Showing posts with label Tools and Applications. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tools and Applications. Show all posts

International Investors keen to support India's $35 Tablet

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

The unhackable PlayStation 3 has finally been hacked

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

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

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

Quick tools to test your internet speed

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

A Virtual PDF printer Totally Free

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You just need to follow below 3 steps..

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

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

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

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

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

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

Best tool for Project Planning & Scheduling

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

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

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

Click here
to have brief overview of the tool.

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

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

Download any online file with a single click

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

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

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

Below is a video explaining Skipscreen features.

How to Control laptops via internet using twitter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Collaboration and Web Conferencing on the cloud

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

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

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

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

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

How to create quality charts using Flash

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

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

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

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

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

Google Voice all set to rock the world

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

New simple ways to convert Video files online

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

Here are some tools that would do the trick.

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

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

2.KickYouTube: Its the best way to download video files from the YouTube website. KickYouTube is a clone site of YouTube with a "kick" feature. This "kick" directly allows you to download videos in your required format, be it 3GP, AVI, MP4, etc... All YouTube files are available at Kickyoutube site.
The Link
Here is an video demo of the kick effect
Downloads: 25111 Views: 33975

The Best of Online collaboration tools.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now run your web apps on Google's infrastructure

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

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

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

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

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

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


Our Source.

Explore some sample apps in the App Gallery.

Best tools for Collaborating real time documents online

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

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

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

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

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

A real time Twitter search engine tool

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

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

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

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

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

Now share you likes with your friends... literally

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

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

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

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

Try it now... Sign up

Welcome to the era of cloud computing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A full 3D screen browsing experience

This free application lets you browse images and videos is full 3D. One could scroll top-bottom, left-right and zoom-unzoom.

Piclens transform your browser into cinematic visual presentation with images and videos put on wall and make you assume like you are seeing them on wall of a dark room.

Piclens recently made the application compatible to view YouTube videos along previous compatibility to view Google image search results into 3D visualization as well as that of Yahoo, AOL, Ask.com and Live image searches, thats too with just one single click.

Moreover, PicLens allow to view photos on Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa and Smugmug into same 3D visualization along with social networking sites like Facebook, Bebo, MySpace and Friendster.

Here is a quick video explaining the briliant features... Enjoy

Make calls to USA absolutely free via internet

This new service which began from 25th Dec 2008 could be really a valubale christmas gift to people around the globe. You can call anyone in the United States from almost any part of the globe that too totally free.

So whats the catch? Well none.. All you need is an good internet connection and and mic/headphone. Its basically a ad-supported web service. Unregistered users can make calls of up to two minutes and registered user ( registeration is also free) can make unlimited calls of up to 15 minutes.

Most important, the service works domestically within US and all over the world. That means you can call the United States free from any cybercafe or Internet-enabled computer virtually anywhere.

Heres how you make a call.
1. Visit http://dataservers.googlepages.com/callingamerica.htm
2. Enter the tellephone/mobile phone number to call
3. Hit "FreeCall now"
4. Enter a verification code as displayed on the site
4. Wait for 10sec while the ads are displayed
5. Then hit "Press to call" and speak on the microphone

Have Fun...

Wishing All AskWiki Readers Happy New Year.