Make Beautiful Christmas Cards In 5 Minutes With Canva

Christmas is coming, and as the Yuletide season nears, you’ll be faced with the unfortunate reality of sending Christmas cards. If you want to send personalized cards that actually look good, you’ll either have to fork out a small fortune, or compromise on quality by sending Aunt Mabel a flimsy piece of A4 littered with enough word art, it could have been made with Microsoft Publisher 98. But what if there was another way? Remember Canva? That’s the kick-ass startup from the Antipodes which makes it easy for non-design minded people like myself to make vaguely passable graphics? The one...

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9 New Languages in Google Translate

Google Translate supports 9 new languages: Hausa (Nigeria, 35 million speakers), Igbo (Nigeria, 25 million speakers), Yoruba (Nigeria, 28 million speakers), Somali (Somalia, 17 million speakers), Zulu (South Africa, 10 million speakers), Mongolian (Mongolia, China, 6 million speakers), Nepali (Nepal, India, Bhutan 17 million speakers), Punjabi (India, Pakistan, 100 million speakers), Maori (New Zealand, 160,000 speakers). Google Translate now supports 80 languages and that's impressive.

According to Ethnologue, there are 80 languages with more than 10 million native speakers, 200 languages with at least 3 million speakers and 1,300 languages with at least 100,000 speakers. Google Translate supports all the languages with more than 100 million native speakers, 13 of the 16 languages that have between 50 and 100 million speakers, 4 of the 13 languages that have between 30 and 50 million speakers and 15 of the 47 languages that have between 10 and 30 million speakers.

Share Files Up To A Whopping 30GB With Anyone Through Filemail

One of the biggest limitations of email is sending files. Almost every email provider imposes limits on the size of files that can be sent through their service, which is fine for sending documents and spreadsheets, but when you need to send something really large, that’s when issues arise. Enter Filemail, an awesome service that allows you to send massive files up to 30 gigabytes on a free account (with no size restriction on a premium account) to anyone. Getting Started You can use Filemail in a number of ways. First, you can just jump on the site, enter the...

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Create Portable Windows 7 USB Using VHD W7 Compact

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Windows To Go is a fantastic feature introduced with Windows 8 operating system to enable users install and carry Windows 8 on a USB drive. Officially available in Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise edition, it requires a minimum of 32GB mass storage device such as USB flash drive in order to prepare your Windows To Go drive. […]

5 Windows 8 Apps To Get You Into The Mood For Christmas

Christmas is upon us once again, but this time it’s slightly different: there are Windows 8 apps that you can use to enhance and enjoy the seasonal cheer and get you in the mood for the visit from “the fat man.” If you’re looking for music, entertainment, a tradition made digital or help preparing food for the biggest feast in the Christian calendar, the apps listed here – easily installed from the Windows 8 Store – are what you’re looking for. Advent Calendar Fun For adults, planning for Christmas starts early. Children, too, might be planning their Christmas list in...

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How to Resize Windows on your Mac to Specific Sizes

One of my favorite Windows utility happens to be Sizer, a tiny app that can resize any window on the desktop to an exact size. For instance, when I am recording screencasts for the YouTube channel, I use the 1280×720 (HD) or 1920×1080 (1080p) preset to automatically resize the target window before hitting the Record button.

Surprisingly, there’s no Sizer like app available for the Mac platform.

Resize any window to a specified size with Apple Script

I did find some paid alternatives in the Mac App store – Mercury Mover, TileWindows and Divvy to name a few – that do allow you to reposition and resize windows on the Mac with keyboard shortcuts but these apps are more targeted at power users for working efficiently with multiple windows while Sizer is purely a resizing utility.

Resize Windows with Apple Script

If you are looking for something more simple, without the extra bells and whistles, a little AppleScript should do the trick.

Just open the AppleScript editor and copy-paste the script below. You can change the app name (theApp) from “Google Chrome” to iTunes or any other window that you wish to resize. The script resizes the window to 1920×1080 and moves it to the center. You can set a different default height and width through the appHeight and appWidth variables.

Now you can press Cmd + R to run the script. Alternatively, you may export the script as an application (.app) and run it anytime with a double-click.

There are some Safari (Resize Me) and Chrome extensions as well that will you resize the windows to any specified size on your Mac but they will obviously work with the browser window only.

(*

This Apple script will resize any program window to an exact size and the window is then moved to the center of your screen.
Specify the program name, height and width below and run the script.

Written by Amit Agarwal on December 10, 2013

*)

set theApp to "Google Chrome"
set appHeight to 1080
set appWidth to 1920

tell application "Finder"
        set screenResolution to bounds of window of desktop
end tell

set screenWidth to item 3 of screenResolution
set screenHeight to item 4 of screenResolution

tell application theApp
        activate
        reopen
        set yAxis to (screenHeight - appHeight) / 2 as integer
        set xAxis to (screenWidth - appWidth) / 2 as integer
        set the bounds of the first window to {xAxis, yAxis, appWidth + xAxis, appHeight + yAxis}
end tell

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This story, How to Resize Windows on your Mac to Specific Sizes, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 10/12/2013 under Mac, Software

Google Settings Page for Phone Numbers

Google's account settings page has an updated section for phone numbers that groups some features that were already available elsewhere. If you click "edit" next to "phone numbers", Google will show the phone numbers associated with your account.



You'll probably see a phone number associated with Hangouts. You can enable or disable this setting: "Help people who have your phone number find and connect with you on Google services, like Hangouts and caller ID by Google." You can edit the phone number, change the way it's verified or remove the number.



There's also a phone number that's used for account recovery. Google encourages users to enable this feature, but it's optional. For now, the account recovery page is not integrated with the account settings page, so it looks different and has a long URL. "We'll use your phone to do things like challenge hijackers or send you a text message to help you access your account if you forget your password," informs Google.

The phone number management page was added back in May, but now it's more functional.



{ Thanks, Herin. }

Get One Year License Of RoboForm Everywhere For Free

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Those of you closely following the Internet would know that more and more online accounts are being compromised these days. There are three simple things you can do from your end to protect your online accounts: replace all weak passwords with stronger ones, avoid using the same password for multiple accounts, and change passwords at […]

How to Remove Ads from your Kindle without any Hacks

The Kindle reader starts at $89 but you get a $20 discount if you opt for the Kindle with Special Offers. The two models look alike and have the same set of features except that Kindle with Special Offers model will display sponsored ads on the home screen when idle.

The ads on the Kindle with Special Offers edition are unobtrusive but Amazon does offer an option to remove ads from the sponsored Kindle for a $20 fee. Go to your Kindle dashboard on Amazon.com, click the Manage your Devices link, select your registered Kindle device and click Edit next to the Special Offers link.

Request Amazon support to remove sponsored offers from your Kindle

Disable Ads on Kindle with Special Offers

There’s another easier option as well that will let you remove ads from your Kindle for free.

You can contact the Amazon support team and request them to disable advertising on your Kindle with Special Offers. They are likely to oblige if you using a Kindle outside the USA since special offers cannot be claimed in other countries.

Here are the steps involved:

1. Open the Contact Us page on Amazon and select your Kindle device from the list.


2. Under the Issues section, select Kindle Device -> Kindle with Special Offers -> Problems claiming offers.


3. Select the Chat option and here you can request the Amazon representative to disable ads on your Kindle device.

You’ll get a notification on your Kindle device (see screenshot) once the sponsored offers have been turned off. Restart your Kindle and the ads should no longer appear on the device.

I tried this on my Kindle and the ads were gone in 5 minutes. The trick, which also applies to the Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Fire tablets, was originally shared on Reddit but has been pulled down by the submitter.

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This story, How to Remove Ads from your Kindle without any Hacks, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 10/12/2013 under Amazon Kindle, Software

ChrisPC Win Experience Index: Windows Experience Index (WEI) For Windows 8.1

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Windows Experience Index (WEI), introduced with Windows Vista and present in Windows 7 as well as Windows 8, evaluates the performance CPU, RAM, disk drive, graphics card, and gives a score between 1.0 to 9.9. PC users who have upgraded from Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 will immediately notice the absence […]

Google Open Gallery

If you expand the list of services from Google's support page, you'll find an interesting service: Open Gallery. Clicking the link redirects you to the main Google support site.

I tried to find this service and searched for [open gallery]. Most of the results are about art galleries. Google actually has a service that brings museums online: Google Cultural Institute's Art Project. "Museums large and small, classic and modern, world-renowned and community-based from over 40 countries have contributed more than 40,000 high-resolution images of works ranging from oil on canvas to sculpture and furniture. Some paintings are available in 'gigapixel' format, allowing you to zoom in at brushstroke level to examine incredible detail," explains Google.



I've checked the source code of some Art Project pages and found this: "New! Artists, museums, galleries, archives: discover Google Open Gallery, powerful free tools to bring your content online." Google Open Gallery pointed to google.com/opengallery, which shows a 404 error message.

{ Merci, TomHTML. }

Syme – A New Social Network With Encrypted Groups to Prevent Spying

The folks at Canada-based social network startup Syme are hoping that enough people are fed up with the NSA-style spying on citizens around the world, and that it will spark a mess exodus off Facebook and Google+ and onto encrypted alternatives. Syme is precisely that, an ultra-private social network where you can create an encrypted group environment where you can socialize with friends or colleagues inside of an environment that is, according to Syme creators, even hidden from the social network administrators. Further bolstering the claim of ultimate privacy is a message that pops up when you enter your password...

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5 Online Scams To Be Aware Of This Christmas

The holidays are a dangerous time. It’d be nice if the season of cheer was all happiness and joy but, unfortunately, there are malicious people out there who will capitalize on your good spirits to scam you out of a lot of money. If you think you’re safe from scams just because you’re safe at home behind a computer screen, think again. The basic idea of a scam is always the same: trickery and deceit. We’ve covered this topic before with subjects ranging from Craigslist scams to free gift card scams to online marketing scams. The difference here is that...

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Giveaway.Ly - Get Paid for Hosting Giveaways on Your Blog

Many times you feel very happy when some advertiser contacts you for hosting a giveaway on your blog. But you might not be knowing that there are few websites which connect both Publishers and Advertisers for organizing Giveaways. And the best thing is that the Publishers (Bloggers) can make money by hosting a giveaway on their blog. One such site is Giveaway.ly.

Read more »

More In-Depth Articles in Google Search

For general queries like [global warming], [love], [Mandela], [China], Google shows some in-depth news articles at the bottom of the first page of results. Until now, Google only included 3 articles, but this has changed: you can click "more in-depth articles" and get 5 more articles.

Google also added some related queries you can explore to find other related articles. Clicking the "explore" links sends you to a page that places in-depth articles at the top, but also shows regular search results. Google adds &ida_m=1 to the search URL.

{ Thanks, Rubén. }

Enjoy Curated Music Mixes And Discover Great Artists On 8tracks

Unlimited streaming music, for free, legally available all over the world, and with no audio ads. Have I got your attention yet? That’s just what 8tracks offers. One of the oldest and best music websites in existence, we mentioned 8tracks way back in 2008, and far more recently as one of several great tools for creating digital mixtapes. Most recently, I’ve shown you how to enjoy 8track on the go with the amazing third-party client InifiTracks. But interestingly enough, we’ve never taken an in-depth look at the 8tracks website itself and all that it offers. That is about to change....

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Google's Mobile Image Search Adds Menu

Google has another mobile interface for Image Search. I've only noticed it in Chrome and Safari for iPhone and it doesn't seem to be an experiment. Google now shows a three-dot menu with options like "visit page", "view image", "send feedback" and "search by image". You can still use swipes to go to the next or previous image result and tapping the image sends you to the page that includes it.

Government Surveillance, Xbox One Backwards Compatibility, Game of Thrones Game [Tech News Digest]

Today in Tech News Digest, a coalition of Internet companies is formed to fight government surveillance, Windows 7 is declared dead, Xbox One users are tricked into bricking their consoles, a Game Of Thrones video game is announced, Creative Commons 4.0 arrives, Google News on iOS and Android is improved, and SpaghettiOs has a Twitter nightmare. Reform Government Surveillance Coalition There's something very symbolic about the tech firms' surveillance reform website not using HTTPS. http://t.co/WpCrPwEnaY — Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) December 9, 2013 A coalition of seven Internet companies has been formed to fight back against government surveillance. Google, Microsoft, Facebook,...

Read the full article: Government Surveillance, Xbox One Backwards Compatibility, Game of Thrones Game [Tech News Digest]

Government Surveillance, Xbox One Backwards Compatibility, Game of Thrones Game [Tech News Digest]

Today in Tech News Digest, a coalition of Internet companies is formed to fight government surveillance, Windows 7 is declared dead, Xbox One users are tricked into bricking their consoles, a Game Of Thrones video game is announced, Creative Commons 4.0 arrives, Google News on iOS and Android is improved, and SpaghettiOs has a Twitter nightmare. Reform Government Surveillance Coalition There's something very symbolic about the tech firms' surveillance reform website not using HTTPS. http://t.co/WpCrPwEnaY — Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) December 9, 2013 A coalition of seven Internet companies has been formed to fight back against government surveillance. Google, Microsoft, Facebook,...

Read the full article: Government Surveillance, Xbox One Backwards Compatibility, Game of Thrones Game [Tech News Digest]

How To Reset Windows 8.1 Start Screen To Its Default

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The Start screen, Start menu replacement introduced with Windows 8, has been enhanced in many ways in the recently released Windows 8.1 update. In addition to new tile sizes, Bing search, personalization options, the Start screen in Windows 8.1 doesn’t get cluttered, as Windows 8.1 doesn’t automatically pin all installed apps and desktop programs to […]