13 December 2013

How To Make A Shared Christmas Shopping List Using Google Shortlists Or Pinterest



christmas-shopping-google-pinterest

You’ve no doubt been in this position before: a group of people are trying to decide what gift to buy the extended family for the holiday season. My family is in the same boat. While trying to collaborate on Christmas gift ideas, I thought, “We both have computers and smartphones, so how can we make this easier?” This got me thinking about the best way to share a visual list of potential gifts between a couple of people (or more) privately. Here are two great solutions I’m sure you’ll enjoy too. Google Shopping Shortlist Google Shopping is yet another great...


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5 Internet Memes That You’ll Never Be Able To Forget



gangnam-style-meme

When was the last time you drove past an accident, and couldn’t resist — no matter how hard you tried — turning and trying to catch a glance of the mishap. Yes, the Internet is like that, and the best memes out there were some of the worst Internet accidents we’ll never forget. The Internet is a series of unfortunate viral memes that sparked from some ludicrous and outrageous ideas, and then spread like a brush fire in high wind. Before you know it, the whole world is on fire with everyone talking about it, people discussing it at the...


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RT Desktop Store: Browse And Install 50+ Desktop Programs In Windows RT 8.1



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Windows RT 8/8.1 is an ARM specific variant of Windows 8/8.1 designed especially for tablets and mobile devices that use ARM processors. Unlike Windows 8.1, Windows RT 8.1 is only available pre-installed on select tablets and PCs, and doesn’t support applications tailored for x86 and x64 systems. Even though Windows RT 8.1 and Windows 8.1 […]

Google Adsense Introduces Custom Ad Size for All Publishers



This is a great news for Google Adsense Publishers. Now you can create Google Custom Ad Sizes that exactly fits to your blog size and layout. Though I was using a hack since few days to display custom ad sizes on my responsive design, Google finally openly introduced custom ad sizes for all publishers(previously it was available for only premium publishers). Few days back they introduced 300*600 ad unit, then responsive ads, A/B Split Testing and now custom ad sizes which will add extra $$ to your Adsense Account.



Getting Started with Custom Ad Sizes:




  • Like we create a normal Ad Unit, creating a custom ad unit is quite simple.

  • Login to your Account My Ads-> New Ad Unit ->Ad Size you choose Custom Size from the Drop Down.




Read more »

Custom Maps in the New Google Maps



The new version of Google Maps constantly brings back features from the classic Google Maps, which shows that it's almost ready to become the default interface. The new Google Maps shows a link for your custom maps below the search box. If you click the link, you should see a list of custom maps created with Maps Engine Lite or My Maps.






You can access your five most recent My Maps and Maps Engine maps in the new Google Maps. To quickly get to your custom maps:



* Open Google Maps and make sure you're signed-in.

* Click into the searchbox.

* Click the 'My custom maps' suggestion that appears below.

* Click the name of the map you want to view. Your map will either open in My Maps or Maps Engine.



You can also still access all of your My Maps and My Places content (available through classic Maps). To get there from the new Google Maps, click the Gear icon gear menu in the bottom right and select My Places.


Auto Awesome Snow Shake in Google+ for Android



This is another fun feature for the holidays, but it's limited to the Google+ app for Android: "Shake your device while viewing one of your photos, and watch the snow fall. Shake it again to save your new snowy photo and share it with family and friends."



It's a way to manually trigger the Auto Awesome Snow effect for any photo.






You need the latest version of the Google+ app, which was released today.





How To Send Your Friends Apps For Christmas



angry birds christmas

When you think about it, apps are the perfect gift. You can buy them online and instantly send them to someone – even if they’re far away – without having to mail anything or pay shipping fees. They’re nice and cheap, too. You can send an app and show someone you’re thinking about them without paying too much. Every platform allows you to give the gift of apps in one way or another. Regardless of what platform your friends use, here’s how you can send them apps for Christmas. iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch Apps You can easily buy an...


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Updated Google Settings Page



The Google Settings page has received a major makeover and switched to the card interface that's used in many Google services and apps. The page is more compact, better optimized for mobile devices and only focuses on the most important features. Advanced features like Google Dashboard or Takeout are linked from the "data tools" section. Google+ settings are available if you click "edit notification settings" and this page also has a new interface.






The security section lets you change your password and recovery options.






The language section lets you skip translations for one or more languages and also enable input tools.









While the new interface looks nice, I feel that there are too many links that send you to separate pages and the transition is not smooth.



{ Thanks, Emanuele, JD, Jérôme. }

Bop.fm: Why Let Region Restrictions Stop You From Sharing Great Music



bop-fm

It’s an idea that should have arrived sooner. The idea of a universal playlist free from regional restrictions of music streaming surely has struck most of us at one time or another. It was far easier for a short while during the age of Napster. Enter online music streaming services like Spotify, Pandora, Last.fm, and Rdio just to mention a few…and your musical choices aren’t restricted to what’s on your hard drive or that of your friends anymore. The only restriction is placed by geography. Barring the United States, most of the services are kept restricted to a large portion...


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Google Uses a Proxy to Load Gmail Images



This is one of those features that users will love and marketers will hate. Until now, Gmail didn't display the images from messages sent by people that aren't in your address book if those images had to be loaded from an external site. You had to click "display images below" or "always display images from..." to see the images. This was done to protect your privacy: embedded images could set cookies or include unique IDs and inform those who sent the messages that you've read them or that the email address is active. Many newsletters and spam messages include images.



Google found a way to address this issue: it will display all the images by default, but load them from a proxy server. "Instead of serving images directly from their original external host servers, Gmail will now serve all images through Google's own secure proxy servers. So what does this mean for you? Simple: your messages are more safe and secure, your images are checked for known viruses or malware, and you'll never have to press that pesky 'display images below' link again. With this new change, your email will now be safer, faster and more beautiful than ever," informs Gmail's blog.






"Some senders try to use externally linked images in harmful ways, but Gmail takes action to ensure that images are loaded safely. Gmail serves all images through Google's image proxy servers and transcodes them before delivery to protect you in the following ways: senders can't use image loading to get information like your IP address or location, senders can't set or read cookies in your browser, Gmail checks your images for known viruses or malware. In some cases, senders may be able to know whether an individual has opened a message with unique image links," mentions Gmail's help center.



If the images are loaded using a proxy, the external server still receives a request and the sender can find if you've read the message. I wonder how Google deals with this issue.



You can still choose to manually authorize images by selecting "Ask before displaying external images" in Gmail's settings. This is especially useful if you have a slow Internet connection.