Categories
General

Effective online testing tools for PHP

Generally, we see that many PHP programmers find it quite annoying to upload their PHP script on the web hosting space for having a performance test as they don’t have an apache server. Moreover, it has also been noticed that programmers only have to insert their PHP code in IDE for checking output like various errors or recommendations to fix those errors. To make these tasks easier, all they require is a PHP code online testing tool. It will not only make the job easier, but will improve their performance. Here we have made a list of various helpful testing tools of PHP that will help programmers to enhance their work functionality and will eradicate all such hassle working for sure.

CodeRun Studio: This tool is enriched of all the IDE programming features and gives support to .Net, PHP, C#, JavaScript, CSS and HTML. Thus, users can work on various files and projects at the same time. Moreover, by this tool, users can also upload and edit online their current projects. It provides a link to share project online to users.

Codepad: It is a simple and plain tool that supports around 13 languages that include Perl, C, C++, Ruby and many more. When a user pastes a code in it, he or she gets a URL that is purely unique and this URL is allowed to share with others. Thus, with this tool, users can have results immediately. Moreover, for this, registration is not required.

Amock: It is an object mock library and in PHP five. It is said that Amock is influenced by EasyMock. For better interface, mock objects have made of source code.

Enhance PHP tool: it is another unit of testing PHP framework and is made of stubs and mocks. It is a single file of PHP which can be added into a PHP project. In this tool, you can check your PHP classes or functions.

Assertion PHP unit Framework: It is a testing framework which is about assertions to help developer or programmers of PHP to test PHP code. The reports of failing assertions can be traced by IE5, Netscape 6+, Mozilla.

PHPUnit: Basically, it is a part of the PEAR packages. These PEAR packages support especially object oriented apps development of PHP by using Agile software and concept methods, Core programming, Contract development, Development driven of Testing and more. Thus, it provides strong, elegant framework development and execution of test units.

SimpleTest Tools: It is used as unit testing, testing for framework of PHP mock objects, web testing and so forth. It has other features that include server stub generation, PHPUnit integration, PEAR testing, online documentations and tutorials.

PHP CheckStyle Spike: It is open source PHP testing tool that allows programmers in conventions of certain coding. It examines PHP input source code and also provides coding convention reports.

PHP Coverage Spike: it is another PHP open source testing tool that measures codes and makes reports of code coverage that offers suit for PHP application. On runtime, this tool can work and make PHP script report of coverage line updates.

This guest post has been written by Ajay Nehra who recommends PaceButler.com as the best service for selling used cell phones and suggests looking at a Pacebutler review before opting for their services.

Categories
Apple Mobile

10 most popular games for your iOS device

An iOS device without games is like a computer without software. With release of iPod touch the demand for music has been suppressed by the demand for Games. Thanks to high quality 3D games in App Store.  There are scores of new games being launched everyday with some big brands battling on the app store. If you consider yourself an avid gamer and you are lucky to posses an iDevice, you can’t ignore the following games from App Store. Get ready to experience the iOS gaming pleasure.

Epic Astro Story

App Store user rating: 4.5
Developer: Kairosoft

The Epic Astro Story is a simulation game from the Japanese mobile games publisher Kairosoft. The game is set in space and the idea is to construct a flourishing colony in an untamed planet by building houses and roads while sending members of the team away to conquer new planets. The battle with cosmic creatures heats up the challenge. A sure buy for the strategy fans!

Beat Sneak Bandit

App Store user rating: 4.5
Develop: Simogo

Coming from the magic hat that has already created two of the most uniquely warm and compelling iOS games, Beat Sneak Bandit is a rhythm-action stealth puzzler. Your goal is to stealthily enter the mansion of Duke Clockface, the wicked clock thief, and give back the world all the timepieces he has stolen. On your way, you must dodge enemy guards and objects. Planning, working out puzzles, and predicting hazards will help you win the game. The smart design and Looney tune visuals are a definite plus.

Beat Hazard Ultra

App Store user rating: 5
Developer: Cold Beam Games

Beat Hazard Ultra is a fast arcade-style, music generated shooter game. The intense visuals and beat detection in the game are outstanding. The soundtrack in the game is based on the user’s iTunes playlist. Each track represents one stage and the arrangement of enemies depends on the song. As the intensity of the music goes up, the foes get faster and furious. If you are aching to get your hands on a pair of virtual sticks and let the bullets fly, Beat hazard Ultra is the game for you.

Pizza vs. Skeletons

App Store user rating: 4.5

Developer: Riverman Media

What can a custom-made giant pizza do? A lot of things, as you will in find out in Pizza vs. Skeletons. The three common elements for making a pizza – rolling, jumping, and pounding the ground are done by tilting your device, tapping the screen and hitting the deck by tapping again. These are also the moves that crush the skeletons and dodge their spears. The game includes a mighty 100 levels. A weird yet ridiculously entertaining game!

Spin Up

App Store user rating: 4.5
Developer: Nenad Katic

Spin Up is creative high score game that brims with brilliant graphics, plot, and music. The game is based on a clever gameplay mechanic where the user has to spin the outside rings of a rapidly deteriorating space elevator to guide their astronaut avatar climb out to safety. Adding to the fluidity and challenge, the elevator is filled with vicious, man-eating office supplies, broken ladders, and hostile machines. Spin Up joins the line of endlessly addictive games.

Bee Leader

App Store user rating: 4.5
Developer: Fightless Limited


Bee Leader is a relatively peaceful game that is simplistic and highly polished. In this game, you take up the role of an over-sized bee responsible for collecting nectar and honey for the hive. You navigate through a circular landscape and search flowers, honey pots, and even honey barrels. Filling the hive with honey will earn you points and move you up to the next level. It is humor combined with simple facts that makes the game interesting and different.

The King of Fighters – i 2012

App Store user rating: 5
Developer: SNK Playmore

The King of Fighters – i 2012, yet another fighting game on the app store, comes with some interesting enhancements over its previous version. The content-rich single player mode offers hours of never-ending gaming experience. New characters join the 2012 team and your player ranking changes depending on the number of victories and losses. With 32 playable characters, gamers can battle against the strongest players across the Wi-Fi network.

Swordigo

App Store user rating: 5
Developer: Touch Foo

Swordigo is an appealing side-scrolling action-RPG that includes iCloud support as a novel feature. Recalling the basic elements of established console games, Swordigo is set around genuine yet familiar characters and conventions across challenging forest, cave, and dungeon environments. Bad creatures return to cause havoc. The player takes up the sword and sets on a journey to recover powerful weapons to defeat the creatures while slashing eerie bats, crawling spiders, horned monsters, and dangerous forces on the way.

Chaos Rings II

App Store user rating: 5
Developer: Square Enix

Chaos Rings II can easily be called one of the best JRPGs available on iOS. An apocalyptic force that is threatening the world into doom pushes Darwin into the role of a nominator. Darwin’s job is to complete the Rite of Resealing task to seal away the destroyer and save the world. With an expanded battle system and amazing environment, the game is robust enough to justify its slightly high price tag.

Kitten Sanctuary

App Store user rating: 5
Developer: Clockwork Pixels

With Kitten Sanctuary, Clockwork Pixels seem to have taken a slightly new route differing from the conventional bare bone approach that most iOS puzzlers are based on. The plot of the game revolves around rescuing 50 kittens kidnapped by aliens. Progressing through a series of levels, you must play the match three game to accomplish the rescue task. The items that you will match are resources that you will collect. The well-crafted layout and attention to detail makes Kitten Sanctuary an interesting play.

Sindhuja Sandeep is a blogger who writes on mobile phone, computers and other technical stuff. Also she is keen in updating about latest technology. At present she blogs for convergence catalyst, a Telecom consulting firm offering Indian telecom market forecast & operational strategies across entire Telecom value chain

Categories
Gadgets Tablet PC

Best Android tablets for kids

The advent of the latest technology has had a deep impact on almost every aspect of our daily lives. Tablet PCs are considered the latest innovation in the computer industry and they have been designed keeping in mind the needs of people from all walks of life and of all age groups. These days, doing business, watching movies and listening to music while travelling has all become ridiculously easy and all credit goes to tablet PCs. In addition, parents even prefer using the aid of the latest technology to educate their children, as a tablet PC can potentially act as the gateway for heaps of infotainment for your kids. This has been combined with the power of Open Source Android and availability of tons of amazing free and paid apps from Google Play Store.

For all parents looking to gift an age-appropriate tablet PC to their young one, here are the top android tablets for kids:

Intel StudyBook

Widely acclaimed by reviewers for its brilliant features, affordability and educative value, Intel StudyBook can be the perfect birthday gift for your little one. This 7-incher is compatible with both Windows and Android Honeycomb 3.0 OS and is highly energy efficient as it is equipped with single-core Intel Atom Z650 chipset. The best part is that Intel StudyBook offers all the right features to educate your kindergartener as well as your kid in the sixth grade. The device is also accompanied with Intel Learning Series Software Suite that offers an amazing learning experience for young kids. Hailed by educators around the globe for its brilliant features, the Intel StudyBook is up for grabs for less than $200.

OLPC XO-3

Developed by the non-profit organization, ‘One Laptop per Child’, the XO-3 is an amazing educational device that uses the muscle of the latest technological advancements to make it work in different environments. Priced at a staggering $100, this amazing tablet PC offers amazing specs that will fulfill the needs of your little one. Powered by Linux OS and Marvel ARMADA PXA618 processor, the XO-3 offers half gigabyte RAM and crystal clear display quality on an 8-inch screen. Although, currently OLPC XO-3 is not available at ordinary retail stores as it is being primarily used as part of education programs in third world countries, still it is only a matter of time before you can buy it for your kids.

Lexibook Kids Tablet

Offering the perfect mix of education and entertainment, the Lexibook Kids Tablet will put an end to your problems with respect to helping your kids in easy learning. Lexibook Kids Tablet offers an easy-to-understand interface, loads of built-in games, built-in Wi-Fi support, pre-loaded songs, educational tests and 53 discovery activities. Parents can hand this amazing device into the hands of their young ones without any apprehension as all the e-books, songs and educational material found in this tablet PC has been selected by the makers after a careful review of the learning needs of kids.

Fuhu Nabi 2

Built to help your children learn and grow into healthy and educated adults, Nabi 2 tablet PC by Fuhu allows you to educate your young kids by blending information and fun together. Featuring NVIDIA Tegra 3.0 1.3 GHz processor and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS, this 7-incher offers the best learning system for your kids with instructional sound learning, educational games, age-appropriate song collection and brilliant strategy games such as Treasure Box. Parents can even use Nabi’s online N-SITE to analyze your kid’s progress.

Micromax FunBook

If you are in India, Funbook is worth a buy for your kid as it has an impeccable specs to fall for. At approximately USD 120 or INR 6000 this is indeed the best buy for your kid. Micromax FunBook sports a 7 inch Capacitive touch screen with 800X480 resolution. It comes with 1.2GHZ Cortex A8 processor and Dual Mali-400MP graphics processor. The 512MB RAM is not much impressive though (There is a choice of a pro model with few extra bucks with 1Gb RAM). It is powered by Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and comes pre-loaded with many educational apps and videos. Moreove Micromax has an appstore from where you can download apps apart from the regular Google play store.

You might come across many other tablets at the price range mentioned here or below this price, but those are not good. We have compiled this list by observing these models of tablets closely and looking at their popularity and performance.

Categories
Apple Mobile

Why You Should Not Buy the iPhone 5

The release of iPhone 5 has got a mixed review from industry stalwarts and gizmo geeks. If you think it is time to pick up the new phone to replace your old iPhone 4S, which is not really old by any means. I mean, you just got your phone 6 months ago, but when Apple said they will be unveiling a new model, you are about ready to trade in your current one.
The question, though, is “why?” Is the iPhone 5 actually so much better than the 4S that it is worth changing after just a few months? Why don’t you wait it out and see if you really need to make a change? Maybe keeping your current one will not be a terrible choice.
In fact, here are the top reasons why you should not buy an iPhone 5, or at least not yet.

You don’t need the iPhone 5 to get the iOS6

What made you excited about the new iPhone are the new OS improvements. There are the new Maps that provide great 3D renders, the improved Siri, and the Passbook ticket and gift card system. Newsflash, though: you can get those improvements (not all, of course) with an OS upgrade that will be available come September 19. So try out the iOS 6 on your iPhone 4S first before leaping for the iPhone 5 just for a new OS.

You might want to check if there are glitches that you have to worry about

Remember when you had the iPhone 4 and you lose signal whenever you hold the phone a certain way? Yeah, that was a big deal back then and even resulted in a class action lawsuit. It ended with the issuance of the bumper case to solve the problem. Not saying that the iPhone 5 will have the same issues, but won’t it be more convenient to find these things out before your purchase. So wait it out and see if there will be reports of glitches that can be deal breakers.

You don’t really want to be stuck in another 2-year contract

According to CNET, the iPhone 5 will not be exclusive to Verizon, AT&T and Sprint and there will be a prepaid version available via Cricket by September 28.  It probably won’t be long until it is also available through Virgin Mobile. It might cost you more for the phone but at least you are not tied down by a cumbersome contract.

The bigger screen can be trouble for some apps

For the first time, the screen of the iPhone will be bigger at 4 inches. But there is a reason why Apple was apprehensive in using bigger screens in the first place. Some apps were designed for the 3.5-inch screen specifically. So make sure that your important apps like Box, RingCentral, Evernote, or even your favorite games are functioning properly on the iPhone 5

You would need new accessories

With the changes in its dock connector, you would also need to upgrade your other external accessories. Apple is likely to release new adapter that will connect the old and new connector but that will still cost money. Not to mention that the new phone size will mean your old cases will not fit as well.

There are other choices out there

Frankly, a lot of what the iPhone 5 is bragging about already exists with other brands’ flagship phones. Bigger screen? The S3 and the One X has bigger. Fast wireless?  Dual Band wireless is actually pretty average nowadays. Great Camera? The One X can make an argument that it is better. Point is, the iPhone 5 may be slightly better than the 4S but it is not necessarily better than other brands like, say, Samsung S3 and HTC OneX.

The image below will give you a detailed spec wise comparison of iPhone 5 with 3 of the most up-to-date smart phones viz Samsung Galaxy S3, Droid Razr HD and Nokia Lumia 920.

As you have ample of choice with you with better features and capability, now it’s upto you to decide what you would wish to buy.

Categories
Internet Web App

5 Cloud Storage providers that Offer More Free Storage than Dropbox

Dropbox has become so popular lately, it has probably become one of the top choices, if not the top choice, when people look for free cloud storage. The file-hosting service gives you 2GB of free storage space upon signup, with the potential to boost storage to up to 5GB, if you perform some actions like enabling Camera Upload, connecting your Facebook account, and inviting other users to sign up, too. If you’re not exactly excited to do all these just to bump up your free storage space in the cloud, there are alternatives worth checking out.

Mediafire

Mediafire has been a solid player in the cloud storage business, even before Dropbox came along. The service is worthy of mention, since it gives users a whopping 50GB free storage with limits of 200MB per file upload.  Paid plans include Pro, with 250 GB of storage and a 4-GB file-size limit, and Business, which comes with 1000 GB of storage and a 10-GB file-size limit.

If you’re looking for a straightforward online backup service and a collaboration service rolled into one, Mediafire is one of your best bets.  Aside from giving you huge free storage, Mediafire lets you arrange files into an unlimited number of public or shared folders, set passwords, and share links. Not to be left out by other file-hosting services offering “collaboration in the cloud,” Mediafire now also lets users collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Mediafire is available for Linux, Windows, and Mac. Mobile apps are presently in development.

4shared

4shared is just like any other file hosting service, letting you create backups in the cloud, access files from smartphones and tablets, and share files with others. It gives you 10GB of free storage (plus 5GB more if you verify your email account) with maximum file sizes of 2048 MB.  4shared also allows other users to subscribe to your feed and lets you sync files across all your devices.
4shared is not the go-to collaboration platform, but it’s one of the most popular ones for music sharing. Once uploaded, music files can be listened to online before download.  One of its best feature is the web-based 4shared music app, which is also available for Android. The app lets you share music publicly and stream any music on your smartphone or on the web.   After downloading the desktop app, simply upload music to your online locker. You may now directly access your files even if you’re offline. But the best part is that 4shared populates with other tracks from other 4shared users. Tap the song you want to listen to and stream to your heart’s content or, if you’re using your mobile device, until your battery runs out. If you want to store huge files of audio and music, better upgrade to Premium, which gives you 100GB of storage with 5GB file size limit.

Box

One of Dropbox’ major competitors, Box is another file-hosting service that’s great for personal or business use. Box gives you 5GB of free storage and the ability to organize files into folders and access them on any device. Collaboration is obviously a major feature of this cloud service, since it also lets you securely share file and folder links and sends real-time notifications once your files have been accessed or edited.   To give you increased productivity, Box integrates with Salesforce, Google Apps, RingCentral, and other productivity tools.

Google Drive

Available for PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Android, Google Drive is one of the best choice if you want to make your files accessible anywhere.  Aside from 5GB of free storage, Drive lets you create and edit documents, presentations, and spreadsheets.  If you’re a hardcore Google user, you’ll be pleased to know that Drive disposes of bulky email attachments by letting you send links directly to Gmail. It also makes photos you store instantly available in Google+.  As expected from the search engine giant, Drive helps you find files faster by letting you search and filter by file type, owner, and more. Like Box, Drive also integrates with a host of third-party apps.

Windows SkyDrive

If you’re a Windows fan, then this may be the cloud storage for you. You don’t have to be eagle-eyed to spot that SkyDrive offers 7GB of free storage, more than the entry-level offerings of major players Dropbox, Google Drive, or Box. Batch uploads are easy on SkyDrive and it’s also pretty easy to create documents from within your SkyDrive browser and share them with select recipients or more publicly on your social networks. Unfortuantely, SkyDrive hasn’t released an Android app as of the moment, but you can use the Microsoft OneNote app for Android or Browser for Skydrive if you want to access your files.  If you have a Windows phone or even an iPhone or iPad, then Skydrive is worthy of consideration.

Though these are alternatives to Dropbox with more storage space, some of these lacks some impeccable features that Dropbox offers with certain limitation. So while you select your cloud storage provider do proper research before you zero in on any one. Don’t look at just the tons of storage but other aspects must be evaluated. And when you are looking for business purpose, we recommend to go for a paid plan.

Categories
Android Gadgets Tablet PC

Unboxing and Review of BSNL T-Pad IS703C Tablet

It seems the Tablet market in India is growing pretty rapidly and this growth is being supplemented by introduction of low cost tablets with open Source Android as the platform of choice. HCL, Micromax and Pantel technologies are leading the bandwagon to release the quite affordable low cost tablets in India. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has collaborated with Pantel technologies to release affordable tablet by the brand name T-Pad. Recently we got an opportunity to try our hands on BSNL T-Pad IS703C tablet and we got a mixed review of the tablet for our readers.

T-Pad IS703C was launched on 29-05-2012. With a price tag of INR 6999, we cannot say T-Pad IS703C as a low cost tablet when there are tablets available for INR 3000. But it will come in the mid or lower midrange tablet category. To offer users a low cost gadgets, company has definitely compromised in few features such as display, battery life, camera, body etc.

Body

At the very first look, it grabs an ascent look but when we look at the rear the blacky shiny plastic body may disappoint few users as the material used for the body is below standard. The form factor is also not quite impressive as compared to other high end tablets like Galaxy Tab or iPad. When I hold the T-Pad for 15-20 minutes, I started feeling pain in my hand. So this might play hindrance to be used for a longer period.

Buttons and Ports

The T-Pad IS703C does not have a physical button on the body, so everything needs to be controlled by touchscreen. As I have been a long time Google Nexus owner, I am pretty used to the physical button, so I found it little awkward at the beginning to work with this tablet.

This has got a lot of physical ports like card reader, HDMI for high definition video output, 3.5mm audio jack, DC adaptor port, USB port to connect a 3G USB dongle or a USB storage device. These ports ar all placed comfortable on one side of the tablet.

It has great support for USB thumb drives and it detected our 4GB Transcend pen drive in no time. We could read and write data to our pen drive without any issue.

Touch Screen/Camera/Speaker/Display

T-Pad IS703C comes with 2 point capacitive multitouch. The sensitivity of the touch screen is not so good when we look at the response time. There seems to be little lag when you touch and when the device senses it and specific command is performed. This might be issue with touch screen or may be due to processing.

It has got only a 0.3 Mega Pixel front facing camera to facilitate video chat.

The built-in speaker provides quite loud sound but the sound quality is not clear when it is output through the speaker. Where in the sound is quite good when heard through a good ear/head phone. We listened the same MP3 song through built-in speaker and ear phone and the difference was clearly noticeable.

Internet Connectivity

This tablet offers Internet connectivity through wi-fi and 3G. But as it does not have a SIM card slot, only 3G USB dongles can be used for 3G Internet access. But wait..it supports only a few 3G dongles. So if you are thinking that you can use any 3G USB dongles then you may be disappointed as we did when we tried to use our Micromax MMX352G. So Micromax 3G dongles are not supported. Below are a list of supported 3G dongles for T-Pad:

Huawei E171

Huawei E173

Huawei E169G

Idea GSM HUAWEI E1732

AIRTEL HUAWEI E1731 (E173Bu-1)

Reliance GSM ZTE MF190

TATA Photon+ EC156

Connectivity through Wi-Fi is pretty good and we could watch youtube videos without buffering at a very nominal Internet speed via wi-fi.

Accessories

T-pad IS703C comes with a wall charger, an earphone and a data cable with micro USB at one end and normal USB at the other end.

Specification of T-Pad IS703C

Processor: Cortex A8 1 GHz

Memory(RAM): 1GB DDR3

Internal Storage: 8GB

External Storage(Memory Card): T-Flash upto 32 GB

Camera: 0.3 Mega Pixel VGA

Operating System:  Android 4.03 ICS

Display: 7” Capacitive Multi touch with 800X480 pixel

HDMI: Supported with video output upto 1080P

G-sensor: G-sensor 3 planes

Conclusion

Some good things about T-Pad 703C are, it supports flash. Internet surfing is a good experience in this device and the speed is quite impressive. It has a good battery backup but takes a little time to charge fully (approx  4hrs). Let us tell about few negative things about this device, first of all absense of sim slot is a disadvantage as user will need to buy a supported dongle.It lacks presence of. It does not support have a GPS or AGPS chip so location will be a spoiler.

Though T-Pad 703C has got some impressive specifications like a 1GHz processor and 1GB RAM, it does not seem to work so fast. This can be a good buy for entry level users and students but for veterans this will be a disappointment. This being a BSNL co-branded tablet should come with some free goodies from BSNL like a supported 3G dongle. As Micromax dongles are advertised as BSNL device and that dongle not being supported in T-Pad will make people confused and disappoint. This device can be a good competitor to Akash as well as Micromax Fun book.

Categories
Browsers Internet

7 Best Browser Security Extensions you need to stay safe

Why Browser Security Extension

The internet is essentially like a vast disease and parasite filled jungle. If you’re moving around on it through your browser, you need to make sure that you’re well protected from infections of all types. It’s easy, very easy, to find yourself the victim of hackers, Trojans, data miners, information thieves, viruses, worms and malicious bots all over the web. There are also fun programs like spyware, malware and adware that can screw your computer up. With all these threats lurking around the net, hidden in many forms, you should really think about maintaining tight security all around.

While it’s a good idea to install a firewall on your computer, a malware scrubber and reliable antivirus software, your first line of defense will be the point of entry: your browser; secure this and you will dramatically decrease the possibility of attacks from external threats before they get a chance to enter your computer or steal your personal data. Here are some excellent browser extensions that can help you keep your machine and your private information safe.

NotScript and NoScript

NotScript is a Chrome extension while NoScript is a Firefox extension; they both do essentially the same thing to different degrees. Both programs will block script using applications on the websites that run them while you browse. Since these scripts are commonly prone to code attacks on your machine, it’s generally a good idea to avoid them where possible. NoScript is considerably more versatile than NotScript since it will block any kinds of scripts, while its Chrome counterpart can only be used against JavaScript.
In the case of both programs, you can place certain sites you trust on a white-list to avoid having their scripting apps blocked off. This is also useful since some web pages that are trustworthy absolutely depend on flash or JavaScript to run.

Web of Trust

If you decide to use just a single security extension for your Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer browser, make it Web of Trust. This extension rates almost every website you visit and gives it a green, amber or red warning depending on its trustworthiness. The information that generates this is based on user reviews, so you can also add your own opinion into the mix; very accurate and very reliable.

Adblocker Plus

This handy little extension will essentially purge your browsing experience of advertisements and other annoying ad based things like popup ads and such. Adblocker isn’t so much as security plugin as it is a nuisance elimination tool, but the extension’s ability to eliminate ads does play an important security function: ads are where many renegade malware and spyware programs Gide, waiting to infect the computer of someone who clicks on them. Getting rid of them removes the potential for many accidents.

LastPass

This excellent data security extension, available for Chrome, Firefox and IE, is a great tool for managing all your online passwords easily while keeping them extremely secure. The extension allows you to create a single master password with which you manage all your other login prompts through the plugin’s internal password creator. The security benefit is that LastPass creates much stronger passwords for all your online data than any you are likely to try remembering later on. This tool is very handy for stopping brute force password crack attacks against your online banking, credit card and any other passkey enabled access pages.

HTTPS Everywhere

This extension was created by the Electronic Frontier Foundation to secure all digital communication between your browser and other servers and websites through high strength encryption. It mainly protects your data transmissions so that the login information and other sensitive data you’re inputting all over the place cannot be stolen and used to defraud you or hack your personal accounts or web based access points. Unfortunately, the HTTPS Everywhere plugin is still only available for Firefox.

Keyscrambler

Keyscrambler is a keystroke encryption tool that will take all of your typed in characters and encrypt them at the level of your keyboard drivers while at the same time letting you see what you’ve written on your screen. The encryption protects your typed information from secretly installed keystroke loggers that might be hiding in your computer; they will only see a stream of gibberish instead of your vulnerable personal data. The Keyscrambler extension is available for both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Your Browser

No, this isn’t another security extension, it’s a bonus point you should keep in mind: The brand of browser you use will also have a big impact on your data and computer security. Of the three main browsers, Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer, Chrome has recently been ranked as the most secure and most robustly protected against frequently updating threats. Chrome’s list of features such as script and process sandboxing, Just in Time engine hardening and basic plugin installation security make it the award winner against its less advanced rivals Firefox and IE. Chrome also seems to have the shortest response time against constantly changing malware threats. Go with Chrome for better security; it’s sleek, fast and won’t overload your RAM like Firefox is prone to doing with its latest versions.

Categories
Apple Mobile

Expected Specs for the iPhone 5

Fans of Apple and technology enthusiasts alike are waiting with bated breath to see what the new iPhone 5 may have in store. There is much debate as to what the specs on the new iPhone will be, with some rumours seeming more plausible than others, but more and more it seems like the new iPhone is the popular showcase for all of the latest consumer technologies.

Release date for the new iPhone 5 is hotly debated with many believing it would have been June 2012. With this date having been and gone we may be left until October (the other popular theory) before we see the new version.

In all likelihood, the phone will have a quad core ‘A6’ processor, but as for all other rumours such as 4G capabilities and the like, we can only speculate. Despite this it’s in the rumours where people’s imaginations start running wild and the inevitable ‘new product’ publicity machine goes into overdrive. The anticipation feeds the advertising campaigns, and many technology devotees are whipped into a near frenzy by the potential on offer from one of the best new mobile phones to be.

This fever isn’t unwarranted, as we’ve seen Apple’s capabilities to deliver intuitive technologies time and time again. A glimpse of the new iPhone is a genuine glimpse into the future, and the technology being bandied about for the new iPhone seems to take on a more organic quality; with a possible feature being a tactile touchscreen. To make a touchscreen have definite and added responsiveness will be a leap for all technology; literally adding another dimension to the digital world.

Liquid metal glass and electronic payment possibilities all serve to add to the clamour for the phone to be released. The Samsung Galaxy S3 went some way to matching iPhone’s lofty standards so at this moment we just have to believe the rumors being surfaced and  we’ll have to wait and see how the Apple responds.

Categories
Browsers Internet

10 useful Firefox 13 Customizations

One of the reasons Firefox is my favorite web browser is because it is highly customizable. Not only are there a lot of useful add-ons that you can download, but the browser can be customized with simple commands inside the about:config page. If you don’t like something about Firefox, you can usually find a command in the about:config page to change things up to your liking. This tutorial is created for Firefox 13, so it may or may not work in other versions of Firefox.

Todays’ post will list 10 useful Firefox 13 customizations. Most of these customizations are implemented by opening Firefox and typing “about:config” into the web address bar. You will get a warning that tells you to be careful. Click on the “I’ll be careful, I promise” button and follow the steps below to implement each change.

1. Change the default starting tab

One of the big change in Firefox 13 was the styling of new tabs. When you open a new tab in

Firefox 13, the default start page now displays a grid of bookmarked websites and popular websites from your history bar. The new tab layout in Firefox 13 resembles the Chrome start page.

Some people (including myself) are not big fans of the new start page. If you would prefer new tabs to start on a blank page or a custom URL, access the about:config page and look for the search bar at the top. Type “browser.startup.homepage” into the search bar.

Double click the one result that comes up and type in the URL of any website. For example, I use http://www.google.com/ and now Google is my default starting page. You can also use about:blank to start all new tabs on a blank page.

2. Disable Google Autocomplete

Google autocomplete drives me nuts. It flickers around showing me all kinds of search results and tries to suggest new searches for me while I’m busy typing my search term. I type way too quickly for this to be anything but annoying.

Fortunately, there is an easy way to disable autocomplete. Use the following URL as your homepage or new tab page:

https://www.google.com/webhp?complete=0

Congratulations, you have finally defeated the dreaded autocomplete “feature.”

3. Disable the Delay for Add-On Installations

This is a quick little tweak that eliminates the mandatory countdown timer that is associated with installing new plugins. The delay is designed to protect you from malicious software installation, but you can easily disable the delay if you feel comfortable around computers.

Visit the about:config menu, search for “security.dialog_enable_delay” and double click on the first result that appears. Change the value to zero and hit “OK.” You can now install plugins without waiting.

4. Close Tabs with Your Mouse Wheel

This isn’t really an about:config customization, but it’s still useful. If you work with a lot of tabs in Firefox, it can get old to repeatedly click on the tiny “X” to close tabs. One simple trick is to just place your cursor on the tab and click down on your mouse’s scroll wheel.

5. Disable Auto Refresh

Some websites like to automatically refresh the page after a certain amount of time. For example, I browse DrudgeReport.com sometimes and that site randomly refreshes on me. These auto refreshes are annoying but they can be disabled inside your about:config page.

Visit the about:config page and search for the following term: accessibility.blockautorefresh

Two results will appear, choose the shorter one that matches your search term exactly. Double click on that result and change the value to false. Web pages will now stop auto refreshing.

6. Use the Mouse Wheel to Open Links in a New Tab

Here is another quick trick that doesn’t require the about:config page. Most people right click on links and choose “Open Link in New Tab.” You can save yourself a click by simply placing your cursor over the link and clicking down on the mouse wheel. This will open the link in a new tab.

7. Disable Blinking Text

Some websites use blinking text on their pages. This serves no purpose other than to be an annoying strain on the eyes. You can disable blinking text by visiting the about:config page and searching for “browser.blink_allowed”.

Double click on the search result and change the value to false. Blinking text will soon become a distant memory.

8. See More Tabs

Open enough tabs in Firefox and eventually you’ll stop seeing new tabs. All new tabs will be replaced with a little arrow on the side of the tab bar. If you would like to see more tabs in Firefox, you can adjust the width of each tab and fit more tabs into the tab bar before new tabs start disappearing.

Visit the about:config page and search for “browser.tabs.tabClipWidth”. The default value is 140. Change that value to something smaller and tabs will now take up less horizontal space.

9. Stop Selecting Spaces Next to Words

When you double click a word in Firefox, that word is automatically highlighted for easy copy/pasting. The one problem is that the space next to the word is highlighted by default. I prefer to select the exact word and leave the space out.

You can change this by visiting the about:config page and searching for “layout.word_select.eat_space_to_next_word”. Double click on the first result to change the value to false. Now, you can double click any word in Firefox and only that exact word will be highlighted. Those annoying additional spaces will no longer be included in your copies and pastes.

10. Undo about:config Customizations

Did you mess something up inside your about:config page? Want to undo a custom change but don’t remember the original value? You can reset any about:config customization by visiting the about:config page and right clicking on any setting inside that page. Choose the “reset” option and the setting for that line will go back to the factory default.

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General Reviews

Review of Sell Cell: A site to sell your old mobiles

Mobile phones are now an indispensable part of our lives. Studies suggest that an average mobile phone user uses his mobile phone for around 20% time of the day. The wear and tear caused by this high usage is the primary reason why people change their mobile phones very frequently. The worst part about buying a new mobile phone is to think what to do with the old one.

The answer to this question is Sell Cell. SellCell.com is a website which provides you option to sell your old mobile phones online at the highest prices possible. It guarantees to provide you deals for selling your old mobile phone at highest price online. It is ranked USA’s No. 1 cell phone recycling price comparison site.

What’s Good:

• Provides an eco-friendly way to dispose or recycle your old cell phone. Moreover, you get paid for it.

• The procedure to sell mobile phones is very simple.

• Searching for your mobile phone is also very easy.

What’s Not Good:

• If your phone is not in the list you may find it tougher to sell

• Shipping is not always free.

• Works only in the US.

There are a lot of websites on the internet which allow people to sell their old mobile phone. These websites, in turn, sell these phones to mobile recycling companies or the mobile phone manufacturers who dispose or recycle these old mobile phones. SellCell doesn’t buy the mobile phone itself but instead it searches these (vendor) sites for the mobile model specified and then provides you with the maximum price at which that model can be sold.

These comparison websites include Totem, Simple Sellular, Bikair, BuyBack, CellTrade, Recellular and lots of other websites. After providing you with a deal, it redirects you to the sites where you can actually sell your cell phone.

Selling your mobile through SellCell is a four step procedure. Firstly you have to search for you mobile model on the website and then it will present you deals to sell your phone. Secondly, you have to select the best deal for selling your phone. After selecting the deal, you just have to fill a few details and you will be provided the instruction on how to parcel them your old mobile phone (shipping will be free in most cases). Once the cell phone reaches the company and they have checked it, you will receive your payment via cash or vouchers.

Conclusion:

SellCell provides a very easy and a simple method to get rid of your old phone for some cash in exchange. So I guess it’s a win-win situation for the user. Head on to SellCell and get rid of your old mobile phone now.