Computer And You

Making Your Computer Experience Better

Must have Google Lab applications for Gmail. The best of the lot.

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The Google lab features helps you experiencing e-mailing in a way that has never been realized before. (If you do not know how to enable google lab features then follow: If you do not know how to enable the gmail features the follow:http://computerandu.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/how-to-enable-google-lab-features-in-gmail/)It make e-mail life much more simpler and efficient. Some of the Lab features that make you overcome those silly, boring, tiresome and sometime fatal mistakes and effort you have to put in a normal e-mail service provider have been sorted out. These are the must haves which one should include in his gmail account.

  • Undo send: How many times you sounded “Oops” just after hitting the send button. I bet one too many times. And then you just feel like snatching it back and stop it from being delivered. Well, you can now actually do it. The “Undo send” lab features enable you to cancel the sending upto 30 secs after hitting the send button.

 

  • Message translation: Do you understand nothing but English and often get messages in languages other than English (For eg. French or Italian). Now with the help of “Message translation” you can translate it directly in your inbox with out the need of copying it and then pasting it in Google translator.
  • Canned Responses:Do you often need to send the same message again and again a number of times? This one if for you. Save and then send your common messages using a button next to the compose form. Also automatically send emails using filters.
  • SMS (text messaging) in Chat: Allows you to send and receive text messages (SMS) in Chat with no extra cost. Currently available for US users only
  • Nested Labels: Labels are good. Even better is nested labels. It allows you to manage your labels in a hierarchical order. Add slashes (/) to label names to express inheritance. For example, if you want a Home label with two child labels named Kids and Shopping, create the three following labels: Home, Home/Kids and Home/Shopping.

How to enable Google lab features in gmail?

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Google lab applications are excellent add-ons for a better e-mail experience. Most of them are still under development but that doesn’t stop you from using it. These Lab features certainly gives gmail an edge over other email giants like Yahoo and Hotmail.

To enable google lab features follow the steps:

  • Click on setting tab in the top right corner and choose “Mail settings”
  • Afterward choose “Labs” in Setting Tab
  • Now select your Google Lab feature and “Enable” it from the radio button
  • Save changes
  • Now when you click on “Settings” again you can see “Labs” option in the drop down button

How to type in Hindi and other Indian languages on any website like Facebook, Twitter

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Write in Hindi and Indian Languages on Facebook, Twitter and any other wesbiteIf internet is your religion then Google is your God :) Always there to guide and help. This time with their Transliteration bookmarklet. Sometimes when you want to reply in Hindi or any other language you simply feel helpless and you wish for an easy way that could enable you to write in Hindi or other languages. Google powered websites like Orkut has automatic option of writing in Hindi but not all of them provide such luxury. At different forums it simply is a tough task.

Thanks to Google’s Transliteration bookmarklet it is simply matters of clicks. If you want to write  यार मस्त कट रही है instead you type “yaar mast kat rahi hai” and this can easily be translated into Devanagri script. Same goes for other languages as well.

Please follow the steps (The same steps are followed for other languages as well, links for other language bookmarklet is given at the end of the page):

  • Drag and drop this link  [अ Type in Hindi] your browser’s bookmark bar
  • Now, when you want to type in Hindi on a particular website just click it once
  • It will enable the translation. You can see अ in the type box.
  • If want to stop typing in Hindi, click it once again and it will be disabled

Remember: You have to click on the bookmarklet for each website i.e. if you have multiple tabs open, then click on it for each tab. If you opened another website on the same tab you have to click it again to type in Hindi. But it’s not a pain as it is only a matter of a click.

Links for other Languages:

Sources: http://googleindia.blogspot.com/2009/05/type-in-your-language-on-any-website.html

How to download from Nokia Ovi Store to directly on computer?

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So Nokia is up with its Ovi store to compete with Apple. There are a considerable number of applications available at Ovi Store to download but …yeah there is a but … You have to download(read install) it directly to your phone using Ovi application for Nokia. This may not seem a problem if you have good network speed on your phone (i.e. if you are connected to Wi-Fi or 3G connection) but it certainly is annoying if you are using GPRS/Edge services to connect to internet or if you want to save the application for future use.

Well, you don’t need to loose heart. Because there always are few tweaks available to counter it. The simplest way to download from Ovi store to your computer is a 2 step process:

1. Download application from Ovi Store to computer

2. Convert .sis.dm file to .sis file/ Convert the .jad file to .jar file

1. Download application from Ovi Store to computer: This part is pretty much straight forward. All you have to do is to click on the desired application. There is an option of “Send to friend”. Just click on that.

After clicking on it. Look into your browser address bar:

Replace “send-to-friend” by “download” and press enter. The file starts to download:

So, Finally you have successfully fooled Nokia and downloaded the application on your PC. But the problem “may” not end here. As you know the Nokia runs on Symbian OS and it uses .sis file. The application you have downloaded might be .sis.dm instead of .sis. (or .jad instead of .jar). So, our next step would be to convert these files into a suitable format.

 

2(a). Converting .sis.dm file to .sis file: This might seem a bit difficult but believe me it only seems, it is not at all difficult. To convert .sis.dm file, you first need to install a Hex Editor. You can download XVI32, the best Hex Editor available free. Unzip the file and run the XVI32 application. Open the desired .sis.dm file(you can also drag and drop into the software). It will look something like the pic below. Try to find the first “7A “ in the left panel.

Delete (using delete key) every other entry before 7A. Don’t delete 7A. :) Something like this:

Download from Ovi to Computer

Now a similar task. Use the scroll bar to go to the bottom of the file. Here look for first “-” of “–boundary–” (in the right panel). Delete from here till the end.

So. its final look will be like:

Now you can save this file as filename.sis. Your application is ready to use. Install it using Ovi Suite or copy it into your phone and then install it.

2(b). Convert .jad file to .jar file: If the downloaded file from Ovi store is .jad file, then it can easily be converted to .jar file. .jar file can then directly be installed on Nokia phones. The idea is that mostly .jad files contains the address of the .jar file inside it. So open the .jad file in a notepad or (preferably) notepad++. Look for the address inside it. Copy the address and paste it inside the web browser. Enter and .jar file is on your computer. :)

Enjoy Hacking Nokia Ovi Store. A word of thanks and questions are always welcomed.

Review: Chrome Web Store

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Announced and launched in December’10, the Chrome Web Store is now available in more than 15 countries other than USA. Web Store is more like Mozilla’s add on page with different extension and application available for free or a nominal fee. Apart from extension it also has a number of browser games to keep you busy and help you in killing time right in your browser.

The web store is open for the developers to develop new applications and extensions. Industry sources say that the delay in launching the web store outside US is related to payment issues. The developers can select the region where they want to sell their product. Inspired by Apple Store, it contains a decent number of applications with more to come as developers flocked to get a pie out of Google.

If you are using Google Chrome and still do not see the chrome web store option on the new tab page, I would suggest you to change the language of the browser to “English US” from the setting. This way you can enable the option of web store in your browser.

Altogether it is an innovative step from Google to popularize their already popular web browser. Now we need to wait and watch for the reaction of Mozilla, Apple and Microsoft.

How to switch back from igoogle to classic google?

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igoogle is the customized homepage of google.com. It gives you option of adding lots of stuff on the google page for eg. news, language translator, dictionary, currency and stock information etc.  Though many people use it, I never found it appealing. Recently when I wanted to disable igoogle and switch back to good old classic google, I simply could not find how to do that. Closing and re-opening the page did not help. After sometime only I realized that there is an option in the setting tab on the top right corner of the igoogle page. Click on the gear symbol and choose Classic Home.

The following is the screenshot of the “option”:

The same setting option can be used to switch from classic google to igoogle.

Review: Facebook email is a big let-down

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It was announced few months back. All devoted fb users were so eagerly following the news, the news about the gmail killer facebook email. Last night I got the much awaited Facebook email invitation. I was so happy to see that message. I gladly accepted it. As soon as I applied the new messaging, everything looked different, better. I could not control my emotions and put up my facebook status right at that moment. I got replies from friend for invitation. Meanwhile I was exploring this new hyped application. I found these things from my experience:

Whats New: There definitely few things you will notice at first. For instance, You can see the smileys :) instead of  : ) in your messages. The message space is more clean and shorter fonts are used. It shows all the previous message conversation with the person (It categories the messages by User). You just have to scroll up for seeing that. You can receive email from other service provider like gmail at an address [email protected] These emails will be saved in the “other” category of messages.

It does allow the user to attache files and also allows to send pic/video taken at the instant from webcam. The upper limit on attachment is not known yet.

It also has the text messaging feature. It means if a friend sends you a message and checks the “send to phone” option, you will receive the same message on your mobile phone and you can reply straight from your phone. This conversation will also be shown in the facebook messaging box.

Now you can forward the messages you receive to other users (which was missing in the older version of facebook messaging).

Why it disappoints? When you expect something like “gmail killer”, you want a grand application. Unfortunately, facebook email is not a gmail killer. I guess, it cannot replace the regular email service. Instead of having a complete new email feature, it is just an up-gradation of facebook messaging.

Right now its available only by invitation. When I invited my friends, they did not see any invitations despite of me sending it.

By default, it archives the message instead of deleting it. If you want to delete a message, you have to open it and then from drop down select the delete option. Tiresome.

Verdict: It definitely is a better messaging service but it is a poor email service.

Waiting for replies on this post.

P.S. If you want to get a the facebook email, first you need to apply here:

Sources: ?topic=new_messages

Best practices to get better Battery Life for your laptop

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With the time the performance of Laptop battery changes drastically. A new one gives a backup of around 3 Hrs easily but in a year only it comes down to 1.5 Hrs or may be low. That makes one think how to get better battery life for laptop. Its always good to use the best practices to get the best out of your Battery. These are some of tips to extend the battery life:

  • A laptop battery’s health deteriorates the more you charge and discharge it, running it from a power source will make your battery remain in a state of charge/recharge. Instead, when your battery gets to near 100% charged, unplug it from the power and plug it in again when it is low.
  • Avoid frequent full discharges because this puts additional strain on the Li-ion battery. While on the other hand for nickel-cadmium batteries, discharge the battery completely at least once in a month.
  • If you are using your laptop more as a desktop, I would suggest you to remove its battery and use directly from power supply.
  • Never use your laptop directly on bed. If you have to use it on bed put some hard stuff under it.  If you look closely on the back of your laptop, it stands on four miniature legs, which allow the heat to pass from it. When you put it on bed or some other surfaces like it, there will be no space for heat to pass and it can harm your computer and the battery in long run.
  • Try cleaning your laptop battery contacts at least once every few months. This can be done by using a cotton swab and alcohol.
  • It is also a good practice to charge the battery when your laptop is turned off.
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