interfaces for your inspiration.

Dribbble Android

As an Android user and Dribbble fan, I love the idea of this app. Sometimes you just want to browse works while you’re away from your computer. This app isn’t only great because it makes sense but also because it has a very consistent look with its web version.

Prague Zoo

Here’s a great idea that shows a way to take make an interactive app that’s completely useful. The Prague Zoo App is for tourists of the park that need to locate attractions. One can also keep tabs of their friends by syncing up with them. While this app is wonderful, it has an absolutely darling design.

Natalie Retina UI

Makers of this interface claim it’s the sexiest user interface that all users want. They’re pretty spot on as this dark themed interface is extremely slick but still able to have loads of detail.

Alarm Clock

What should you do when no one makes an app that you think should exist? You take that matter into your own hands and create something spectacular. That’s exactly what this designer did with their alarm clock app. It has some great features that are totally useful for everyone and has just an amazingly clean design that’s easy to understand.

Today’s Schedule

I like this app because the look is very interesting and futuristic, especially for a scheduler. While many designers are making use of squares and white space, this designer really decided to do something different with these shapes and even with the (assumed) function of the app.

Withjack Designs

I like this app because with portfolios, we focus all our time on creating a wonderful layout. This guy is forward thinking in creating an app for his portfolio that potential clients can keep with them at all times. There’s also some really neat and forward thinking interactions with this app.

Panvel Ciclos

This is an a very specialized app for women brought to them by a pharmacy in Brazil. The design is absolutely superb and the color palette is just amazing. It goes to show how apps can be useful while subtly extending a brands touch to a consumer.

Coffely

First off, this idea is just genius and I don’t even know how they do it. But Coffely basically is a remote control app that allows you to tell your modern coffee maker when to make coffee. It also stores your favorites and you can set alarms.

Whatsapp

This fictitious Whatsapp redesign takes clean design to a new level. Everything here is absolutely perfect. And even though there’s not a lot too it, the details are so well thought out and make so much sense.

Hunt a Place

If you ever travel to a foreign city or country, you’ll probably want to download this app. You’re able to connect with people from certain areas who can essentially show you around via this app. The interface is so clean and attractive, especially the profile page.

Facebook flat concept

I’ve personally never been a fan of the way Facebook designs any of their user interfaces, whether it be online or on mobile. It always feels like something is missing. This app concept lends itself to some of the very small details that make this app go the extra mile. Just goes to show how important the minor things are.

Bikester

When you’re creating an app that’s going to be heavy on statistics and data, you have to find a way to make it easily visual and easy to understand. This Bikester app does a great job of doing that while also making the design aesthetically pleasing. From the icons to the colors, this app just feels good.

Teamride

Teamride is an app for skiers and snowboarders who want to be able to make a team, communicate with each other and see each others stats. The design is absolutely beautiful, especially with the maps and statistics. What’s really neat is this app also works with Google Glass.

Web Fest

The Web Fast app is a great example of how you would create an app for something that would otherwise just go on a website. The app is for a festival that takes place, but they also have found ways to make the app interactive and useful, especially by showing a timeline of the event.

Lucid Dreaming

There’s a bit of a phenomenon that’s been around for a while called lucid dreaming. It’s basically the ability to know that you’re dreaming, as you’re dreaming. There’s a certain kind of skill to it that this app helps you prepare for so you can have your own lucid dreams. You can also use this app as a dream journal to help you remember your dreams.

National Geographic redesign

Redesign a site that you absolutely dislike or think is just too dull is a fun personal exercise. This designer did that with the National Geographic website and smartphone app. They’ve used many elements from well known apps and created something that’s beautiful and intelligent enough for the National Geographic brand.

Taasky

Taasky is trying to make a task list app that makes more sense and is obviously more beautiful than the rest of them. The UI is super clean and looks like it’s super easy to use. The app will be available soon for free and I’ll be waiting in line to catch that download.

Cmplain

Most of our time on social media, we use it to complain and badmouth some of the brands and businesses we’ve had interactions with. You know, people are more likely to tell a story about a bad experience rather than a good one. So this app has come along to make sure you send your feedback to the correct people so they can do something about it.

I Need Money!

When you think of UI and you take into consideration many of the apps we’ve seen already, this isn’t your typical style. It’s handwritten, looks organic and stands out from many other apps.

Weather

While everyone is living in boxes and other geometric shapes, it’s nice to see someone do something a little different. This isn’t your typical run-of-the-mill weather app and I think that’s what makes it so great. It’s still easy to understand but beautiful as well.

Conclusion

Creating and designing apps for smartphones and tablets is the next big thing. It’s not enough for designers to just know the web, so it’s best to be up on great user interface design and the ways in which to make it useful. There are so many resources out there, from blogs to PSDs to give you a jumpstart on your creations. Dive right in and become enthralled with the beautiful world of mobile app design.

What’s your favourite app? Have you ever dreamed of designing one yourself? Let us know in the comments.

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