Category: Tips

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Tips

Download Songs from Grooveshark using GrooveDown [Updated]

groovedown

Grooveshark, the popular music, radio streaming service doesn’t have an inbuilt feature to download songs.

Unlike YouTube video downloaders, there are not many Grooveshark downloaders available. GrooveDown, a freeware tool can solve this problem.

Features of GrooveDown

  • Search songs using the built in search feature (If you have no idea of what to search then take a look at the Popular songs from the Tools menu).
  • The Search list tab displays the search results, double-click a search result to add it to Download list.
  • Under Download list tab, click Download to start downloading the selected songs.
  • You can change the Download folder from the default folder to any place of your choice using Settings menu.

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Pros and Cons

Pros: No installation needed, so it’s portable. The relevancy of the search results is also good.

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Cons: The log with time stamp (below the search bar) is not needed, it just adds to the interface clutter.

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Is it Legal?

Nope, it’s not. Grooveshark clearly states in its TOS that the music should be streamed not downloaded (source)! Although, the developer of GrooveDown claims that downloading from Grooveshark is not illegal unless and until you share it (source). But still many doubt the TOS of GrooveDown, as it’s not professional and also it’s against the TOS of Grooveshark.

In short, if you want to support Grooveshark then don’t use GrooveDown.

Do drop in your comments.

Link: GrooveDown

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Tips

WP DBManager Plugin for WordPress Database Backup

WP-DBManager

Database is the real wealth for any blogger and hence WP-DBManager is a very important plugin for all the WordPress bloggers. It takes backup of all the database content like posts, categories, tags, comments, users, pages and other content of WordPress blog. This plugin allows not just to take back-up but also to optimize, repair, restore, delete and run queries from WordPress admin section.
With this plugin’s options we can also schedule database backup. It will store database backup into backup-db folder on your server  or you can also manage settings which will send database back up file to your specified email account.

Plugin Setup:

  • Go to the Wp-DBManager plugin page and click on Download. WordPress Beginners can refer to our guide on How to Install WordPress plugins.
  • After installing the plugin, click on Activate Plugin in the plugin menu.

  • After activating the plugin, you will get a message as shown in the screen shot below. Now simply move the ‘htaccess.txt’ file from WP-DBManage folder to backup-db folder. Error message will fade away. 🙂

  • Click on Database menu for all the options for this plugin. It will give you number of sub-menus to setup plugin setting. Click on the ‘DB Options’ menu and make the changes in settings as per your need.

  • Then go into Backup DB menu and take a backup of your WordPress database. All the database files will be stored into your WordPress hosting server under the folder /wp-content/backup-db.
  • You can also find backup files into WordPress admin panel under Manage DB Option menu. This menu will provide various options like restore, download, delete and email the database file.

    • You can find more about this plugin in WordPress plugin directory .

    So do share your experience after using this amazing plugin.  Comments awaited below. 🙂

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Tips

Download your Data from all Google Services at Once

google-takeout-logo

Google recently introduced Google Takeout, a new service which helps you to download all your data hosted on Google which includes your Picasa albums, Google contacts, your Buzz updates and even your Google+ updates.

The downloaded data is useful in many ways, for example, if you sign-up for a new social networking site, then you can use the Google contacts (.vcf) file to send invitations and get in touch with your friends in no time.

Downloading your data using Google Takeout

  • Head on to Google Takeout and sign in to your Google account.
  • Under the Choose services tab you can choose what all data you want to download, you will also get the estimated size of the files.

google takeout

  • After that, head on to Downloads tab and hit Download (note that you need to re-login).

Don’t worry about the size as you will get it in .zip format. All the formats are open, except the profile file which is of .json format.

You can’t download data from Docs, YouTube, Orkut etc using Google Takeout but there’s another service by Google known as Data Liberation which gives step-by step method to download your data from each Google service.

Drop in your opinions after trying Google Takeout.

Link: Google Takeout | Data Liberation

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Tips

Automatically Set Date and Time of Your Android Phone

If you travel a lot or if you are the type of guy who plays with the settings or hack the phone – there are several chances that the time in your phone may go wrong. When you notice them, you won’t find it a big deal but if you forget to change time in your mobile it could lead to some serious disturbance.

People like me, schedule everything in our calender, even timings for study and blogging. It can also end up reminding me to go study at 3.am in the morning. 😛

Since it is not easy to set the correct Date and time manually every time, the only way to do it is by changing the date and time to be automatic.

Then it will grab the  information from the network service providers and the headache is solved. Everytime it resets, time will be automatically corrected by Android itself.

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There are several Android users who have asked this question time and again about setting the time automatically. Hence I decided to blog about it.

Set Date and Time Automatically

  • Go to Menu -> Settings -> Date and time

  • Select the Automatic option in it. Now android will use the Date and time provided by the Network and it will be surely correct

That’s it ! Done ! It’s so simple but still find a lot of people being stumped by this simple settings tip for date and time for Android phones.

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Tips

Preview Websites on Smart Phones using Mobilizer

mobilizer 1 Mobile internet usage has increased drastically after the introduction of smart phones and that’s why website owners take extra care by modifying their site specially for mobiles.

But how does your website look in their mobile? Enter Mobilizer, an Adobe air app which can preview any website in various smart phones including iPhone, Blackberry, HTC and Palm Pre.
mobilizer

Features of Mobilizer

  1. Preview any website on various smart phones simultaneously.
  2. Right click and select Export PNG to get the image of the mobile (including the site you’re browsing).
  3. Apart from previewing websites, it can also preview image, HTML and flash files, drag the file into the mobile to preview it.

Tip: If you want to preview different websites in different smart phones at once, then right click on a smart phone a untick Synchronized.

Mobilizer in Action

Mobilizer – Preview tool for mobile development from Springbox on Vimeo.

The app requires Adobe Air, works flawlessly on Windows and Mac. Try out Mobilizer and provide the feedback through comments.

Link: Mobilizer

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Tips

Search and Find Games for Linux Online

Most open-sourced Operating Systems are designed on the Linux kernel. Linux stands shoulder to shoulder with Windows when it comes to performance and User Interface. But it loses out when it comes to software compatibility.

Many such issues are solved by using open source alternatives which are not as good as the paid ones. Hence when it comes to gaming, everyone prefers Windows as it supports a lot of games.

Also, another drawback is we do not find a lot of games that run on Linux. 🙁

Penguspy is a website that really good for looking up free Linux based games online.

Penguspy Features

  • The site is very useful if you are predominantly a Linux user and feel the need to have Windows only for gaming needs.
  • The games are classified into several categories like arcade, action, adventure, puzzle, FPS, RPG, sim, sport etc.
  • You just want to select a category, select the game and you can see it’s trailer, ratings, some reviews and a link to download them.

If you are using Linux, try out Penguspy and do drop in your comments.

Link: Penguspy

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Tips

5 Ways to Make Facebook Better in Chrome

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Starting with Better Facebook, there are many extensions available at Chrome Webstore to enhance Facebook’s functionality and remove unwanted stuff from it. Some of the new features like Facebook Questions which turned out to be a big spamming portal and Facebook photo theater are not liked by many of the Facebook junkies and this lead to development of many browser extensions and user scripts.

Here’s a list of top 5 extensions which can change the way you use Facebook.

#1. Better Facebook

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An all-in-one extension for Facebook with ability to add tabbed news feeds, hiding posts you’ve already read, zooming photos, adding custom CSS skins/themes  and more. You can disable some of the annoying features of Facebook, like Photo Theater and Comment box update.

Link: Better Facebook

#2. Facebook Runner

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How much time do you spend on Facebook daily? Facebook Runner answers this question! You can integrate it with Facebook homepage also! It also provides interesting statistics like average time you spend on Facebook everyday and Percentage of Facebook usage when compared to your whole internet usage.

Related: Want to block Facebook to increase your productivity? Then why don’t you try StayFocusd through which you can block time-wasting sites.

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Link: Facebook Runner

#3. Di.slik.es – Dislike button for Facebook

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Don’t know why Zuckerberg hadn’t thought of this! It adds a dislike button beside the like button, one thing you need to remember is, Di.slik.es follows your Facebook privacy settings, so if you’ve set your privacy settings such that only your friends can see your likes, then similarly your dislikes can be seen only by your friends (who have installed Di.slik.es extension ).

Link: Di.slik.es

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#4. Facebook Disconnect

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Facebook tracks your visits when you browse any website that uses Facebook connect and also Facebook has a bad history of leaking personal information to advertisers for money! After installing this extension, you won’t be seeing Facebook like widgets in websites and you won’t be tracked by Facebook.

Link: Facebook Disconnect

#5. Hide Facebook Questions

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As I said, Facebook Questions has grabbed lots of love from spammers and this extension will get rid of them. I hope Better Facebook will definitely add this feature to their extension in the next release, up to then stick to Hide Facebook Questions extension.

Link: Hide Facebook Questions

So, what are your views on these extensions? Speak your mind!

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5 Chrome Omnibar Tips for Better Productivity

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One of the best features Firefox is missing when compared to Chrome is the Omnibar. This innovative feature is not available in any of the major browsers. You may just think that Omnibar is Address bar + Search engine, but it’s a lot more than that! You can use it for complex calculations, unit conversions, send mails instantly and much more!

#1. Omnibar as a Unit converter and a Calculator

Apart from simple additions and subtractions, Omnibar can also perform complex calculations, for example trigonometric functions like that in the image.

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You can also convert one system of units to another, usually it takes less than a second for the result to appear.

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These two tricks require internet connection, if you want to do math offline, then checkout Calculator extension.

Link: Calculator

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#2. Send E-Mails from the Omnibar

Previously mentioned OmniMail makes it easy for the users to send E-mails. You just need to install the extension, authorize it (it need to access your Google contacts) to get started. To send an E-mail, type mail email@site.com and with a click, a new tab opens with Gmail’s compose mail option.

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Link: OmniMail

#3. Focus on Omnibar quickly

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We generally use cursor to focus on the Omnibar, but we can also use Ctrl + L keyboard shortcut to do that, that can save you a couple of seconds.

#4. Send SMS from your Omnibar

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If you’re a mobile fanatic, you may be knowing about Way 2 SMS which is a mobile portal only for Indians, you can send free SMS to any person in India using their service. Yesterday I came across an great extension which simplifies the process of sending SMS using Way 2 SMS. After installing the extension, login through the options menu. You just need to type <Mobile no> <Message> and you’re done! This will definitely save you a lot of time.

Link: A Quick Way 2 SMS

#5. Clean your Omnibar’s Search engines list

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If you use a lot of search engines, then it will be difficult for you to switch between different search engines. Fefoo can solve this problem, it is similar to Searchr but a lot better than that. It has 70+ search engines of different kinds, there’s a toolbar at the top of page using which you can switch from one search engine to another. You can make Fefoo as your default search engine using the trick I have mentioned.

If you know any Chrome Omnibar related tricks, do share with us through the comments!

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How to Connect Your Google Docs with OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice_GoogleDocsI had recently written about storing your Microsoft Office documents on Google Docs, thanks to a plugin. But on my laptop, I do not use MS Office and prefer using OpenOffice which is free. I still like to save my documents on Google Docs, as when it comes to collaborative work, there is nothing better than Google Docs.

OpenOffice.org 2 GoogleDocs is useful to import or export files between Google Docs and OpenOffice.

OpenOffice 2 Google Docs Features

  • Firstly, download the plugin on your computer from link below. Now run the file which installs a add-on for OpenOffice on your computer.
  • Then start OpenOffice software on your computer and you should see a new add-on installed on it.

OpenOffice_GoogleDocs1

  • Just import any file from Google Docs to OpenOffice by clicking on the Import from Google Docs options.
  • It has a helpful feature which shows all your Google Docs in a list for users to either download or open via a browser (see image below).

OpenOffice_GoogleDocs2

  • Similarly, we can export the document on Google Docs by saving the document and updating it. Just make sure that the credentials of Google are complete, as in users need to insert “@gmail” after as shown in the image below.

OpenOffice_GoogleDocs3

  • Subsequently, you can also choose to auto-update your document. 🙂

If you are using OpenOffice and Google Docs, do give it a try. Do drop in your comments.

Link: OpenOffice.org2GoogleDocs

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[Chrome] Store and Sync Tabs and Windows to Use Later!

Using Chrome is a lot of fun, as it is very helpful as far a synchronizing data is concerned. Chrome allows users to easily sync bookmarks, extensions, web apps, saved passwords and more. This is done thanks to your Google ID.

I have used Chrome extension called Sesh, which allows storing tabs and windows on Chrome browser so you can visit them later.

Sesh Extension Features

  • The extension is simple, just install it on your Chrome browser and save any tab or window via the extension (see image below).

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  • Later on, when you want to get the saved tab back on, just click on the icon and the saved tab, which then gets restored.
  • This is a better option when you are not sure if you want to bookmark a page but still want to get back to it for a couple of days.

If your Chrome browser is syncing extensions, then all your saved windows and tabs are also available with a another desktop which has Chrome browser synced to your account.

To sync extension, on Chrome browser just click on the wrench icon >> Options >> Personal Stuff >> And click on “Customize” button under “Sync”. This will give you options on choosing what to synchronize.

Do drop in your comments.

Link: Sesh Extension for Chrome