Use an Android Device as a Mouse, Keyboard or Joystick etc. to Control a Computer

January 18, 2014 By Satwant Singh 1 Comment

What you think about the idea of using your Android device to control your computer as Mouse, Keyboard or Joystick? Of course Great! Using an Android device to interact between different programs in your computer is not only a great way but also helpful. Your Android device can be really helpful if your computer’s mouse or keyboard is not working properly. You can control all the programs in your computer like controlling media players, playing games, browsing internet, texting etc. So in this article, we’ll let you know that how can you use your Android device as a mouse, keyboard or joystick.

To do so, we’ll be using an application from the Google Play Store “Monect Potable”. Monect is a free a app which allow the users to control their computer via WiFi or Bluetooth. It has various different features like Keyboard, Joystick, PPT mode, Text Transfer, Race Mode, and Touch Pad etc.

Steps of Using “Monect Portable” to use the Android device to Control Computer:

The Monect Portable has two phases. One is the app which you’ll need to install on your Android device and the other one is the desktop Monect Host.

Step 1: Download and Install the required files and softwares:

First of all, search for in Google Play Store and install it on your device.
Now open the link below on your computer and download the wrapped version which include the both app and the desktop host.
Now unzip the downloaded file and launch the file named MonectHost.

Step 2: Connect your Android device with your computer:

Now to connect your Monect Portable app from your Android device with your computer’s Monect host, launch the Monnect app and then you can enterthe IP address of your computer in the given blank field under the “Host IP Address”. Now tap on “Connect”.
If above method doesn’t suits you, then you can search your computer’s host by tapping on the “Search Host” option. Then you select your host from the list and connect to it.
You can also use the third option Bluetooth, which is of course for the Laptop users.

Now if you are connected, you’ll see a dozen of different modes to select from: Touchpad, Typewriter keys, Function keys, Numeric keypad, Text Transfer, My Computer, Race, Joystick, Shooter Mode, PowerPoint, Browse Mode and Media Mode. All of these modes will help you to control you computer properly without any problem.

Mouse Functions:

You can use Touchpad mode to use your device as a mouse. Choosing this mode will show you a keypad which is quite similar to the track pad of laptops. You can also choose 3D mouse to use your device as laser mouse.

Keyboard Functions:

You can use Typewriter keys, Function keys and Numeric keypad to make your device work as a Keyboard.

Gaming Functions:

You can use Joystick, Race Mode or Shooting mode to play different games according to the requirement.

Other modes:

Text Transfer: Just type the text on your device and you can copy it to any selected program on your computer with just a click.
Browsing Mode: This mode will help you to control all kind of browsers for easy browsing.
Media mode: This mode will let you control the media programs providing you with options like Play, Pause, Stop, Next, Previous, Volume Up, Volume Down and Mute.

My Computer: This mode will help you to browse file in your computer.

PowerPoint Mode: This mode will help you to edit your document files if you need to prepare an assignment or a presentation for a meeting.

So this was Monect Portable which lets you use your Android device to control your computer very easily ans accurately. Share your precious views about this app in the comments below. Don’t forget to check out “7 Unknown features of VLC media Player“.

How To Auto save your Gmail Attachments to Google Drive

July 17, 2013 By Arshdeep Singh 1 Comment

Ever wondered how to save your Gmail attachments to your Google Drive? Yes, but you don’t know the way out then how we have two solutions. First is that you can manually download each attachment then upload to your drive which is really time-consuming and cumbersome. Second method is pretty easy, actually it is automated and all credit goes to our India’s famous Blogger Amit Aggarwal who created a script himself which allows us to do the same. Main source article is published at his tech blog named “Digital Inspiration”.

Script is written in a way that it saves all the attachments automatically even for the mails to arrive in future along with the ones present in your inbox already.

Things needed:

The one and only thing you need is the script and you can download that script from .

Instructions:

All you have to do is to go to the file option from the Menu bar and select “Make a copy” which will open the copy of the script in another window.

Again from the Menu bar choose “Run” this time and then select “Authorize” option. It will ask for various permissions which you need to grant.

Then again go to “Run” and select “Start Program” option this time. Script will start running in background.

Now you will see that script made a folder named “Google Images” in in your Google Drive. This folder will contain all the attachments.

After some time you will see the attachments in the Gmail Images Folder as they showed up in mine.If you still want to change the default settings in the script then head over here to see Script’s Source code..

So did you guys like this way of saving the attachments automatically to your drive then this man Amit Aggarwal really deserve the credit. If you guys find out any problem with the above guide then simply ask us in comments below. We will love to help you.

Transfer Files between your Android device and Computer without using any Data Cable (Wirelessly)

June 20, 2013 By Satwant Singh 1 Comment

Whenever we wish to copy some stuff from our computer to our Android device or vice versa, we have to connect the Android device with the computer by using a data cable. And has to do it every time when we have something to transfer, which is really bothering.

So you must be wondering that is there any way to transfer files between your Android device and computer without data cable? And the answer is yes, there’s a way. But the condition is that your Android device and computer must be connected to same WiFi network. We’ll be using an app “AirDroid” from Google Play Store.

Steps to use AirDroid to wireless transfer of files between Android and any OS:

First of all, go to the . Open the app and install it on your Android device.

After the complete installation, launch the app. Now, there are two ways to connect your device with computer. First by “Signing up/Registration” and second by “Scanning the QR code”.

Connecting by “Signing up/Registration”:

After launching the AirDroid app on your device, you’ll be asked to “Sign in or register” or to “Skip” the registration. Choose “Sign in or Register”.

You can register via your Google, Facebook or Twitter account. Complete the registration.

Now go to “web.airdroid.com“. You’ll see a window asking to Sign in. Enter your Email and password and click on Sign in. Keep in mind that before you Sign in to “web.airdroid.com”, first Sign in to AirDroid app in your device. Otherwise your device will not connect to your computer. After successful Sign in, your device will connect to your computer.

Connect by “Scanning QR code”:

When you launch the AirDroid app on your device, skip the registration.

You’ll see a camera button at the bottom with text “Scan QR Code”. Click on it.

Now go to “web.airdroid.com”. You’ll see a window with a QR Code on its right side. Scan the code from you device and your device will connect to your computer.

Now after your device is connected, you’ll be directed to a page showing icons like Messages, Music, Files, Call Logs, Camera etc. on left side and other information like memory and free space on right side.

To transfer any file from your computer to your device, click on “File” on the right side of the page. You can either drag & drop the files or folders you want to copy over there as show in the image below. Or you can select the file by clicking on the blue button (see the image below). You can also select the destination folder in your device where you want to transfer your file by clicking on dark black button (see the image below).

There’s another way to transfer files to your device. Open the “Files” folder from the icons and the go to the folder where you want to transfer your file. Click on upload and then either drag & drop or select the files/folders from “Select Files” or “Select Folder” button.

Now to transfer files from your device to computer, it’s about downloading them. Just open “Files”, right click on the file or folder you want to transfer to your computer and click on Download. Instead of right clicking on the file, you can directly click on the download button at the top right of the window. Folders and multiple files will download as a Zip file.

There are a lot other things we can do from “AirDroid” app. We can send and receive SMSs directly from your computer which means we don’t even need to touch our device to reply someone. We can also make phone calls, push URLs and share clipboards to our device. We can take pictures from our device; by clicking on camera icon you’ll able to see the camera screen on your computer. Also, we can locate and lock our Android device and swipe all of the data if it’s lost.

So overall, the “AirDroid” is an amazing app making our life a little easier. The beauty is that it works with any operating system. So you can easily connect to your computer without any software suite. It will also help you in case when Android device is not recognized by Linux. What do you think about this app? Share with us in comments.

Recapping Your Motherboard

June 13, 2013 By Guest Author Leave a Comment

Capacitors in motherboards

Capacitors are electrical devices that are primarily used in electronic circuits to store electrical charge. The construction of a capacitor involves two electrical conductors separated by a dielectric. The motherboard, a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) holding crucial electronic components of the computer systems, contains electrolytic capacitors. Tantalum capacitors are used to filter out noise on the power supply lines. They are used as a part of Voltage Regulator Module (VRM) to ensure delivery of smooth regulated power to the CPU so that it operates correctly.

Bad capacitors

Capacitor plague is a problem which arises due to failure of electrolytic capacitors. If the electrolyte used is poorly formulated it turns bad after some time and causes excessive internal heating. This heat in turn causes swelling of the capacitor and leakage of the electrolyte. In severe cases, the capacitor explodes.

Identifying the faulty capacitors

If the motherboard is having bad capacitors, the problem can be easily identified by observing some system faults or physical faults. The most common operational sign is that the computer and making memory errors and spontaneous reboots. Moreover, physical signs include irregular bulging of the peak of the capacitor, brown ooze and strange odor.

Recapping

Once bad capacitors are identified, they can be replaced by performing a labor intensive task. Replacing of motherboard capacitors is generally referred to as ‘recapping’.

Equipment required

The first essential step for recapping is to gather the right equipment, the unavailability of which may cause serious damage to the motherboard. Gloves, soldering iron, cutting plier, safety glasses, rosin core solder and required quantity of new and adequate value replacement capacitors should be available before start equipping motherboard with new capacitors.

Marking bad capacitors

Next, the motherboard should be explored carefully for bulging or oozing capacitors.

Making a schematic

One very important thing to be kept in mind while obtaining the new capacitors is that they should be of the same capacitance rating as the ones that are to be removed. Before desoldering is started, it is required to note the direction of the gray colored band on the capacitors carefully. The best practice is to make a diagram of the position and value of the capacitors.

Prepare the board

There are also chances that bad capacitors may burst while removing so eye protection should be put on. Also, CPU, RAM, Heat Sink/Fan, cards and all such devices should be removed from the board. The board should be cleaned.

Removing bad capacitors

Once all the precautionary measures have been taken, bad capacitors can be desoldered. In order to remove the capacitor, its leads should be heated one at a time at the rear of the board such that the soldering iron is in contact with the lead and the pad around the hole. The capacitor can be pushed and removed from the board then. This process requires the iron to be hot enough. The holes on the board should be cleaned before inserting the leads of the new capacitor. The diagram should be checked for placing the new capacitors with correct polarity.

Equipping the board with new capacitors

The leads of the capacitors should be neatly soldered by feeding small amount of solder into the holes. Excessive care should be taken to avoid making motherboard connections short. Once soldered, the leads should be clipped at the rear of the board. Next, the removed devices should be placed back and power can applied to test if the process of recapping was fruitful.

References for the pictures:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fixing-motherboard,1606-9.html

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-reapair-capacitors-on-computer-motherboards/step4/Adding-the-new-capacitors/

Allowing BYOD And Tips To Safeguarding Security Threats

April 30, 2013 By Guest Author Leave a Comment

BYOD (Bring Your Own Devices) is now a policy according to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Many companies are gradually adapting to this practice. BYOD is the perfect example of the next generation enterprise mobility model. The state of BYOD adoption cannot be called to be nascent, rather there are quick and remarkable developments seen in the mature as well as high-growth markets. While in the Middle-East, the trend of BYOD is spreading very fast, enterprises all over the world are preparing to deal with the various threats that BYOD may inherently possesses with it. The nature and potential magnitude of these threats is such that companies are even considering the adoption of technological solutions long deemed controversial, namely monitoring software for computers and spy app for mobile devices. The inclination towards the use of such digital solutions is hardly surprisingly as they offer quite a bit of relief to the management by letting them supervise employees’ use of digital privileges. This of course includes everything from monitoring their online activities to their communications and even location.

Let us have a glance at the most significant security threats BYOD or bring your own device is associated with.

Data Breach:

There is more than one instance of data breaches involved with BYOD. In the case an employee loses the smartphone or the mobile device, which has access to the enterprise network, untrusted sources can pilfer all the data on that device or they may sell critical company information to the competitors.

Another case can occur when an employee leaves the organization; he takes the device with him along with all the company data and software applications.

Ownership of Company Information and Accessibility:

This is a seriously critical threat for organizations while separating from their sales and direct customers-facing employees. The employees will certainly take the phone connection with them, which indicates that when the customers are interacting with such an employee, they are actually dealing with a competitor’s employee.

Well, every technology is challenged with pros and cons. While companies cannot literally have control over the employee’s device, they can certainly have other aspects to focus on; the software applications, the data, and importantly the users. Now it is time to get some tips on securing your business from potential risks.

Emphasize on Network Security:

It is more about being vigilant. Have a tough check on who is using your network and with whom. Also studying the behavioral pattern of the users helps in identifying any such causality, well before they occur. The most important determinants of network security threat occur when;

There is over utilization of network resources.
Network configuration is altered frequently
Attempts are made to intrude to unauthorized network areas

More Secured Apps:

BYOD enterprises need to implement strong apps monitoring and scanning technology for all the software applications the employees are installing and using in their mobile devices. The apps environment varies in nature, including personal apps and third-party apps. It may be great to create your own pool of apps for the users to fetch them from there.

Users Do Matter:

It is ultimately the user who is at the center of the entire BYOD ecosystem. While organizations must allow their employees the freedom of BYOD, at the same time they must also clearly make them understand their rights and responsibility in a BYOD environment.

BYOD is the future; enterprises only need to enable, entrust, ensure, and engage in the best security practices…

How To Watch A Movie Without its Complete Download

March 31, 2013 By Segun Onibalusi 2 Comments

Does this topic really sound funny to you? Or do you think that it not possible? Yeah! those questions are marvelous, which I would give you an answer to in this Tutorial.

This is what most people love to get, I would help you out with that by giving you some useful tips in this tutorial. This won’t cost you a penny nor would it take much of your time all you need is to understand the topic clearly. Follow these simple steps and get your problem solved.

What version of VLC are you using? Although that doesn’t matter, But for more safety get the latest version of VLC player downloaded on your computer.

The image above show the preview of what you would download.

Secondly, are you using ilivid Downloading Manager? If not then download it right now. This is another essential software you have to download to make this go through. Install this app on your computer and activate it before doing anything.

What next? Have you finished installing these applications on your computer? when you are done then there is nothing else left for you to do than to go to your favorite channel, copy the link to the video you want to watch

After copying it paste it on the ilivid Downloading Manager for quick watch.

Using ilivid Downloading Manager to download a movie depends on how fast your internet connection is, so make sure you are using a very secured and fast internet. After copying this url into the download box, wait for at least 5 minutes; then double click on the movie that is downloading after that 5 minute, the movie would start playing after you have done that. Take note, you would be able enjoy this method if you are using a very fast internet connection.

Has the question stated above been answered to you? To me I think the question has been answered, but please if you have any misunderstanding or suggestion on this article, kindly drop your problem in the comment box and I would get back to you with the very best answer.

Using Google Chrome – Think again!

March 18, 2013 By Pranav PANDEY Leave a Comment

As most of the internet users, I am a heavy Chrome user while surfing the world of internet. But while this surfing I came along an interesting news from MWR Labs which work in security research activities. They demonstrated a full sandbox bypass exploit against the latest stable version of the Google Chrome browser at the annual Pwn2Own competition at the CanSecWest conference in Vancouver. The researchers from MWR labs showed their hack which took a fully patched version of Google Chrome browser, hacked it, and then took control of Windows 7. They explained:

By visiting a malicious webpage, it was possible to exploit a vulnerability which allowed us to gain code execution in the context of the sandboxed renderer process. We also used a kernel vulnerability in the underlying operating system in order to gain elevated privileges and to execute arbitrary commands outside of the sandbox with system privileges.

According to MWR InfoSecurity managing director Ian Shaw:

The reason Chrome was chosen as the target for the demonstration is to encourage understanding, as a security breach of this nature could expose millions of users to serious risk.

MWR Labs decided to share the holes with the vendors so that they can be patched and didn’t provide specifics on the code it exploited to take control over Windows 7.

So, here is an opportunity for you to exploit Google Chrome browser vulnerability if you can, before they fix it in upcoming updates.

Source: http://labs.mwrinfosecurity.com/blog/2013/03/06/pwn2own-at-cansecwest-2013/

Best SSD You Can Buy For The Money In 2012

November 27, 2012 By Guest Author Leave a Comment

Still quite heavily priced, SSDs are the future of computer storage, as you may know an SSD or Solid State Drive differs from a traditional hard disk drive in several ways.

A hard disk drive is a very traditional almost manual affair, where a wheel is “written” on by an arm almost like a reverse vinyl player. Imagine those little USB mini pens that you use for digital storage, now imagine them all taped together on a small circuit board, that is an SSD, its essentially digital storage that is written and retrieved much much faster than a traditionally hard drive. They also shouldn’t fail as easily as a traditionally hard drive, it has no moving parts.

SSDs like all new technology are still highly sought after and gradually over time the price will drop, however if you are looking for increased performance (you can massively increase the load time of your operating system up by using an SSD) then it may be the solution you are looking for. Your choices on the market are in abundance so we have chosen three different types of SSD for you

Crucial M4 – 128gb (£90) – Winner

Crucial’s award winning drives are lightweight, very fast read and write speeds and runs low power, on an overall score, the Crucial M4 wins our award for top benchmarking and great value for money.

OCZ Agility3 – 60gb (£60)

An overall great SSD in performance and price, the Agility3 is becoming a standard in many of our specs and a great all round addition to storage.

CORSAIR FORCE GT – 128gb (£120)

Incredibly fast quality SSD, a personal favourite of many of our staff, the GT is a superb quality SSD perfect for all round gaming, entertainment and performance.

Right now just to put into comparison with a hard disk drive, as of 2012 you are paying about 5pence per gigabyte, where with a solid state drive you are paying closer roughly to 90pence per gig, these margins will close but it will be another year or so before we see this taking effect.

Overall, SSDs are leading the way in the new age of PC gaming and performance computing, the question is more about WHEN you will switch and not IF, we are convinced that has the average capacity for SSDs increases and the price starts to drop, you will see solid state drives a standard feature in all computers and storage devices such as (TV satellite boxes and computer consoles)

I would love to hear any comments you have on SSDs below!

Author: Chris Turton from gaming PC company Palicomp.

How to fix: Android Samsung Galaxy S2 not recognized on Linux

January 9, 2012 By Abhishek Prakash 51 Comments

Problem:

I was facing problems connecting my Samsung Galaxy S2 on Ubuntu, which is particularly annoying bearing in mind the total lack of support by Samsung for Linux (even Kies is of no use). Strange enough, it works flawlessly on Windows 7, where it recognises it instantly and I can transfer files between my phone and computer.
When I plug it into my Linux machine, it is recognised and I can see the contents of the root of /sdcard and the SD card but I cannot access the contents of any file or folder as all the folders are empty.
When I connect my phone to USB there is no “mount USB” option but just MTP application in the home screen. [Read more…]

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