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How To: Embed Playable Angry Birds Level in Facebook Posts and Blogs

Posted May 12, 2012 By Arun Sathiya
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It was yesterday when I came across an ultra cool feature in the Facebook version of the Angry Birds game, which will let you embed a small, playable version of any Angry Birds level in anyone’s Facebook Timeline, websites, blogs or forums, just like embedding a YouTube video. This new feature is called the “Share & Play” and it seems to be brought by Rovio to maximize the usage of Angry Birds application across the web.

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On Your Facebook Timeline

When you finish a level in the Facebook Angry Birds game, there pops a box showing the number of stars that you collected. Alongside lies two buttons, one named “Share” and the other named “Embed”. Clicking on the “Share” button will let you to embed that particular, playable level on your Facebook Timeline, and your friends will be able to play that level right in a small version.

On Websites/Blogs/Forums

Secondly, you can use the “Embed” button to get the code, that can be pasted in website or blog that you own, and your visitors will be able to play that level right on your site. But the thing is that, the game runs on flash and it is necessary that flash is enabled for the game to be played. Try playing a level, live, right here!

Additionally, you can use the handy URL and paste in other friends’ “Walls” on Facebook too. That will give the user and his/her friends to try out that mini-Angry Birds game.

Limitations In This Feature

Though the feature seems to be ultra cool to all, there are a few limitations in this. Firstly, you won’t be able to use the “Power Ups” like Super Seeds, Bird Quakes, King Slings etc. If you want to use those tools, Rovio gives you an option, but that will take you to the Facebook Angry Birds application and you ought to play the game there. The same goes to the full screen version of the game.

If you try to increase the size of the gameplay manually, the game doesn’t. Instead an additional coating of white space appears around the game and the game remains in the same size.

What Do You Say?

So, any words that you would like to add? Do you think that this mini-playable Angry Birds feature will rock the Rovio neighborhood? Do you think this is a good step from Rovio? And also, do you think this one is way better than the alternative option to play Angry Birds on any site?

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Filed in Facebook, Games, Gaming, How To Guides, Internet, Reviews, Social Media, Tips and Tricks, Web Apps | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Get 25GB of Free Space in Skydrive [Tip]

Posted May 3, 2012 By Ganesh Babu
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Microsoft’s Skydrive is one of the early birds in the cloud storage arena and they offer the highest ever base free storage of 7 GB to all users. In order to cope up with the competition and to prevent it’s users from switching to other services, Microsoft has announced a free upgrade to 25GB for existing users. This is available for some time now, since many approached us about how to get this free 25GB upgrade, we’ll guide you through the process.

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Note: This upgrade is available only for existing users of Windows Live Skydrive, new users will get only the 7GB storage, which is still not a bad one, when we consider the competitions’ offerings.

Related: Google Drive vs Dropbox vs Skydrive vs Others

How To Get 25GB of Free Space in Skydrive

  1. Login to your Windows Live account.
  2. Then go to Skydrive.
  3. Click Manage Storage in the bottom left of the left task pane or follow this link.
  4. If you can upgrade to 25GB, you will see something like this.
  1. Once you click the Free upgrade button, your, skydrive account will be upgraded with 25GB of free storage space

You can download official Skydrive apps to keep your data in sync across multiple devices. Currently we have Skydrive apps for Windows Vista and upwards, Mac, iDevices and Windows Phone 7. Skydrive app isn’t available for the Android platform and there is not information whether an app for the android platform will be available in the future or not.

Related: Send Files to Google Drive, Skydrive, Dropbox Quickly from Windows’ Right-Click Menu

One interesting feature with Skydrive is fetch, if you have Skydrive installed in one computer, and switched on fetch, you can access it’s files from a different device through Skydrive.com This is an interesting feature, but however you can’t fetch files in a Mac. Take a look at this video to understand about fetch.

Hope this simple tip helped you to upgrade your storage to 25GB. Do share with your friends. If you have any doubts, do let us know.

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Filed in How To Guides, Microsoft, Tips and Tricks | Tagged: , , , , ,

How To: Remote Wipe Your iPhone

Posted May 2, 2012 By Guest
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Wiping out your cell or mobile phone refers to fully restoring the application program to the condition it was originally shipped in from the vendor’s factory. All of your personal data such as call history, contacts, purchased apps, text messages and photos will be removed. In case your device has been stolen or lost, you may also consider removing all of this sensitive data from your gadget to prevent anyone else from utilizing it for malicious purposes.

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If you have an iPhone, this all can be done in an effective manner. You should be a subscriber to the Apple’s MobileMe service, and this way you will be able to easily utilize the remote wipe feature to fully restore your mobile device to factory settings even when you no longer have physical access to it. MobileMe is a paid service, and if you have lost your device, then you can easily make use of this application to wipe out all of your necessary data whenever you require.

Instructions to Wipe Out Your iPhone

You are required to follow some vital instructions while you are considering remote wiping your mobile devices specially iPhone.

  1. First and foremost, you need to enable the option that states ‘Find my iPhone’.

  2. tap over the ‘settings’ feature on your iPhone home and then select different options such as Calendars, contacts, mail.

  3. Once you are done, you need to tap over the MobileMe app.

  4. Now, you need to tap the ‘Fine my Iphone’ option and then tap over the ‘Allow’ option to enable this service.

Performing a Remote Wipe For Your iDevice

  1. Open up the Web browser and then navigate through Me.com. You need to sign in to your MobileMe account.

  2. Click over the ‘Account Settings’ option, it is the similar option that is used for the ‘Settings’ tab on your iPhone.

  3. Select the option that states ‘Find my iPhone’ from the menu that would be on the right side of the page.

  4. Click over the ‘Remote wipe’ option and then verify that you want to wipe out entire data from your mobile device.

  5. Click over ‘Erase All Data’ and you will be able to restore your device to factory settings.

Smartphones are exceedingly valuable and we all need to consider what could happen if your gadget fall into wrong hands. Therefore, keeping your mobile secure is exceedingly imperative. You can make use of this wipe out feature to keep your minicomputer protected, and also have an easy access to your device even if it is lost or stolen.

About the Author: I am John S Lam from Pass Certification .Pass Certification has also contributed in the online expositions and provided the material about the ISEB Certifications. (He Live in Valley Drive Philadelphia, and Blogging from In many Tech Communities.)

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Filed in Apple, Guest Posts, How To Guides | Tagged: , , ,

How To: Customize Your Desktop With Rainmeter

Posted April 24, 2012 By Ganesh Babu
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Most of us use Windows and a small minority of us use OSX and Linux. As time goes by, we tend to get used to the GUI so much that we hate it. We try various other ways to experience a refreshing GUI, We can try themes, use transformation packs, change the OS. But the most visited desktop remains little changed, what can we do about that ? Well to spice up your Desktop and reignite your computing experience, we’ll customize your desktop using an amazing software known as Rainmeter.

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Rainmeter is an Open Source, windows only desktop customization software that’ll let you add layers of wonders to your desktop. The first part is to download Rainmeter. You can download Rainmeter from the official site. Rainmeter is a small and nifty tool. It comes with a single default theme, once displayed you can see it for yourselves.

Like gadgets in the windows sidebar, each element in Rainmeter is called a skin. You can have multiple skins which can be arranged anywhere on the desktop (read: draggable). The best way to quickly edit a skin is to use the context menu, which can be obtained by right clicking on a particular skin. You get options to edit the skin’s settings, It’s variants and also unloading the skin. Clicking on Manage will open a new dialogue box, which is the centre place to edit your theme’s, skin’s and Rainmeter’s settings. You can check this detailed introduction to know more about how Rainmeter works.

You can download various themes for Rainmeter from the web, we’ve listed a few good places to check at the end of this, if you are looking for a good theme that suits your needs. Once you’ve downloaded your favourite theme, all you have to do is edit it to make it look like you wanted. This is a bit of a lengthy process as it requires you to edit a text file in most cases while a few themes come with a config editor. First get yourself acquainted with the flow of the skin. You can check this Rainmeter guide to get a quick knowledge on how skins work.

Suites like Enigma, Gnometer and other bigger themes are easy to edit as mentioned above. However if you’ve downloaded a less popular theme, you can search the theme files for any instructions. If not found, right click the particular skin that you want to edit and click Edit Skin. Your default text editor will open, showing the skin’s codes. You have to search for a prompt, that asks you to enter a value, like a app name, path etc. Generally these prompts can be identified easily as they have a # (Hash) symbol before and after. Edit it to suit your needs.

Once it is done, Rainmeter is ready to use. If you have an adventurous heart, experiment with a different skin everyday and make your computing experience a new one, every day.

Downloading Rainmeter Themes

Finding the theme that suits you best is a difficult task because there are a huge number of themes each begging for your attention. However you can use Google to find a theme if you have something in mind, else you can try at the resources we’ve mentioned here.

  • Rainmeter, by default comes with a simple theme known as “illustro”. Rainmeter also recommends the following skins – Gnometer, Enigma and ABP.
  • deviantArt has the largest online repositories of  custom Rainmeter resources. Rainmeter Group (curated gallery) is the home of the Rainmeter community on dA. Browse the galleries for skins vetted to be sure they work and are safe. If you are ready to take the risk, you can check the Rainmeter Category it has all the Rainmeter skins dA has to offer, but are not checked for safety, so don’t be surprised if your Anti-Virus app warns you.
  • Customize.org is also one of the largest and oldest sources for Rainmeter skins. Many Rainmeter skins available in customize.org are a part of larger suite of a collection of apps, that aim at changing your user interface radically. You can give it a shot.
  • Lifehacker Desktop Show & Tell Lifehacker maintains an entire album in flickr, which lets their readers share their desktop with fellow lifehacker readers. You can get an idea on the possibilities of Rainmeter here and of course, a few are kind enough to share how to achieve what they had done.
  • Rainmeter Forums Many fresh and new themes show their faces first at the forums in Rainmeter.net

This video will give you a short walk-through on using Rainmeter.

Hope we’ve helped you gain a idea on Rainmeter and propelled you into a whole new world of desktop fun. Try it and share your thoughts with us. If you know any awesome skin, don’t forget to mention it, so that our fellow readers will be benefited.

[stextbox id="info"]Links[/stextbox]

Download Rainmeter

The picture shown uses the Ironman Jarvis skin by ~scrollsofaryavart and Enigma.

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Filed in Downloads, How To Guides, Resources | Tagged: , , ,

How To: Backup Your Facebook, Twitter and Other Social Data

Posted April 19, 2012 By Ganesh Babu
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Like taking backups of your personal data in your local hard drives, it is highly important that you take a backup of your online presence too. In this social media age, where we share every teeny tiny information about ourselves with the web, like our photos,  events, statuses and a lot more online, we tend to depend totally on the web and forget to have an offline backup.

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Anything might happen online and if you lose access to your social networking accounts, (read: got hacked) then you’ll be losing your data forever. It is better to be safe than sorry. So, let us see how you can take a backup of your social data.

How To Backup Facebook

With 800 Million and counting, Facebook is the de facto place for social networking. Facebook provides inbuilt options to take an offline backup of your data. We’ve already covered that in detail. This in-built tool offered by Facebook is straight forward. But it’ll require you to wait for some time before they process your archive. The backup is basically an HTML version of your account with your photos, statuses, wall posts, chats etc…

How To Backup Twitter

I am not sure how many of you know this, twitter doesn’t store all your tweets. Twitter stores only 3,200 of your most latest tweets. It automatically deletes the older ones and there is nothing you can do to stop this from inside twitter. But there are web apps that let you have a backup of your twitter tweets before they get deleted by twitter. If you are an avid tweeter and worried that your witty-cracks and your daily brawls would be deleted by twitter, then act fast.

  1. There are two services that let you backup your tweets. One is TweetBackup and the other is BackUpMyTweets.
  2. Let us see about TweetBackup, however, you are free to use any.
  3. Go to TweetBackup and click Sign up now using twitter.
  4. You need to click “Authorize app” before you can use TweetBackup.
  5. You’ll be redirected to the app, where you need to provide your email.
  6. It is obligatory that you follow TweetBackup in return for their free service and you can post an optional tweet in favour of them too.
  7. Click Sign up and then you’ll be asked to login using twitter.
  8. Once it is done, you’ll be taken to the TweetBackup control panel where you can backup and export your tweets.
  9. This nifty tool will surely help save those precious tweets.

For the Rest

Backupify lets you take a backup of your data in a host of social networks, from Facebook, Twitter to even Linkedin. It provides a free plan, in which you can backup upto 3 accounts with email as the only mode of backup. If you want to more, you have paid versions based on your requirements.

It is simple, go to Backupify, choose your plan, sign up and point the services you need to backup and voila ! You are done.

Hope these tools helped you save your precious online data. If you have any personal favourites and use further better tools for backing up your social data, do share with us through the comments. Backup and be safe.

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Filed in How To Guides, Security, Social Media | Tagged: , ,

How To: Use a Pen Drive as a Key for Your Computer

Posted April 12, 2012 By Ganesh Babu
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Traditionally we use lock and keys to lock away anything that is precious, valuable or important to us. After all, for most of us our computer is the most valuable possession. Most of us use passwords and other means of software based protection techniques to keep intruders at the bay. But using a hardware based security setup for your computer, decreases your risk of losing your data to hackers.

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Using a pen drive as a key for your computer might look something from the spy books, but it is easy to set up and comes in handy at times. All you need is a pen drive that you’ll have with you always.

We’ll be doing this using an inbuilt windows utility called the sys key.

Using a Pen Drive as your Computer Key

1. You need to assign A: as your removable disk drive. This is important because sys key was basically designed for floppy drives.

2. Press Start and type “disk management”, obviously without quotes and press Enter.

3. Connect your Pen drive and right click on the relevant drive and click rename and change it.

4. Press [Win] + [R] again and type “SysKey” and press enter.

5. Click Update then select Store key on floppy disk and click ok.

6. A file called Startkey.key will be created on your selected Pen drive and it’ll be required every time you boot your computer.

This nifty utility can help you save your computer from prying minds as your computer won’t boot up without it. But it is necessary that you keep that pen drive safe.

Hope this helped you to set up your pen drive as a key for your computer. Do share with your friends and let us know if you had any difficulties in the process.

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Filed in How To Guides, Security, Windows | Tagged: , , ,

How To: Build Your Presence Online

Posted March 10, 2012 By Victor
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There are many different ways for a small business to build an internet presence. They don’t have the ability to spend tons of money like large corporations, but they don’t have to. That is the great thing about the Internet. It’s a great equalizer that levels the playing field in the advertising realm. Websites don’t become popular because companies spend lots of money. They become popular because they have people in place that know how to drive traffic to the website. The following presents several ways to successfully achieve this goal.

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Social Media

This was once a small part of small business. Today things are different. Social media has grown in unbelievable ways. It’s not longer the playground for high school teens and college students anymore. It’s much more than that. The social media world of today is much more than personal users logging on to chat with friends. Today the social media sites are some of the best outlets for marketing.

A small business that wants to establish a connection with the local community should build online profiles on popular sites like Facebook and Twitter. Consumers typically patronize the businesses that are visible. People are online quite often. They are fulfilling their needs with businesses that they discover through these social media circles. Sometimes a friend makes the reference for the business. At others times an advertisement from one of these social media sites may lead a customer to a business.

Affiliate Marketing

Building an online presence can be hard work, but you don’t have to do it all on your own. There are lots of other businesses that are already established. Sometimes it can be beneficial to establish a relationship with companies that have products that compliment your products or services. Customers are more likely to gravitate towards an affiliate marketing campaign that seems natural. Partnerships that appear to be forced are often overlooked, but companies will complimentary products can drive a customer to spend more.
The ability to add a hyperlink to another website that has traffic is a huge deal. This puts the gateway to your website in front potential customers.

Give It Away

The best way to get people to buy is to give your product away. This may seem like something of a contradiction for someone that is trying to sell items, but it works. The key is to drive people to the site. You don’t necessarily have to give your product away. A business owner can start a contest and give a certain product to the winner. Discounts or “Buy 1, Get 1 Free” promotions can be done. All of this will arouse consumer interest. It will also get other people to talk about the site. This word-of-mouth promotion may be exactly what you need to get a continuous flow of traffic.
Take Notes from Big Business

A small business that is trying to build an online presence should take notes from the big corporations that have already done it. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Big businesses have already paved the way. It’s a good idea to follow in their footsteps because this has obviously been successful.
Consider the navigation of the website. Pay attention to how they address customer needs.

About The Author: Victor Daily is a blogger interested in technology and social media. Besides writing about latest news in these areas he also works as a consultant in a company that offers  IT Services in Melbourne.

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Filed in Blogging, Business, How To Guides, Webmasters | Tagged: , ,

How To: Download All Images From Chrome or Firefox at Once

Posted February 28, 2012 By Arun Sathiya
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The world’s top two web browsers, Chrome and Firefox, come with their own charming features and options, making the usage of the web browsers more pleasant. As known to all, both Chrome from Google and Firefox from Mozilla have a special feature with you can save the entire web page for offline editing. Well, it’s not only those two giants with this feature. Most of the modern web browsers are seen to be having this feature now.

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How does this help? If you were to save a complete web page for offline editing or download all the images in a web page in one go, what are you supposed to do? This is where this ultra cool feature comes to our help. With this option on, you can easily extract or save or download the images from a web page, rather than saving each image by clicking it and hitting the Save Image option. Downloading all those images in one go is far better right?

  • Fire up your favorite web browser, be it Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.
  • Let the web page with the images load completely.
  • Now, right click on the web page and hit the Save As… option available in Chrome or called as Save Page as.. in Firefox, in the context menu.
  • Name the file, giving it your favorite name like so and hit the Save button.

Well, that’s it. Saving the entire web page will make sure that the page is saved along with the necessary web page files. The place where you save the page will feature the web page files in a folder. Inside the folder lie all those images that you saw in that web page. You can now use them for your own usage. Easier than saving each image, right?

Alternatively you can use the tool named Bulk Image Downloader for downloading all the images from the Google Images site at once. Check out this post to know more about using that tool : Download Google Images in bulk with Bulk Image Downloader

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Filed in Browsers, Google Chrome, How To Guides, Mozilla Firefox, Tips and Tricks | Tagged: , , , , , , ,

How To: Check if Any Website is Blocked in China

Posted February 20, 2012 By Arun Sathiya
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While it is known to all that China is pretty good at censoring some of the websites that prove to be harmful to it, most of the webmasters and bloggers in this tech world live with fear. Since China itself seems to be a good source for traffic, getting banned from that country is pretty bad for webmasters. If you might have known, The Great Firewall of China has already blocked lots of popular social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

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Getting to the topic, here is a pretty cool website or tool that will let you check whether a particular website is banned in China or not. On hitting the website’s URL, the tool will start scanning from the servers of China. And in a matter of time, you can get the information, highlighting the fact that the website is visible to the Chinese or not.

  • Head to BlockedInChina
  • In the available box, hit the URL of the website you want to check.
  • Once you have typed the website address, hit the Test button and tool will start scanning.
In a short time, the results will pop. As you can see, the tool will try to access the website from five Chinese servers : Beijing, Shenzen, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang Province, Yunnan Province. On the right side lie the results. If the site is visible the probable result would be OK and on the other hand, if it is not visible, the result would be BLOCKED.
As for Axleration, our site is pretty safe and can be seen from any server located in China. With no content in Axleration proving to be harmful to the country, China has decided not to censor our blog. Axleration is in good hands. :-D

You might wonder how, with these popular social networking sites blocked, the people of China get connected with each other. Fortunately, there lie many other Chinese social networking sites connecting the people. Youku is a popular Chinese site battling with YouTube of the world. On the other hand Renren is the China’s equivalent of Facebook. Take a peek at this infographic to know more about The Great Firewall of China and how the Chinese get connected online.

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