Author: Aditya Kane

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Firefox 17 Released with Support of Facebook Messenger

Firefox 17 has been released officially for Windows, Linux and Mac users. The desktop browser which has struggled to grow consistently against rising Chrome. The new updated version is available today.

Facebook Messenger can also be directly used with Firefox 17. Just sign-in to your Facebook account and visit this page for Messenger for Firefox and click on Turn On.

It will show up with a sidebar of your Facebook chat friends

Other Updates on Firefox 17

  • Firefox 17 now is not supported on Mac OS X 10.5
  • Some old bugs regarding the New Tabs page, pointer lock for web apps and page scrolling on sites with fixed headers.
  • The new version will be useful for its Click-to-Play Plugin Blocks feature. The older versions of Flash, Adobe Reader or Silverlight bring up a prompt for users to update the plugins to newer versions.
  • Additionally if plugins are blocked by Firefox 17 on the current page you are viewing, then a icon on the address bar turns into a blue box.

Do drop in your comments.

Link: Download Firefox 17

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Reviews

What is Good, Bad and Ugly About HTC Droid DNA

As far as Android based OEMs go, HTC is a few steps behind the very successful Samsung. HTC is known for churning out solid phone products but has still struggled with revenues and profits. HTC has now released a new Android based phone called Droid DNA which should be considered a competitor to Galaxy Note 2 by Samsung.

The Good

The phones has pretty much everything one expects out of a smartphone. It will run on Android 4.1 (Jellybean). The phone itself has a display screen of 5 inches, with support for multi-touch. It has a decent 8 MP, 3264 X 2448 pixel camera.

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The phone is supported on 2G, 3G and 4G and Wifi networks.

More importantly the phone is powered by 1.5GHz quad-core processor with 2GB RAM.

The Bad

The internal memory on this phone is 16GB. That seems to be a little on the low side. The issue is compounded by no option for external storage as there is no microSD slot.

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The Ugly

I use a HTC V One phone. It is a lower end phone running Android 4.0 (ICS) on it, when compared to Droid DNA. But one major complaint I have against it is how OEMs straddle the Android OS with their own UI.

HTC Droid DNA is no exception and it is bundled with the Sense 4+ UI along with Android 4.1.1. There are many who like the stock Android versions without OEM UIs on their phones. But then again, only the Nexus brand of phones and tablets carry stock Android versions.

All said and done, the phone looks like a solid device with solid features and very few disappointments. HTC as a company is actually struggling financially and a good phone device being available only a few days before “Black Friday” sales in the US markets could be just about perfect timing.

Would you go with HTC Droid or wait for Galaxy S4 which is expected early 2013? Do drop in your comments.

Link: HTC Droid DNA

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Reviews

mHotspot – Simple Software to Turn Your Laptop into a Wifi Hotspot

The number of gadgets we connect to the internet are growing. Now with tablets and almost everyone having their own laptop and smartphones a typical family can even have five or six devices connecting to your Wifi router. Sometimes there are more devices to be connected, than a router can handle and the best option in such situations is to turn your laptop into a Wifi hotspot. mHotspot is a free and simple application that allows users to create Wifi hotspots out of their PCs.

How mHotspot works:

  • Install the software on your computer which you want to turn into a Wifi hotspot.
  • The software allows users to customize a name for the hotspot. This will showup as a Wifi network of other devices that your need to connect. This means it works with most mobile phones and tablets regardless of platforms.
  • You can monitor all the devices that connect through your PC and more importantly limit the number of devices that can connect.
  • It also supports WPA2 password security.
  • You can also allow sharing of Wifi without internet connection to enable playing multiplayer games on LAN.

Here is a video on how mHotspot works.

The software does require Microsoft’s .NET Framework 4.0 for it to work.

Try out mHotspot and drop in your comments.

Link: Download mHotspot

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News

86% of Removal Request by India to Google are without a Court Order

Google puts out transparency reports every few months. One disturbing trend came out in the previous report was that India has 49% increase in the number of removal requests made by government agencies. The latest report shows that 86% of the removal requests by India are without a court order.

Worrying trends of Internet Censorship?

Content removal requests are not really a big issue as such. Majority of them are for copyright infringement. But these are numbers collected about requests made only by government agencies (eg: Police, courts). Usually in such cases government agencies approach the courts to block a website or webpage before sending a removal notice to Google.

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The current trends shows that 86% of such requests are made without a court order. One would think that such urgency of getting items removed might be predominantly matters of national security or hate speech. That is not the case as 35 out of 64 of these requests which are without court order in the past 6 months are categorized under “Defamation” and not other more serious issues like hate speech, impersonation, privacy and security.

This is a major worrying sign as only countries with a high level of internet censorship actually try and remove content online requiring court orders.

What are your views on internet censorship in India? Do drop in your comments.

Link: Google Transparency Report 2012

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Google Unveils $199 Acer Chromebooks in US and UK

Today Google has unveiled a new Chromebook. This one is from Acer and is priced at a competitive $199. It is available in the US and UK markets via Google Play or Best Buy.

Acer C7 Chromebooks Features and Specs

  • The notebook runs on Chrome OS, with 100 GB Google Drive Storage with 340 GB HDD.
  • The display screen is 11.6 “. It supports resolution of 1366 X 768.
  • It will have 3.5 hours of battery time.
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If you are living in the US or UK you can buy the Acer Chromebook from its landing page.

Last month, Google also had another Chromebook variant from Samsung. The price tag of that device was $249. I think Chromebooks are great if you are comfortable using Chrome OS. To be honest, I am still not very convinced about the a new type of laptop making a big dent in the computer market.

I also have realized that a lot of new updates on Google seems to be hardware related instead of web related. This post too falls in that category. Do you think Google should just stick web and Android instead of launching new phone, tablets and laptops? Do drop in your comments.

Link: Acer C7 Chromebook

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Reviews

Automatically Scan Chrome Bookmarks For Bad Links

Even before websites had RSS feeds on them, people followed their websites by bookmarking pages on their browser. Even today, I have several webpages bookmarked on my browser.

Anyone with several bookmarks on a browser might be familiar with the issue of some bookmarks becoming defunct (bad links) or even being saved multiple times. Bookmark Sentry is an extension, that allows users to scan Chrome bookmarks for bad links and duplicate links.

Bookmark Sentry Features

  • Install the extension and it carries out a scan of Chrome’s bookmark directory.
  • It will show up 404 links, duplicate content and empty folders. With a single click all the errors can be cleaned up.
  • Users can also set the time for the extension to scan the bookmarks. I ideally set the scan to be done after 1 month as we do not bookmark too many webpages everyday.
Settings for Bookmark Sentry

As this extension works only on Chrome, you might like these cool tips to get more out of your Chrome browser.

Do drop in your comments.

Link: Bookmark Sentry

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Reviews

Get Real-Time Tweets with Google Search Results

When Google Realtime was launched, it would show a lot of results from Twitter. It showed Twitter’s awesome dominance on almost all events which were important to be followed in realtime. Then things between Google and Twitter went sour and Google had no longer access to all data from Twitter.

I use Chrome and HashPlug extension works seamlessly to give some related tweets in an unobtrusive manner with my Google search results.

Below is a screenshot of me searching for “Diwali Festival” on Google. Notice the realtime tweets streaming in the right hand side.

If you are signed into your Twitter account on your browser, then you can even retweet, favourite or reply to a particular Tweet from the feed directly.

If Google is showing a related page with its knowledge graph for a particular search term on the right hand side, it gets automatically readjusted below the twitter stream.

Usually this sort of Twitter stream would be very useful while using Google for information about an unfolding event like a sporting event or a breaking news story.

Thanks to @Fenoplix for the tip. Do try out HashPlug and drop in your comments.

Link: HashPlug

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News

Microsoft introduces Excel Surveys in SkyDrive

Microsoft on its blog, today announced a new feature with SkyDrive. The new feature will allow users to create Excel based surveys which can be useful to plan events or projects.

How Excel Surveys work:

  • Simply login to your SkyDrive account online at https://skydrive.live.com/.
  • Click on create button at the top and select “Excel Survey” from the dropdown.

  • Name the survey and create a questionnaire.

  • The file can then be shared with anyone via a short URL. All the data entered and collected through the survey is neatly tabulated into a excel file.

Google Drive (previously Docs) also has a similar option of creating questionnaires and collecting information in a feature called ‘Forms’.

I have personally not been able to test out Excel Survey completely for all its features as Microsoft will be rolling it out over the day. If I find something, I will surely update it here or in a new post.

(via Windows Blog)

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News

Facebook Introduces New Look Friendship Pages

Facebook has started to roll out a new look Friendship pages for users. These Friendship pages are like aggregators of you and your friends posts on each others wall, photos on which both are tagged, common likes and events.

Though these friendship pages on Facebook are usually great to see your interaction with a friend on Facebook, Sauravjit had written about how it can be used to view friendship activity between any two users.

This update will be of more interest to people who have listed themselves are married or in a relationship with someone else on Facebook.

They will be able to see their friendship page at the URL https://facebook.com/us

Here is an example of the new look page for friendship activity. This example is of people listed as being in a relationship.

I am not sure how Facebook will leverage friendship pages as I personally find it more or less as another efficient Facebook feature to spy on people, but I guess couples who are planning events and sharing photos together could find it useful.

If you want to check the Friendship page your share with any of your friends, just visit their profile and click on the gear icon. Then select “See Friendship” from the dropdown.

(via Facebook)

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News

ASUS Nexus 7 debuts in India, Priced at Rs. 19,999

As expected ASUS has made its Nexus 7 tablet available in India. The tablet will be available in India from today. It was first launched in the US a few months ago with the new Android 4.1 (Jellybean) version. The Nexus 7 is being sold in the US for $199. In India, it will be sold almost at double the price at Rs. 19,999/- (US $ 369/-).

The tablet is not the latest Nexus 7 32-GB version, announced by Google a couple of weeks ago. This tablet is Wi-Fi only and runs on Android 4.1.

Though I do believe that upgrading to 4.2 should be easy, considering the device will be running a stock Android version and the manufacturer is not responsible for upgrades.

Currently I could not see as a listed item on any Indian retail website except on Chroma website. Chroma mainly being a physical store, it is safe to expect these tablets showing up across stores in India. The timing is almost perfect as the festival season of Diwali happens next week. So expect a lot of Nexus 7 tablets to be sold over the weekend.

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Why is the Nexus 7 over-priced in India?

Nexus 7 has been rumored to be a highly subsidised device by Google. The idea was whatever profits Google makes on Nexus 7, it would do so by selling content and apps on Google Play.

Indians might not actually end up buying content and apps from Google Play. They would definitely spend a lot less per device on apps than some on the U.S or U.K.

So that is probably the single biggest reason for Google not to subsidise the tablet and hence ASUS is pricing it on the higher side.

Hopefully LG which is also expected to sell Nexus 4 in India soon, does not take a cue from ASUS and overprice it.

Will you be buying a Nexus 7 Tablet in India, priced at Rs. 19,999 ? Do drop in your comments.