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Download Hike for BlackBerry

Hike for BlackBerry is now officially released. Hike has been available on the BlackBerry platform since the past few days with the ‘Beta’ tag. Now, it’s officially available for the BlackBerry devices with full functionality.

Hike for BlackBerry is available for all the devices running BlackBerry OS 5.0 and above. With Hike for BlackBerry, you can make one-on-one, group chats and even send photos, videos and a lot more! Hike says that many more features will be added in the near future.

Image Credit : Hike’s Blog

Hike is one of those coolest IMs that one can ever come across. Some of the latest updates on Hike include Stickers, Walkie-Talkie and Hike Offline. Hike bridges the gap between data messaging and text messaging aka SMS.

Hike’s free SMS is probably the best thing about Hike’s heavy competition against WhatsApp. With Walkie-Talkie, you can now send voice messages to your friends instead of typing out the words. Hike Offline is the best addition till date. If you are texting a Hike user and he/she happens to go offline, the texts will be sent as free Hike SMS to that user. The recipient can now reply to that text and it’ll delivered straight to your Hike inbox.

Link: Hike for BlackBerry

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Microsoft releases Windows 8.1 Preview and you can try it right now

Microsoft has released the next version of Windows 8 yesterday, at the Build conference. It has everything you’d expect from an incremental update, including a start button, redesigned Store, Search, better customization and more.

For me, the best part of it is that, you can give Windows 8.1 Preview a try right now – without being a developer (unlike OS X Mavericks, for example).

To get started, you first need to be running Windows 8. That’s because Windows 8.1 installation will be done via the Windows Store seamlessly. You can do it manually too, ISO files will be available pretty soon, keeping checking the download page on the site. The update is free, of course.

The size of update is 2.44 GB which is probably not so huge, if you have a good internet connection. Otherwise, you’re going to wait. There’s also no guarantee that the OS is going to be stable, as it is clearly named as a ‘Preview’. So make sure you backup your important files and all before proceeding.

Here’s a nice promo video made by Microsoft for previewing the OS.

Do these updates actually make Windows 8 better? Will you be trying out the Preview? Do comment below.

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Facebook allows Photos within comments: Only for Profiles not Pages

Facebook has rolled our a new feature that allows users to upload images in the comments section. I saw this new feature on accessing Facebook from my browser a couple of days ago but it had disappeared yesterday. Then late at night I saw this option again available on my profile.

You will see a new camera icon at the comments field. We can upload images from our computer within the comments. Though this is a nice step by Facebook, I was a little disappointed that it does not allow you to first choose from your own photos you already have on Facebook but expects an upload.

Also these photos comments are not available on Facebook pages but are available on Facebook groups. I think this is rolled out to personal profiles mainly because it is easier to control who comments on your Facebook posts.

Facebook’s iPhone and Android apps do not have this new feature but comments with images can be seen on it. I guess a new app update will hopefully bring the option of adding images in comments from the phone itself.

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Google Person Finder to trace missing people at Uttarakhand floods

The recent floods at Uttrakhand has devastated many districts in the state of Uttrakhand. While thousands are being evacuated, like most natural disasters there are many people who are missing. Google has a person finder page put up dedicated to finding information on missing people because of the Uttarakhand floods.

Google person finder is not compiling official records of missing persons but it allows anyone to put up information of people who are missing. There is an option to update this information on a person you might have information about too. Currently at the time of writing this post, there seems to be over 1300 records being tracked.

The data is open and not verified by Google but crowd-sourcing probably helps out getting a lot more information out there. Also as the administration fights the floods and updates their official lists but not in a centralized manner, Google’s person finder could be a boon.

Link: Google Person Finder – Uttarakhand Floods

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Facebook brings Video on Instagram to counter Vine

Facebook has today released a Instagram Video, a new feature that allows users to create fifteen second videos. There are 13 filters that can be applied to the video before publishing it. This move is targeted at Vine which last year was acquired by Twitter.

Vine allows users something similar and has become very popular for Twitter users. Instagram for video has some very good features in-built like video steady-cam that allows videos to look better even when taken from a mobile phone.

When Instagram was bought by Facebook, they first hit back with removing Twitter cards on Instagram. This stopped users from seeing a preview of Instagram images shared on Twitter. Twitter hit back by having their own image filters built into their mobile apps. The a popular service called Vine which allowed 6 second video uploads was acquired by Twitter and its growth has been exponential even though it was initially only on the iOS platform.

Overall, I still find these videos are too much style over substance. But considering its popularity, it would be interesting to see if Google has similar plans with YouTube.

Try out Instagram Video by updating the app on your phone. Or you can download them from the links below. Do drop in your comment.

Link: Instagram 4.0 Android | iPhone

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Skype’s Releases Free ‘Video Messaging’ Feature to All Platforms

It was a few months back when Skype announced a ‘beta’ feature that lets users to send video messages. The ‘Video Messaging’ feature is now out of the beta and is available as a free service to all customers. This new feature is available in all the major platforms that Skype is on.

This new “Video Messaging” feature is available on Windows Desktop, Windows 8, Mac, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android and BlackBerry. One interesting thing to note is that, this new feature is not available on the Skype for Windows Phone yet. It’s quite surprising to see that even though Skype is a part of Microsoft now, this new feature is not released for the Windows Phones. However Skype for Windows Phone users can continue to receive these video messages, but cannot send them.

Video Messaging is completely free. You can send unlimited video messages to all your Skype friends. Earlier when it was in the ‘beta’ mode, the number of video messages was limited to 20 for a free user and limited to Premium users.

Capturing a video message is really easy than you can imagine.

  • Tap on the Skype contact to whom you want to send the video message.
  • Tap on the ‘Video Message’ button.

  • Tap on the record button.
  • Record the video. You can preview the video before sending.
  • To send the video, tap the ‘envelope’ icon.
  • If you want to redo the video, you can delete it and shoot the video again.

The recipient can see the video message as soon as he/she opens his/her Skype account. These video messages can be recorded for 3 minutes. And also, these video messages are stored in the Skype database for a maximum period of six months. If you want to keep these video messages forever, you’ll have to move to Skype Premium.

via (Skype’s Blog)

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Official Google App Engine for WordPress Plugin Released

Google App Engine, the cloud computing service platform has recently started support for PHP. WordPress is probably the most popular PHP based software used, so it is no surprise that an official WordPress plugin for Google App Engine was released. The plugin is mainly useful for functionality like sending email using the Mail App API and also uploading and serving media from Google Cloud Service.

This plugin is not meant for general WordPress users as they will need to know how to deploy PHP applications on Google App Engine. The plugin will over-ride some core WordPress functionality, mainly the email and media upload functionality.

Useful Links

The plugin’s code has also been uploaded to GitHub.

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Download Official App for Microsoft’s Office 365 on iPhone

Microsoft has quietly rolled out Office 365 for iPhone and iPad. Until yesterday there wasn’t any official application from Microsoft that brought Office to iOS devices. Launched today, the new app on the iTunes Store bears the “version 1” tag.

Named “Office Mobile for Office 365 Subscribers”, the app is available as a Free download. You’ll need a Office 365 subscription account to use this app. One month free trial of Office 365 is available. You can choose to not continue the subscription from the next month if you don’t want to. You can now create, view, edit and even share your Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents even on your iPhone and iPad.

This app is also capable of accessing your documents stored in your SkyDrive, SkyDrive Pro and SharePoint. You can also download Office documents received as email attachments and edit them.

This app comes with many amazing features. You can use Slide Navigator to easily view your PowerPoint slideshows. Resume Reading is yet another feature that takes you to the last read section of a particular document. Even you if read the document on your PC, you can resume reading at that place on your iPhone or iPad.

The app has been designed especially for the iPhone 5. Never the less, it runs on iPhone 4, 4S, 5, iPad 3rd generation and above, iPad Mini, iPod Touch 5th generation. But it runs with 2x resolution on the iPad devices. It needs iOS 6.1 and above.

Notice to Users

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This Microsoft Office app needs Office 365 subscription to run. And also, you can use this subscription account on 5 iPhones with this app. This 5 installations doesn’t count with the already given 5 installations for Office 365. Totally you have 10 installations (5 iPhone installations and 5 Windows, Mac installations). Office University plan is limited to 2 iPhone installations. Office 365 trial subscription can also activate this Office Mobile app.

Link: Office Mobile for Office 365 Subscribers on App Store

via Microsoft Office Blog

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Facebook introduces Twitter like hashtags in news feed

Facebook has copied Twitter once again. First time they copied them when they revealed newly designed News Feed and said that they want to make our news feed look like a personalized news paper (which is what Twitter actually is). Then they copied them by launching blue verified check marks for celebrity pages and now they’re copying their rival once again by showing hashtags in the News Feed.

If you enjoy #hashtags on Twitter, Instagram or Google+ then you will be able to enjoy it on Facebook too. Till now hashtags on Facebook used to look like plain, regular text without any link to accompany them. But now they will become clickable with a link. If you enjoyed a status update on any topic and it contains a hashtag, then you can view more updates on the same topic by clicking on that hashtag.

What happens to Privacy?

When it comes to the visibility of your own posts in hashtag feeds, then Facebook says that your private posts will still remain private and they won’t show up to any unintended audiences in hashtag feeds. So your privacy will remain in your control. And based on this feature, company is planning to roll out trending hashtags and some other exciting secondary features too in the upcoming days.

What are your views on Facebook introducing hashtags? Will it add to the spam on Facebook? Do drop in your comments.

via Facebook blog

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Amazon Starts Selling Kindle Tablets in India

Last week Amazon made its foray into India. I being someone who loves to read books was interested in the Kindle tablets and their official entry into India. Today, Amazon.in lists 5 Kindle tablets available.

The two premium tablets are the Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9. The Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ is priced at Rs. 21,999. The device has 16GB storage, WiFi connectivity, The Kindle Fire HD is priced at Rs. 15,999. This device is different from the previous one in the sense it has a smaller screen size.

The other versions inclide Kindle Paperwhite 3G at Rs. 13,999, the Kindle Paperwhite at Rs. 10,999 and finally Kindle (basic) at Rs. 5,999.

Apart from the Kindle devices, Amazon India is also rolling out the e-books that can be read on Kindle devices. The Kindle store is pretty good as it also has iPad apps and Android apps to help you read your Kindle books on other platforms. This means if you buy e-books on Kindle you can read them on your iPad or Android tablets too.

I think with Kindle store in India, Amazon joins Flipkart as the only online stores that are selling e-books in India. Flipkart’s Flyte store though is being closed but that affects only the MP3 store. They will continue selling e-books.

Thanks Gaurav Singh for the tip.

Will you be buying a Kindle tablet in India? Do drop in your comments.