Google Glass - App Development

Google Glass GDK isn't ready, but developers can make Android apps while waiting for its release. 

Google is encouraging developers to start building apps for its Glass augmented-reality eyewear, even though it has yet to release the official Glass Development Kit (GDK) to help them do it.

According to a blog post by the Glass developer relations team, Google revealed plans for the GDK during its I/O developer conference in July this year, but doesn't want app-makers to wait for it to be released.

"We're still hard at work on the GDK, but in the meantime, you can start designing and developing your awesome ideas with the existing Android SDK," suggests the post.

"Although you won't have all the tools necessary to design the perfect experience for Glass, developing with the Android SDK (API Level 15) lets you try out ideas while you wait for the GDK."

The team add that Glass features including the accelerometer and playing media are already part of the Android SDK. Google has published some sample apps including a stopwatch, level and compass for Glass, with more to come in the next few weeks.

"When we release the GDK, we'll update these samples to demonstrate the migration path between a traditional Android app and a full Glass experience," explains the blog post.

In fact, a number of companies and developers have already released third-party Glass apps, either through working with Google ahead of the GDK's launch, or by using its Google Mirror API for web-based Glassware.

They include media brands, with the New York Times' app pushing breaking news alerts and hourly updates to Glass owners, while CNN and Elle showed off their own apps during the I/O conference.

Social media services, including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Path, have all launched Glass apps, too.

Meanwhile, e-commerce service Fancy has a Glass app enabling people to take photos of objects in the world around them then find matching products, and cloud-storage service Evernote have also released a "first look" at its app.

Fancy Glass app

Fancy's Glass app helps people find colour-matched products

All have stressed that it is early days for their apps on Glass, even if they have grand ambitions.

"We believe that wearables are the next frontier in consumer technology and we're hard at work building the Evernote for our wearable technology future," as that company's vice president of marketing Andrew Sinkov put it in a blog post.

"Today, you're getting a glimpse of simple and useful ways that Evernote can be used with Google Glass. This is only the beginning."

Wearable-technology incubator Stained Glass Labs maintains a directory of Glass apps which spotlights apps made by other developers and startups, from YouTube-uploading Fullscreen BEAM and photo-filtering Glassagram to the infamously banned-by-Google Tits & Glass porn app.

Google's Glass Platform Developer Policies for the Mirror API hint at its likely approach to policing native apps for its eyewear once the GDK is available.

It includes rules on collecting and using people's personal data, as well as barring sexually explicit material, depictions of "gratuitous" violence, hate speech, impersonation and deceptive behaviour, gambling and malware, among other categories.

How to convert pdf to word

PDFs are a convenient and easily accessible document. However, you may want to convert your PDF to a Word Document so you can edit it. Just remember that you won't be able to convert any images from the PDF to a Word Document -- you'll have to reinstate them afterwards. If you want to know how to convert your PDF to a Word Document in a variety of ways, just follow these easy steps.

Method 1

Step 1 -  Open Adobe Acrobat.

Step 2 - Open the pdf file you want to convert.

Step 3 - Click on "file" menu and click "Save as".

Step 4 - Save the file in .doc format

Method 2

Step 1 -  Open Adobe Acrobat.

Step 2 - Open the pdf file you want to convert.

Step 3 - Go to File menu and Export this file as Word document

Micromax Canvas 4

Following the success of its Canvas 2 and Canvas HD smartphones, Micromax has been able to establish itself in the Indian smartphone space as a player that offers the best value for its customers' money. While the company's two best selling smartphones brought a large screen and a 720p screen, respectively, at a crowd pleasing price, it now wants to leverage its Canvas sub-brand further by offering niche products while continuing to expand its portfolio of flagship devices. 

For its new flagship, the Micromax Canvas 4 (A210), the company created a lot of buzz, right from the promo teasers on TV during the high profile India vs. Pakistan clash in the ICC Champions Trophy to taking pre-orders for the phone without announcing its specifications. The Canvas 4 promises better build quality and new smart features but essentially builds on the Canvas HD, and includes almost the same hardware, under the hood.

Build/ Design
The Canvas 4 follows the same design cues that we've seen in the Canvas HD and Canvas 2, and from a distance, the phone doesn't look very different.

On closer inspection you'll find that the phone looks a bit more polished than its predecessors, though it's still a little bit plasticky for my taste. The phone is available in White and Grey colour variants and I had a White Canvas 4 as our review unit.

The front of the phone is dominated by the 5-inch display, below which you'll find the three capacitive touch keys for Menu, Home and Back. A chrome grill that serves as the earpiece, the sensor array and the 5-megapixel front camera are placed above the display. The bezel is wide but it's not flat as it meets and the edges and there's some embossing, similar to the Galaxy SIII.

The phone is surrounded by an aluminium frame in the middle, which gives it a premium look and makes it feel sturdy. The company says that it also acts as the cellular antenna. You will also notice that the frame has small white bands at the left side, at the bottom and at the top. 
The Power/ Screen-lock key is located at the right side of the phone, while the Volume rocker key is place at the left side. Both these keys are also made of metal but are a bit rickety as they are not firmly fixed. When you shake the phone, you'll also hear some sound coming from the same area due to their movement. The Micro-USB port is located at the bottom. The 3.5mm headset jack sits at the top of the phone.

The back features a removable plastic cover that sports a glossy finish but there's a mild texture effect as well, which you'll only see when you look closely. There's some Micromax branding at the lower part, and a silver sticker like m! logo as you go up. The 13-megapixel rear camera is located right at the top in a round chrome ring enclosure, along with an LED flash and a secondary microphone.

Opening the cover reveals the battery compartment. The microSD card slot and two SIM card slots are placed just above the battery compartment.

Display
While everyone was hoping that the Canvas 4 would come with a full-HD display, Micromax has decided to skip the upgrade and has included a 720p display, similar to that of the Canvas HD. The phone's 5-inch HD IPS screen sports a resolution of 720x1280 pixels and a colour depth of 16.7 million. Thanks to the higher resolution, text, icons and images look much sharper compared to qHD phones. There was no pixelation. However, I felt that the screen's colour temperature was skewed towards the colder side, with whites carrying a blue tinge.

Under sun visibility was good, though the screen is very reflective. Thanks to the IPS panel, I found that the viewing angles were very good, which essentially means that more than one person can view content playing on the screen properly, even from different angles. I also found the touch response of the screen to be better than most budget phones. Micromax has also included Corning Gorilla glass protection to guard the screen from scratches.

Software/ Interface
The Micromax Canvas 4 runs Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean, the latest iteration of the OS. Micromax has skinned some elements of the user interface, such as the app icons and the Settings menu. 

The phone also offers four themes, namely Mint, Mocha, Raspberry and the default theme that bring minor changes in the phone's colour scheme.

The notification tray features a settings shortcut and a clear all notifications button, along with expandable notifications (expanded with the two-finger pull gesture). It features the same setting toggles shortcut that's found in stock Android and adds some of its own as well, for quick access to Airplane Mode, Battery status, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, Data connection, Data usage, User (audio) Profiles, Brightness, Screen backlight timeout and Auto rotation.

Similar to most other Android devices, there are five customisable home screens that can be filled with app shortcuts and widgets. The three capacitive buttons, Home, Menu and Back help in navigating through the phone, with the Home button also doubling up as an app switcher on long press.

You also get lock-screen widgets, an Android 4.2 feature. You can choose from the Clock, Camera, Gmail, Google Now and Messaging widgets in addition to widgets offered by third-party apps installed on your phone. These widgets offer glanceable information from the apps and allow users to perform certain app actions even when the phone is locked.

The phone also offers another Android 4.2 feature, Daydream, that displays photo albums or the clock while the phone's charging. The option to wirelessly mirror the phone's display with an HDMI enabled device through a wireless display adapter is also present.

Micromax has also added some software tricks to the phone, one of which is a new lock screen mechanism that allows the phone to be unlocked with a blow of air or if the phone is shaken. This can be activated through the M! Unlock app that has been developed in partnership with FoneClay. It works as promised but disables the lock screen widgets, so I just feel it's too gimmicky.

Micromax has also bundled a new Video Player app with the phone that offers features like 'Pause on look away' using the front camera to detect if you're looking at the screen of the phone, and automatically pausing and resuming videos. We've seen this feature in high-end phones like theSamsung Galaxy S4 and the LG Optimus G Pro. You can increase and decrease the volume or brightness while playing a video by just swiping up and down the screen at the left and right hand sides. It also allows you to preview one video while playing another one, and view videos on a floating player window while doing other tasks through its pop-out feature.

The Music player has also been revamped and now features fancier controls in the Now Playing screen and integrates the Micromax Online music store. The Music Store is still a website wrapped into the app and allows you to download music tracks and videos. It only lets you download tracks when you access the site through 3G/ Edge as billing is integrated with the telecom operator. The Music Player app also features Equalizer settings.

Micromax has also included some of its own apps including content stores, M! Live and Game Hub, and services store, M! Zone, in addition to a few 'try and buy' games (Fruit Devil, NFS Shift, The DarkMan). There's also security software powered by NQ Mobile that allows you to backup contacts, and track your mobile in case you lose it. However, even this utility is not free and you need to pay additional charges to get all the functionality.

The handset also offers FM Radio and FM radio recording.

Micromax has also modified the Messages app, adding a Smileys input option next to the text entry prompt, and a button for attaching multimedia, contacts and audio clips, among others, with it. Micromax has also added a file manager app, a NoteBook app, a ToDo app, in addition to a universal search app and a Popup Browser that can be used for browsing the web in a floating window while working on another app. It has also replaced the stock camera app with a different one. 

For the first time Micromax has replaced its own instant messaging app, HookUp with a Micromax branded version of Hike, the mobile messaging app from Bharti Softbank. It has also pre-installed the movie streaming app Spuul, that allows users to watch movies for free.

It's also worth pointing out that the Canvas 4 is the first Micromax smartphone that supports over the air software updates via a System Software app. Previously one had to take the phone to the service centre to get the latest Android update installed.

The phone also offers gestures like flip to silent, ability to answer the phone by bringing it near to the ear, and dial the number on the screen when the user brings the phone near the face.

Camera
The Micromax Canvas 4 has a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front facing camera. Both the camera lenses are an upgrade from the Canvas HD's 8-megapixel rear shooter and VGA front facing camera.

As I mentioned earlier, Micromax has put its own camera app. The app includes Normal, HDR, Face Beauty, Smile detection, Exposure compensation, Panorama, Photosphere(multi angle view) modes. It also offers a burst mode, letting users click up to 99 shots at once. The photo mode allows users to modify settings like Exposure, colour effect, ISO and white balance, among others. There's a self timer of up to 10 seconds as well.

I experienced a minor lag when I tried to focus on an object and press the shutter. I also noticed that there is minor delay between two consecutive camera shots in the continuous shot mode. This makes it hard to capture images quickly. The quality of the pictures taken during daylight was decent. However, photos taken indoors under artificial light were a bit grainy and at times looked different than the actual setting. The camera tends to soften the tone to a cooler shade. 

The Canvas 4's camera also struggled when trying to capture images in low-light.

The camera is capable of recording full-HD video and takes good quality videos depending on the ambient light. However, it saves video clips in .3GP file format, which is an older file format.

The 5-megapixel front camera takes above average pictures, and can be used for video conferencing. I wish the phone had a dedicated camera button to help click a quick picture.

Performance
The Micromax A210 Canvas 4 is powered by a 1.2GHz MediaTek MT6589 quad-core processor with 1GB RAM onboard, and PowerVR SGX544MP GPU. There is 16GB of internal storage, 10GB of which is available to the user.

With Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, the overall experience of navigation through the interface was impressive, thanks to Project Butter and the phone's quad-core processor. I did not experience any lag while launching apps, playing games, scrolling web pages or switching between apps. It is safe to say that performance wise, the Canvas 4 scores well. I was able to play games like Jetpack Joyride, Chimpact, Asphalt 7 and Shadow Gun without encountering any lag.

I was also able to play full-HD clips, with the phone supporting formats like .AVI, natively, though I experienced some issues with audio while playing an MKV format video. This was easily fixed by downloading a third-party video player. The speaker on the phone delivers average quality sound at high volume levels, but there's some muffle when the phone lies on its back, as the speaker grill is located on that side. The headphones that come with the phone offer average quality sound output. Call quality was good, during my testing process.

The phone comes with a 2,000mAh battery, and based on my experience, it will just about last you a full day. I charged the phone in the morning (at around 10am), and with medium to heavy usage, including 1-1.5 hours of phone calls, two e-mail accounts with push notifications, screen at maximum brightness, playing some music and video clips (about an hour), casual web browsing, Twitter notifications and WhatsApp chats, the phone lasted 8-9 hours. I had put the phone on Wi-Fi for about an hour or two while the rest of the day it was connected to data via 3G. I had turned off auto-brightness, and the phone was on the highest level of brightness. Altering these settings might help in running the phone for a longer duration, depending on your usage pattern.


Verdict
The Canvas 4 is at best an incremental upgrade to the Canvas HD. Apart from the 'better camera' which I didn't find any better and slightly improved build quality, it doesn't bring anything extra ordinary to the table. The software features that it offers are gimmicky and can be added with the help of some third party apps available on the Google Play Store. You are unlikely to use them on a regular basis. The only thing we're happy about is the increased internal storage capacity, which will allow users to install more apps.

The asking price of around Rs. 18,000 is on the higher side when you compare it to the Canvas HD or to phones like the Zen Ultrafone 701HD and Gionee Elife E3. I'd recommend waiting for a price cut or buying the Canvas HD if you're in the market for a good value for money Android smartphone.

Best Online Games

The Web is a digital array of exceptional, glueing content to eat away the long hours of the day. While sites like Facebook and Reddit offer individuals a chance to grab up on the most happening high-school talk and gawk at lovable cat photos, they definitely do not offer the type of thrilling content you could obtain from a solid online game.

Actually the sole support of stiff arcade remakes and goofy parodies, cyberspace is now a place of advanced individual software as well as unchecked imagination. Whether you’re a chump for a side-scrolling plat-former or a fast-paced online shooter you can get what you are looking for.

Listed here are our leading choices for the 8 best free online game sites so you could waste more countless hours on the pc which is most likely you are already doing. Several of them offer an extremely comparable, if not similar game selection, yet each has it’s very own set of merits that define it from the remainder of the websites.

FreeOnlineGames

Despite the most unoriginal and boring website title on our listing, Free Online Gamings (aka FOG) is not a horrendous website. There a plenty of games and categories to choose from, featuring a classification for “fun games,” yet the website features a few of the most obnoxious and intrusive advertising of some of the picks on our checklist. Although the games are totally cost-free to play, it would certainly be excellent if the site at the very least offered a ad-free premium membership to give regular users a bit more flexibility, customization and choices when it concerns the site. Users could nevertheless, subscribe for a free of charge FOG account to access game chat rooms, view past, beloved listings, notices and the intuitive avatar creator.

Addictinggames

Addicting Games is the biggest resource of the most effective free online games consisting of : amusing games, flash games, arcade games, dress-up games, net games, shooting games, word games, RPG games, competing games, and many more. Whatever game you seem like switching on, you will get it right here. Featuring free online games! With lots of testimonials & rankings, gamblers of all ability degrees make sure to look at warm brand-new games everyday. This is the very best site on the internet to play free! Countless options from several of the most effective designers around, like Armor Games, Games2Win, as well as yours really, Addicting Games! If you’re prepared to begin playing immediately, merely pick from the categorised classification: Action, Sports, Puzzle & Board, Shooting, Arcade & Classic, Strategy, Adventure, Life & Style, & NewsGames.

Kongregate

If you’re a person that plays well with others, you’ll appreciate our social attributes, also. You could connect with various other gamblers from all over the world using our chatroom and online forums, you could take on good friends to obtain the leading ratings, and you could make badges to assist you level up and gain some Serious Street Cred (that’s SSC for brief, obviously). You do not need to work from your COMPUTER, either. You could make badges and difficulty good friends from anywhere whatsoever with our mobile application, the Kongregate Arcade. Additional compared to that, Kongregate is the only location where you could rack up GameStop PowerUp Rewards factors merely for playing free games.

ArmorGames.com

As one of the largest free video gaming websites, They supply hundreds of brand-new game testimonials and scores, making it simple for gamblers to locate brand-new games each day. They have the very best games from designers Jmtb02, Krin, ConArtist, Joey Betz, Tony Lavell, Louissi, Gameinabottle and naturally Shield Games creates several of the most effective games around. This is the very best site on the internet to play online games for free. use Armor Games  for whatever game personality you like, they have actually acquired it there.

NewGrounds

Newgrounds.com, the big Flash games and computer animation site that gave rise to Alien Hominid, has actually been approving user-produced entries given that 1999. That it has actually been silently pioneering for 8 years exactly what is just now being heralded regarding popular media is a sign of just how ignored the Flash games situation is.

PopCap

There games are sprayed with a speedy of smile-inducing awesomeness and brightened to an ageless gloss that keeps the globe returning for additional. And most importantly, you could play our games almost everywhere: Personal Computer and Mac, phone and iPad, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, Facebook … perhaps also the moon!

Miniclip

On Miniclip you could play games to collect games data such as higher ratings, and ranks by yourself user web page and could get honors for playing games. You could likewise produce your very own Miniclip avatar with clothes and add-ons to represent you in our enjoyable Miniclip games. You could play solitary user games or play state-of-the-art substantial multiplayer games with various other users from worldwide.

Yahoo Games

The age old Yahoo has still got something in there gaming vault. Its probably the oldest and the biggest community with gaming geeks. I still remember my old days when i use to play chess online with great community people. I would recommend people to have a shot with Yahoo games, its never late to get back on yahoo for having fun and entertainment.

How to Save Money While Shopping Online in India

Online shopping can be convenient and you often get better discounts than what the local shops in your area have to offer but if you do a little more research, you may end up saving even more. Here are some tips and websites that may help you get the best deals while shopping online in India.

Save Money While Shopping Online

1. Use Comparison Shopping

There are dozens of credible shopping sites in India and it may therefore take time and effort to determine which of them offers the best deal on a particular product. Comparison shopping sites like MySmartPrice.com , ShoppingWish.in and Junglee.com aggregate prices from multiple online retailers (through XML feeds and web scraping) making it easier for you to compare prices.

The big downside is that these shopping engines do not have price data from all the popular retailers (like Flipkart) so the lowest listed price may not always be the lowest one on the Internet.

2. The Hunt for Coupon Codes

Some shopping sites accept coupon codes that you can apply at the checkout screen for some additional discount on your final bill. Google is of little help here as coupon codes are mostly valid for a limited period but there are coupon aggregating sites like CouponDunia.in and CouponRaja.com where you may often find working coupon codes for any particular store.

The coupons are neatly organized by stores and the listings are sorted by their expiry dates. Popular US coupons website RetailMeNot.com too has an India-specific section that aggregates coupons from Domino’s Pizza, eBay.in, Myntra and other popular online shopping sites.

3. Research Online, Shop Offline

Not every local mom-and-pop store may have a website but some of these local stores may have better deals to offer than even the big online retailers.PriceBaba.com aggregates prices offered by the various offline retailers in a city and the site also lists their phone numbers and addresses should you decide to make the purchase from a local shop.

4. Earn Cash back on Purchases

Coupon codes aren’t the only way to save money on your online purchases. Sites like CashKaro.com and Pennyful.in offer cashbacks on your regular purchases as long you visit the retailer’s site through the special links listed on these cashback websites.

It works something like this. You create an account at CashKaro and it will provide you links to various retailer sites where cash back offers are available. You visit the shopping site through these special links, make the purchase as normal and the cashback amount will be paid to you once a threshold is reached.

5. Watch the Specials on Social Web

Most online shopping brands in India are active on Twitter and Facebook and some of them do regularly post offers and deals on these channels. It may thus be a good idea to like /follow you favorite retails on the social web.

Also, shopping sites like eBay.in, Infibeam.com, Myntra.com, Jabong.com,HomeShop18 and others have dedicated pages where they list ongoing offers – you may want to put these pages in your bookmarks as well.

6. Try a Different Browser

News reports in the WSJ and USA Today suggest that certain shopping sites, especially those in the travel category, may alter prices based on your geo-location and even your previous browsing history (cookies). I am not sure if Indian shopping sites use “dynamic pricing” but the incognito (or private) mode in your browser will prevent the site from connecting the dots and they’ll treat you as a new customer.

Increase your Battery Life

Battery life is one of the biggest issues in the Android world today. Take your SIM card out, turn off Wi-Fi and never touch it and it'll sit there happily, lasting for a whole week on one charge. But try to use it for anything "smart" and, well, that's where the problems start.

It's a pretty sorry state of affairs when we count the uptime of today's smartphones in numbers of hours rather than days, with the standard metric of decent battery life being whether a phone can last a whole working day on a single charge.

So are there any realistic things you can do to improve your phone's battery life, other than just switching it off, putting it a sock drawer and hoping no one ever wants to call you?

Yes, yes there are. Of course it's not possible to suddenly double your Android phone's uptime by magically tweaking a few settings, but you should be able to squeeze out a few more hours of life from even the puniest of batteries without compromising on performance too much.

Here are some easy, not-too-compromising methods of boosting your Android phone's battery life.

1. Set a rigid bedtime

Some of today's phones feature automation tools, which let you, say, turn off the mobile signal and Wi-Fi after a certain time. Putting your phone in this sort of induced coma will save power, so if your phone doesn't support scheduled activities, install a management app like Tasker and turn off all non-essential stuff over night. Or stick it in airplane mode yourself. You'll sleep better, too.

2. Deactivate Wi-Fi when not needed

If your phone's constantly sniffing out and trying to connect to every Wi-Fi signal in the area like a robot dog on heat, you're wasting power. Switch off Wi-Fi when out and about or when you know you're not going to be needing it. A Home screen toggle will make this easy. Think of it as something boring but essential you have to do, like always putting your seat belt on.

3. Upload and sync only on Wi-Fi

If you're a keen Dropbox user or rely heavily on music syncing services, you'll benefit greatly from only doing your uploading through Wi-Fi. It's vastly quicker, which means less connectivity time for your phone and less strain on the battered old lithium reserves.

4. Uninstall unnecessary apps

You can never be too sure what's running itself in the background, what with all the multi-tasking, self-uploading, auto-replicating features in today's modern Android apps, so at least minimise the chances of something randomly hoovering up all your battery by constantly trying to connect to some non-existent server, by deleting any unused or old apps.

5. Use push notifications if possible

Android's built-in email application is great and stylish and everything, but having it poll for messages every 15 minutes isn't the best for your battery. If your mail provider offers push notification support use it - the excellent standalone Hotmail app does, for example, which will help lessen power drain a little.

6. Check yourself

Apps like Battery Doctor will give you a much better indication of what's literally eating away at your phone's battery over time than Android's own limited battery life checker, which could help finger something that's the key culprit in draining power. And if you can live without it, bin it.

7. Install a brightness toggle widget

Set your phone to its minimum possible brightness by default, as it's your display that's by far the biggest user of power. Then stick a big brightness high/low toggle widget on the home screen, in a place you can find it without being able to see it (like when using your now ultra-gloomy phone outside). Then only max the brightness when you need to. It might help, and even the automatic brightness option uses a marginal amount of power, as the light sensor needs to... sense light.

8. Dump the widgets

Yes, widgets are a key part of Android, and we're trying to keep this guide practical and not simply tell you to nuke everything, but do you really need a constantly updating Facebook widget on a Home screen? It's just full of boring people's boring baby photos these days anyway, and updating widget content puts a constant strain on your battery throughout the day, even if you just activate your phone for a few seconds to check a text message.

9. Remove haptic feedback

Surely your brain's had enough practise using touch devices that it knows if you've pressed something or not by now? If so, turn off all the haptic feedback options. These little bumps and grinds use power each time you press a key, so try to get used to life without physical feedback.

10. Switch off GPS

Unless you're one of those people who's still using Foursquare to tell the world about it every time you go out to the shop to buy a packet of crisps, there's little reason to have GPS constantly active on your phone. Turn it on when you need it, and use the option to have your phone detect your location through the wi-fi connection. Wi-fi location is usually close enough an approximation for most apps. And if they do need GPS, they're clever enough to tell you anyway.

11. Put your phone on the windowsill...

A strong connection to your phone network requires less power to maintain, so the technical people tell us. So instead of keeping it in your pocket, stick it somewhere and point it in the right direction so you see the maximum number of connection strength bars. Simply flipping your phone 45 degrees on your desk might actually make the battery last longer. What a mind-blowing revelation, eh?

12. ...and keep it cool

Batteries work best in cooler temperatures, with prolonged warm periods gradually lowering their efficiency over time. Putting your phone in a looser pocket might help, or perhaps just gently fanning it while it charges. That might not be the best use of your working day, but at least you'll still be able to get on Twitter on the train home.

How to increase or boost your Internet Speed

I’ll share few PC Tips and tricks which will boost internet speed. Learn how to increase download speed.

Method 1: Use Full Internet Bandwidth

In Windows 20% of Internet bandwidth is reserved which is used for windows updates and internal system. This is reserved for windows’s own use. You should disable this and get full internet bandwidth. Cut the windows part of bandwidth and you can boost net speed. There is no need to install any extra software to do this.

Step 1

Follow the screenshot and Click on Start button and type gpedit.msc and press enter.

Step 2

Now double click the Computer Configuration as per screenshot.

Step 3

Now double click Administrative Templates.

Step 4

Now Double Click Network.

Step 5

Now Double Click QoS Packet Scheduler.

Step 6

Now double click Limit reservable bandwidth.

Step 7

First Click on Enabled.

Then change Bandwidth Limit(%) to 0 (zero). As per screenshot.

Then Click OK.

Method 2: Use Internet Download Manager To Increase download Speed

There are third party softwares also which increase download speed significantly. You can download IDM 6.15 Free to optimize download speed. get the Latest version version of Internet download manager.

Features of IDM

Pause and Resume Downloads

Boost Download Speed

Download Youtube Videos.

Internet Download Manager is a must have download manager now a days. It gives superb speed while downloading.

Method 3: Use CCleaner

Sometimes your PC is full of browsing history, cache and cookies. You can download CCleaner free which is best software to remove the garbage from C Drive. CCleaner will ultimately have an effect on Internet speed.

Important Note

Using the above methods will increase internet speed but still the final dependency is on your Internet connection bandwidth. So you should upgrade to a good connection bandwidth plan if you face huge issues even after trying above method.

If you hit any issues while trying above methods to increase internet speed then please feel free to comment here. I’ll be more than happy to assist you.

Keyboard shortcuts, Everyone should know !!

Are you familiar with all the keyboard shortcuts ??

    Getting familiar with keyboard shortcuts not only help you get the work done faster, but also more efficient. If your daily job rely heavily on using Windows, here are some 100+ Windows Keyboard Shortcuts you might want to check out. If there’s any nifty shortcuts I have missed, appreciate a heads up.

The General Shortcuts

I’ll kickoff the list with some really general shortcuts that you often used.

• CTRL+C (Copy)
• CTRL+X (Cut)
• CTRL+V (Paste)
• CTRL+Z (Undo)
• Delete (Delete)
• Shift+Delete (Delete the selected item permanently without placing the item in the Recycle Bin)
• CTRL while dragging an item (Copy the selected item)
• CTRL+Shift while dragging an item (Create a shortcut to the selected item)
• F2 key (Rename the selected item)
• CTRL+RIGHT ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next word)
• CTRL+LEFT ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous word)
• CTRL+DOWN ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next paragraph)
• CTRL+UP ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous paragraph)
• CTRL+Shift with any of the arrow keys (Highlight a block of text)
• Shift with any of the arrow keys (Select more than one item in a window or on the desktop, or select text in a document)
• CTRL+A (Select all)
• F3 key (Search for a file or a folder)
• Alt+Enter (View the properties for the selected item)
• Alt+F4 (Close the active item, or quit the active program)
• Alt+Enter (Display the properties of the selected object)
• Alt+Spacebar (Open the shortcut menu for the active window)
• CTRL+F4 (Close the active document in programs that enable you to have multiple documents open simultaneously)
• Alt+Tab (Switch between the open items)
• Alt+ESC (Cycle through items in the order that they had been opened)
• F6 key (Cycle through the screen elements in a window or on the desktop)
• F4 key (Display the Address bar list in My Computer or Windows Explorer)
• Shift+F10 (Display the shortcut menu for the selected item)
• Alt+Spacebar (Display the System menu for the active window)
• CTRL+ESC (Display the Start menu)
• Alt+Underlined letter in a menu name (Display the corresponding menu)
• Underlined letter in a command name on an open menu (Perform the corresponding command)
• F10 key (Activate the menu bar in the active program)
• RIGHT ARROW (Open the next menu to the right, or open a submenu)
• LEFT ARROW (Open the next menu to the left, or close a submenu)
• F5 key (Update the active window)
• Backspace (View the folder one level up in My Computer or Windows Explorer)
• ESC (Cancel the current task)
• Shift when you insert a CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive (Prevent the CD-ROM from automatically playing)

Dialog Box Keyboard Shortcuts

• CTRL+Tab (Move forward through the tabs)
• CTRL+Shift+Tab (Move backward through the tabs)
• Tab (Move forward through the options)
• Shift+Tab (Move backward through the options)
• Alt+Underlined letter (Perform the corresponding command or select the corresponding option)
• Enter (Perform the command for the active option or button)
• Spacebar (Select or clear the check box if the active option is a check box)
• Arrow keys (Select a button if the active option is a group of option buttons)
• F1 key (Display Help)
• F4 key (Display the items in the active list)
• Backspace (Open a folder one level up if a folder is selected in the Save As or Open dialog box)

Microsoft Natural Keyboard Shortcuts

• Win (Display or hide the Start menu)
• Win+BREAK (Display the System Properties dialog box)
• Win+D (Display the desktop)
• Win+M (Minimize all of the windows)
• Win+Shift+M (Restore the minimized windows)
• Win+E (Open My Computer)
• Win+F (Search for a file or a folder)
• CTRL+Win+F (Search for computers)
• Win+F1 (Display Windows Help)
• Win+ L (Lock the keyboard)
• Win+R (Open the Run dialog box)
• Win+U (Open Utility Manager)

Accessibility Keyboard Shortcuts

• Right Shift for eight seconds (Switch FilterKeys either on or off)
• Left Alt+left Shift+PRINT SCREEN (Switch High Contrast either on or off)
• Left Alt+left Shift+NUM LOCK (Switch the MouseKeys either on or off)
• Shift five times (Switch the StickyKeys either on or off)
• NUM LOCK for five seconds (Switch the ToggleKeys either on or off)
• Win +U (Open Utility Manager)

Windows Explorer Keyboard Shortcuts

• END (Display the bottom of the active window)
• HOME (Display the top of the active window)
• NUM LOCK+* (Display all of the subfolders that are under the selected folder)
• NUM LOCK++ (Display the contents of the selected folder)
• NUM LOCK+- (Collapse the selected folder)
• LEFT ARROW (Collapse the current selection if it is expanded, or select the parent folder)
• RIGHT ARROW (Display the current selection if it is collapsed, or select the first subfolder)

Shortcut Keys For Character Map

• After you double-click a character on the grid of characters, you can move through the grid by using the keyboard shortcuts:
• RIGHT ARROW (Move to the right or to the beginning of the next line)
• LEFT ARROW (Move to the left or to the end of the previous line)
• UP ARROW (Move up one row)
• DOWN ARROW (Move down one row)
• PAGE UP (Move up one screen at a time)
• PAGE DOWN (Move down one screen at a time)
• HOME (Move to the beginning of the line)
• END (Move to the end of the line)
• CTRL+HOME (Move to the first character)
• CTRL+END (Move to the last character)
• Spacebar (Switch between Enlarged and Nor mal mode when a character is selected)

Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Main Window Keyboard Shortcuts

• CTRL+O (Open a saved console)
• CTRL+N (Open a new console)
• CTRL+S (Save the open console)
• CTRL+M (Add or remove a console item)
• CTRL+W (Close window/tab)
• F5 key (Update the content of all console windows)
• Alt+Spacebar (Display the MMC window menu)
• Alt+F4 (Close the console)
• Alt+A (Display the Action menu)
• Alt+V (Display the View menu)
• Alt+F (Display the File menu)
• Alt+O (Display the Favorites menu)

MMC Console Window Keyboard Shortcuts

• CTRL+P (Print the current page or active pane)
• Alt+- (Display the window menu for the active console window)
• Shift+F10 (Display the Action shortcut menu for the selected item)
• F1 key (Open the Help topic, if any, for the selected item)
• F5 key (Update the content of all console windows)
• CTRL+F10 (Maximize the active console window)
• CTRL+F5 (Restore the active console window)
• Alt+Enter (Display the Properties dialog box, if any, for the selected item)
• F2 key (Rename the selected item)
• CTRL+F4 (Close the active console window. When a console has only one console window, this shortcut closes the console)

Remote Desktop Connection Navigation

• CTRL+Alt+END (Open the m*cro$oft Windows NT Security dialog box)
• Alt+PAGE UP (Switch between programs from left to right)
• Alt+PAGE DOWN (Switch between programs from right to left)
• Alt+INSERT (Cycle through the programs in most recently used order)
• Alt+HOME (Display the Start menu)
• CTRL+Alt+BREAK (Switch the client computer between a window and a full screen)
• Alt+Delete (Display the Windows menu)
• CTRL+Alt+- (Place a snapshot of the active window in the client on the Terminal server clipboard and provide the same functionality as pressing PRINT SCREEN on a local computer.)
• CTRL+Alt++ (Place a snapshot of the entire client window area on the Terminal server clipboard and provide the same functionality as pressing Alt+PRINT SCREEN on a local computer.)

Internet Explorer Navigation

• CTRL+B (Open the Organize Favorites dialog box)
• CTRL+E (Open the Search bar)
• CTRL+F (Start the Find utility)
• CTRL+H (Open the History bar)
• CTRL+I (Open the Favorites bar)
• CTRL+L (Open the Open dialog box)
• CTRL+N (Start another instance of the browser with the same Web address)
• CTRL+O (Open the Open dialog box, the same as CTRL+L)
• CTRL+P (Open the Print dialog box)
• CTRL+R (Update the current Web page)
• CTRL+W (Close the current window)