Project Naptha: A Mind-Blowing Chrome Add-on that Lets You Copy, Extract Text from Any Images Online

How many times have you gone to situations when you needed to extract text embedded in an image but went helpless because no app can quickly and perfectly do just that?

Well, not probably once.

To anyone who wants to be more productive on their online gigs, you should go and check out Kevin Kwok's latest work: Project Naptha, a mind-blowing browser extension currently available in Chrome that allows you to copy text from any images straight from any websites.

And yes, it works great.

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But how was it possible?

As with any other text extraction software, Project Naptha is powered by a complex Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology which quickly identifies and builds a model of text regions, letters and words that you can extract and copy from virtually any images you encounter on the web.

One notable feature of Project Naptha is the "Erase Text" functionality which allows you remove text from any images -- useful if you want to grab images online free from captions or annotations.

Project Naptha has already making a lot of headlines today, and the media attention it gets can potentially attract tech giants like Google, Bing or Yahoo who might consider acquiring it and incorporate into their search engines.

Here's why:

Project Naptha is a clear demonstration that it's possible for search bots to decipher and index all images flooded online, similar to how search engines index the standard text-based websites. And that's music to the ear for search engine companies who might want to take a big step  forward in search. Sooner or later images we embed in our websites will be as valuable as text. And those online images' copyright violators will get the biggest Google slap.

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There's not such an abundance of OCR apps both desktop and online that works out of the box without requiring you to upload the source files for remote processing. With Project Naptha, OCR processing all takes place straight from your web browser. And that's a work of genius.

Project Naptha Firefox extension is expected to arrive in the coming months.



LINK: Project Naptha

Responsimulator: The Most Accurate, Reliable Web-Based iPhone, iPad Simulator Online

Every front-end developer knows how downright disappointing it is to get asked to fix some design hiccups in which you cannot fix as you cannot replicate them on your end.

And this is a very a common problem among web developers: your iPhone/iPad simulator says it's perfect but in real physical device, the overall look-and-feel of a website may be a bit awry, unacceptable. We don't want our clients to get back to us angry right?

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But fret not.

A web design company Flexify has this no less ordinary iPhone/iPad online simulator app that you will gladly welcome into your web dev toolbox: Responsimulator. This is not Screenfly or any other online simulators you may have used before.

Here's why:

The level of accuracy renders by this web-based iPhone/iPad simulator is so impressive that you can quickly squash every single visual bug you encounter which may not normally appear in your usual emulators. And that's great especially if you constantly do web development or QA and you don't have real iPhone or iPad to perform visual checks on your end.

Access, Manage All Files Stored Across Multiple Cloud Accounts All At Once

Simulators have always been the most indispensable tools among front-end web developers. These are everyone's go-to tools to ensure every single detail and element of a website is displayed well on any screens or platforms prior to site deployment. But you've got to be careful as not every simulator delivers results as promised, except of course for Responsimulator which seems to be the most web developer-friendly, accurate iPhone/iPad simulators available as yet.

The Cons:

• Only portrait mode is currently supported
• Works only on websites with RWD implementation (translation: Media Query-reliant websites)

Do you know any other mobile and tablet simulators? Buzz off in the comments.



LINK: Responsimulator

LICEcap Is The Best Alternative To Recordit To Screencast & Create High Quality GIFs

For the uninitiated, Recordit Fast Screencasts is a Mac-only piece of software recently launched that lets you create video screencasts FAST. This app works similarly to Jing; you decide what particular area of your screen you want to screen-capture, hit the record button, then wait for a few seconds for the app to upload & generate a unique link for the screencast. If you have a Mac, go check out Recordit.

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What makes Recordit unique is the nifty GIF support, which is kind of envy to all Windows users out there considering that there's not much good screencasting apps available for Windows with decent GIF support.

But fret not, I got you here a decent (even better) alternative to Recordit that works well on any Mac and Windows computer.

LICEcap Records Your Screen Activity And Saves It As High Quality GIF (Windows & OSX)

LICEcap is FREE and fully functional GIF creation tool both for Windows and Mac that allows you to capture an area of your computer and store it as a high quality GIF. LICEcap is very lightweight and there's no extra fuss to get started. Just grab and install the app, and you're good to go.

LICEcap Features:

• Record directly to .GIF or
• Move the screen capture frame while recording
• Pause and restart recording, with optional inserted text messages
• Global hotkey (shift+space) to toggle pausing while recording
• Adjustable maximum recording framerate, to allow throttling CPU usage
• Basic title frame, with or without text
• Record mouse button presses
• Display elapsed time in the recording

Why use GIF when there's a video?

The problem with most video screencasting software today is that the size of video or flash file it generates is too large that you can't quickly embed it on a web page nor share it to your co-workers or employer. With GIF as an output format, the size is too minimal, thus saving you time.



Link: LICEcap

Best & FREE Alternatives To Otixo To Manage Multiple Cloud Storage Accounts

How To: Automatically Logout Of Facebook After Certain Time (Chrome)

Sounds absurd but this kind of application can be useful too.

An app that can automatically log you out from Facebook after certain time may not be something you'll use everyday. But just in case you're on a shared computer and you don't want others to mess around with your account, this category of app is proved useful.

Facebook Auto Log Out: Automatically Logs You Out From Facebook After User-Specified Time (link)

Meet Facebook Auto Log Out, a nifty Chrome extension designed to do just that. Using the add-on is pretty straightforward; just install the add-on from Chrome Web Store, log in to Facebook, set a timer, and you'll be logged out automatically when your time is up. It's that simple

This is particularly helpful for people who have this hobby of leaving the computer opened/unattended.

New iPhone App Automatically Captures a Photo of Anyone Who Touches Your iDevice

Another, rather more advanced, Chrome extension is Auto Logout. It automatically logs you out of all logged in accounts including Gmail when your browser is closed, recommended for use in shared computers to help keep different accounts safe.

mHotspot Is A FREE Alternative To Connectify That Turns Your Computer Into Wifi Hotspot

Previously on this blog we have talked about Connectify, a tiny piece of app that turns your laptop into a wireless hotspot so you can quickly share your internet connection without having to spend hours of frustration doing it via Ad-Hoc.

Connectify is great, but only if you're willing to toss $40 for the lifetime Pro version that unlocks a plethora of features which of course you don't need all. While there's a Connectify Lite version, I find it too limited especially the latest version. And that's not only my opinion.

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Now if you want a decent and FREE alternative to Connectify to share your LAN, 3G/4G internet connection, then, you might you want to check out mHotspot.

mHotspot Transforms Your Computer Into Portable WiFi Hotspot  (link)

mHotspot is a 100% free software which converts your Windows-based computer into a functional and secure Wifi Hotspot. If you have DSL or 3G/4G broadband at home, you can quickly share that to other wireless devices. Absolutely no router or additional external hardware required.

With mHotspot, you can:

• provide internet access to other devices (10 devices max)
• set your own hotspot name without any prefix or restrictions (unlike Connectify Lite)
• secures your wireless hotspot with WPA2 PSK password security
• application size is 400KB only (that's cool)
• share any type of Internet connection (LAN, Ethernet, 3G/4G, etc)
• see the details of the connected devices (e.g. device name, IP & Mac Address)
• see the network usage (upload and download speed)
• turn your laptop as a repeater

mHostpot, the best Connectify alterntive as yet, has already amassed over 2 million downloads to date. Go check out mHotspot.

Must-Have: Recover All Items Stored On Your Clipboard with Ditto (Windows)

Solayo Is Your Spotify For YouTube — Lets You Search & Create Playlist From YouTube, SoundCloud

The early demise of YouTube-powered app LoudLee creates a new opportunity for new starters.

Filling that void is yet another awesome web app Solayo which brings even better integration to these big streaming sites.

So what is Solayo?

Just like LoudLee, Solayo harnesses the power of YouTube so you can easily search music and create personalized playlists from multiple sources including YouTube and SoundCloud.

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Solayo is basically a "Spotify for YouTube"; that over 11 millions of covers seen only on YouTube are now at your disposal to pin & add to your playlist.

At Solayo we want to enhance how you Search, Play and Collect multimedia content online. We’ve all suffered the same problem of having half a dozen Youtube tabs open or waiting for another content we’re listening/watching to finish playing before embarking on searching for another one.

Well here at Solayo, we’re developing this platform in solving these problems. We believe that it is time for people to be able to search their video or music content from as many source providers out there and not only that, but the ability to listen/watch and collect these contents should be as easy and mesmerising as possible.

Whom Is It For?

Solayo is for anyone who wants to turn YouTube into an online music radio. If you're a big fan of independent artists who produce awesome covers only on YouTube, then, Solayo is ideally right for you. Or if you don't have access to Spotify & if you think Grooveshark's music library is too limited for you, then, try this out.

Link: Solayo (Beta)

5 Essential Non-Jailbreak iPhone Apps That Apple Should Allow In App Store

App makers outside Apple know best what needs to be developed and what's not. Users'thirst of really useful, great apps are not left in the wild unnoticed. In fact, it motivates and drives competition among developers who create a great selection of apps for us to enjoy.

Unfortunately, great apps don't easily make its way to Apple's AppStore. Not because they're too buggy or useless but because of Apple's restrictive policy, preventing developers to accomplish something great.

5 Essential Android Apps That We Wish Existed On The iPhone

In this post, we're going to explore some of the great, useful apps that exist in other mobile operating system but not in non-jailbroken iOS. These are apps that are sure a big hit and will make your iPhone a little less dumb once made available in iTunes.

Smart app protector to password-protect individual iOS apps without Jailbreak

I have a non-jailbroken iPhone 5 and just like you, I've been looking for iOS apps similar to Android's AppLock so I can restrict access to some of my personal & finance apps by protecting them with a password. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to have a way out except for iAppLock, a jailbreak app that can password-protect apps in iOS devices.

The reason why Apple can't approve such apps is that it is a violation of terms for an application to make a system-wide change and make a password for individual app. Applications have to one-by-one add password locks if they want to. Yeah, I know. It sucks!

More in this category:

How To: Remotely Lock, Password-Protect Your Lost/Forgotten Phone Thru SMS
How To: Password Protect, Lock Google Chrome Browser
How To: Lock, Protect Certain Programs Installed On Your Computer

An offline answering machine for iOS

Offline Answering Machine for iOS is undoubtedly one awesome app! This is a kind of software that automatically answers phone calls with your pre-recorded greeting and records/saves the voice message straight to your iPhone, bypassing telco's voice mailbox service. Not only can you cut your phone bills but sure you can avoid unanswered phone calls from important people.

Back in Symbian days, Voice Inbox is one of my must-have apps that does just that. If you still have s60v3 phones, you should go and get this app. Things you can do with it: replay voice messages anytime without calling an operator, see the name of the caller (not just a number), call back in a click.

As yet, neither Android nor iOS has an app for that.

A call-recording software for iPhone

Being able to record phone calls (and even Skype calls) is sometimes necessary, most especially if someone is giving you important directions over the phone. If you're confused or unsure what your mom or boss has said, you can turn to the recorded phone call and listen it once again.

Both Android and Symbian have decent working apps for that. For iOS, I can't still find any.

Tasker-like automation app for iPhone

If you've been on Android in the past, you should have already heard about Tasker. Tasker is an award-winning app that brings complete automation to your Android device.

There are plenty of automation options you can exploit with Tasker; it can automatically send SMS to your parents when you're leaving the house, it can automatically switch your phone to “Silent” mode when you're in office, among others.

Automate Your Phone: Let Your Phone Perform Certain Actions Based On Your Location

While there's IFTTT for iPhone you can explore, Tasker is far more advanced and feature-rich as compared to IFTTT.

AdBlocker for iPhone to block pesky ads popping on your favorite game/app.

There's no need for me to enumerate the pros of having an ad-blocking software installed on your iOS device. Unfortunately, ad-blocking software are too controversial that they don't even make their way to Play Store or AppStore. Unless you do the risky business of jail-breaking or “rooting”, you can block ads on your Android or iPhone.

Have something to add on this list? Buzz off in the comments below. :)

Gmail's Addon Streak Lets You Monitor, Track If Emails Are Read, Viewed By Recipients

Remember that feeling when you send your Facebook friend some important, long messages and you sit there waiting and all you've got is that big “Seen by” notification?

Well, you too can get that same message tracking goodness on your emails so you'll know if your boss has actually opened, read your emails you just sent (overdue payments, reminders perhaps :D)

Streak Gives Your Sent Emails “Seen By” Feature of Facebook — Lets You Monitor If Your Emails Are Viewed By Recipients In Real-time

Meet Streak,a tiny Google Chrome add-on that allows you to track your emails if they're viewed by your recipients. Sounds creepy and impossible but yes, you heard it right: you can now see if your emails are being viewed & left unresponded by your recipient.

Kind of NSA thing, right? Well, not really.



Streak email tracking shows the status of all your tracked emails right in your inbox. You'll see a green or gray "eye" icon right next to any email in any inbox list telling you whether the email is being read or not.

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Any active Gmail users can take advantage of Streak's email tracking technology. Aside from it's FREE, there really is no complex installation required to get it running.

The Bonus:

The email recipients you want to monitor don't really have to have the add-on installed in order for you to be notified that it was opened. Trackable emails can be Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, among others. The recipient won’t get any notification that their e-mail activity is being tracked. That's sweet :)

It's Clever!

Being able to track sent emails is absolutely something of an achievement considering that email providers strip off scripts before your email gets sent. So there really is no way for our emails to be tracked. But the guys at Streak absolutely nailed it. Great job guys!

Download: Streak for Chrome

How To: Enable, Make Spotify Web Player Working on iPhone, iPad, Android

I am one of those unhappy, broke and desperate fellow Asians who cannot fully enjoy Spotify Premium because I am in the other side of the world currently unsupported by Spotify. While Spotify Web Player & Spotify Radio are both accessible on my PC in my country using tools like Hola Unblocker, I can't still get through the day without it on my phone which I spent most of my time every day.

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To those asking why I can't get Spotify Premium, Spotify refused any payments made on any non-US credit cards & PayPal accounts. There's a way out though: purchase Spotify Premium coupons codes which you can redeem anytime,anywhere on Spotify. But the problem with these coupons is that they are priced as high as 150% to 200% from the original price. An that's a big NO way!

So last few days, I embarked into a mission trying to work out the famous Spotify Web Player on my iPhone as my last resort. And thankfully it was successful though I had to tossed $3.99 just to enable, make Spotify Web Player working on my iPhone.

How To Get Spotify Web Player Working on iPhone, iPad & Android

The method is simple: you have to hunt any decent, working mobile web browsers with great Flash support. For iOS, I highly recommend Photon Flash Player. The iPhone version will set you back $3.99 while the iPad version costs you $5.49. But I guess it's all worth your money as you have to make only one-time purchase for this functional app rather than paying Spotify monthly premium subscription.

THE BONUS:

• All Flash-based streaming sites like Hulu, Netflix & Pandora are supported with Photon (provided that you're in a country supported by these services)
• Flash-based games like that on Facebook are fully working!

How To: Stream, Play MP3 & Video Files Embedded On Non-HTML5 Websites From Your Mobile Browser

I hate telling people the good news without telling people the bad. So here's my problem so far with Photon for iPhone: No background playback support! You have to make your browser opened for continuous audio/video playback. I hope they can work it out soon.

How To: Stream, Play MP3 & Video Files Embedded On Non-HTML5 Websites From Your Mobile Browser

If you're wondering about how to activate and get Spotify Web Player working on your iPhone, iPad or Android device or even Hulu & Netflix, then, that should do the trick!

DOWNLOAD:
Photon Flash Player for iPhone (link)
Photon Flash Player for iPad (link)
Photon Flash Player for Android(link)

Groopic Solves The Group Picture Taking Woe — Includes Photographer In A Group Picture Too (iOS)

Groopic for iOS simply merges the photographer's image to the group picture. Put simply, the photographer gets included too in a group photo. No more setting up of external tripods, using timers and chairs, and no more asking help from a stranger.

Unfortunately, in most group photos, the photographer is always left out. Or, a group photo is never complete because two photographers have to switch so one or the other is always left out. Groopic solves this problem with an app that will show everybody in every group photo. No one needs to be left out.

Take a Group Picture that Includes the Photographer with Groopic (link)

Groopic gives you complete groupie pics in 3 easy steps: Simply take two pictures, use the app to mark the photographers, and the Groopic app does the rest. It automatically combines the two pictures into one complete group picture.

Here's How It Works:

Groopic is the creation of Eyedeus Labs, a company that develops computational photography solutions for smartphones, with over 30 years of experience in innovative imaging solutions. Eyedeus is based in Lahore, Pakistan.

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The Groopic app for iOS is available from the App Store for only a $1.99 download. So far, an Android version is in the making and may be made available soon.

New iPhone App Automatically Captures a Photo of Anyone Who Touches Your iDevice

Ever wanted to catch those nasty itchy fingers trying to grab your iPhone without your permission?

Well, as the popular cling goes, there is always an app for that!

Meet Guardian Cam, the iOS app that spies on anyone who tries to “spy” on your iDevice. Once activated, Guardian Cam automatically takes a picture of anyone who touches your iPhone or iPad.

Discover Who May Be Using Your iPhone Without Permission With Guardian Cam (link)

The Guardian Cam app replaces the home screen with a dummy screen. If the dummy screen is touched the front-facing camera automatically takes a picture — good news for those who want to protect their iPhone’s or iPad’s security and privacy.

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The app even has an upgrade for auto-flash in low light, an icon badge that displays the number of photos captured, and even an optional audio alarm that will not shut off until it runs after one minute. All photos are even dated and saved.

How To: Remotely Spy, Monitor SMS, Text Messages

The Guardian Cam app is useful in order to guard against anyone using someone else’s iPhone or iPad without the owner’s knowledge. It’s also a foolproof way to catch anyone in the act of spying on the contents of any iDevice. The ultimate protection of course is against anyone attempting to steal the device, since the loud alarm will discourage anyone from finishing the attempted thievery. In short, anyone attempting illegally to look at a file, open an app, make a call, or to steal the device, is automatically caught on camera or subjected to a loud alarm.

If hard proof is needed to accuse someone, the outcome from Guardian Cam is all the proof you need.

Guardian Cam supports English and Japanese. It is compatible with iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S, and 5; the 3rd to 5th generation of iPod Touch; and iPad. Of course, the iDevice must have a front-facing camera.

Phone As Spy Camera - Turn Your Phone Into Remote Surveillance Camera With Motion Detection

Created by the Masatoshi Higashionna and Masaya Takahashi Co. Ltd. from Japan, Guardian Cam sells for only US$1.99 available worldwide at any App Store in the Utilities category.

Use Mover.io To Copy, Move Files From FTP To Google Drive, DropBox, SkyDrive and Vice Versa

To those looking for a FREE, decent file management web service with support for FTP to copy, backup web files from web server to cloud storage providers (e.g. DropBox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, etc), well, then, this post if for you!

I am sometimes asked, as a web ninja, to create a full site backup of my client's sites and copy it to their cloud storage accounts. Such tasks can actually be a accomplished using the right (premium) tools or plugins. But sometimes, plugins just ain't enough! So you sit with a sheer frustration realizing that the only way out is to 'manually' grab those downloadables and upload them back to their online virtual drive. And yes, it's not an option; it's a waste of time!

Copy Files Between FTP, Dropbox, Google Drive & SkyDrive With Mover.io (link)

Meet Mover.io, yet another awesome web platform to move/transfer files from one cloud storage provider to another. Mover was created to streamline the process of transferring your data to the cloud. The service is sort of like that of Otixo, or the time-saving cloud storage managers we have previously mentioned here, which allows you to conveniently copy/move files between DropBox, Box, Google Drive, etc. 

But, Mover is Unique

What Mover sets apart from the rest is the intuitive support for FTP as your source or destination drive. And that's very useful feature among web guys who might need to backup their web files if BackupBuddy (or the equivalent add-on) is not an option.

Using the App:

It takes just a few clicks to kick off your transfers with Mover — just a one-time signup is required. But you have to complete your registration and login until you're greeted with their neat homepage:

Click to enlarge

All it asks is the source & destination drives, and the authentication required for Mover to basically talk to DropBox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, or Box. If you are copying files between FTP server to DropBox (like my example below), you may need to ask for your FTP host, username & password, and you're good to go!

In my example below, I was trying to backup all my web files under /backupbuddy_backups/ directory and copy it to my DropBox folder named /Backupbuddy/. In this case, FTP is the "source" and DropBox is the "destination". 

Click to enlarge

As soon as you hit that big “Transfer Now” button, your transfer is now being queued and Mover should redirect you to the Activity page detailing the progress of your transfer.

Click to enlarge

Link: Mover.io

Cornell University & Adobe Create An App That Lets You Adjust Your Lighting After Photoshoot

It’s almost routine for commercial and even amateur photographers. After shooting indoors or outdoors without the benefit of studio lighting or just using an attached flash, photographers have to spend hours using Photoshop or other similar photo app to adjust the lighting and brightness of certain portions in the pictures to give them a more “balanced” look.

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Now, there’s a new app that cuts down photo editing time by more than half. The approach is to assist photographers to compose images when viewed under different dynamic lighting. The app introduces a set of basic lighting that combines several of the input images and provides controls to achieve effects photographers typically need such as color accentuating of objects or its edges.

Cornell and Adobe create software that lets you adjust your lighting after the shoot ends

The app is called User-assisted Image Compositing for Photographic Lighting (yes, it has no short name yet). The app is the joint creation of Ivaylo Boyadzhiev and Kavita Bala from Cornell University in partnership with Sylvain Paris from Adobe Research.

Basically, the Image Compositing app allows you to merge multiple shots of your subject, with only the lighting varying between shots, to create a single image. You are also shown multiple images of each shot, but with several changes in lighting. You can either select the best lighting image or merge everything or selected images into one.

Cornell and Adobe's software, demonstrated and explained by its creators.

If you choose to control the lighting for individual images, there are a range of controls types that are controlled by moving a slider:

• Fill Light – creates a flat, evenly lit image with no deep shadows or bright highlights.
• Diffuse Color Light – emphasizes subject color.
• Edge Light – emphasizes high contrast lighting for edges.
• Soft Lighting Modifier – reduces harsh shadows that may have been emphasized by the original image or by Edge Light Control.
• Regional Lighting Modifier and Exposure – adjusts overall contrast and luminance.

You could say that all this can be done on Photoshop. However, while Photoshop is all done manually, the advantage of Image Compositing is that some tasks can be automated or lighting is automatically presented so all you need to do is to either select or merge. While some tasks may need to be done manually, the slider control cuts down manual work. What may take 45 minutes for a single image on Photoshop can be finished with Image Compositing in 5 – 6 minutes.

StillShot: Create High Quality Photos From Any Video On Your iPhone

For details on how to purchase the User-assisted Image Compositing for Photographic Lighting app, visit the Adobe website or the creators at the Cornell University site.

5 Best Memory-Saving Chrome Add-ons to Help You Manage Tab Overload

A single browser tab opened on Chrome can consume an average memory of around 30MB. Can you imagine what happens while you’re working on the internet (web development, SEO, etc.) and you open up, say, 20 or more browser tabs?

This might result in your browser getting bogged down. Worse, you might suddenly experience performance issues, unresponsive webpages, unexpected crashes, or the computer just freezes over. That’s because some webpages can consume a lot more memory than 30MB.

It’s a good thing someone thought about Tab Managers.

Since we’re talking about Chrome, we picked the Top 5 Chrome Add-on or Extension Tab Managers and picked at it to see how each one worked:

Manage Tab Overload with this 5 Best Memory-Saving Chrome Add-ons

Tab Manager (link)

Tab Manager Is an open source add-on that allows you to handle your tabs fast. The add-on allows practical functions such as displaying all tabs and windows, allowing new tabs and windows, selecting of tabs using Ctrl + Shift, moving  tabs between windows, deleting tabs and windows, pinning and unpinning of tabs, and searching tabs by title or URL.

Page Snooze (link)

Even with so many tabs open, Page Snooze can help manage tab overload by allowing you to snooze tabs for up to 2 weeks. This can pop back up once the time is up. You can view all your snoozed tabs and manage them on the Page Snooze options page.

The Great Suspender (link)

With Great Suspender, you can unload, park, or suspend tabs to reduce the memory load of Chrome. Tabs can be configured with auto-suspend after a set period of time or they can be suspended manually. You can whitelist tabs to be excluded from automatic suspension. Suspended tabs are retained after closing and reopening the browser, preventing the tabs to reload even after restarting the computer. Tabs are restored using a very simple and intuitive interface.

OneTab (link)

With this extension you save up to 95% memory by reducing tab clutter. You simply click on OneTab to convert all your tabs into a list. When you need to access any tab, you can either restore them individually or all in one go. This can also reduce the CPU load on your computer.

TooManyTabs (link)

Developed by Visibo Ltd, TooManyTabs was first used with great success on Firefox. This version for Chrome carries virtually all of the same features when you open a lot of tabs on Chrome. The extension helps you manage your tabs even when too many are opened and you can’t anymore identify the tabs or favicons. You get a bird’s eye view of all opened tabs; clear preview of each tab’s content; instant tab search; tabs sorted by opening time, domain, or title; and ability to restore recently closed tabs; suspend idle tabs to save memory, and import tabs data from TooManyTabs unto Firefox.

Split Screen: Splits Your Web Browser into Multiple Resizable Windows

Create Awesome, Web Embeddable Photo Slideshow Online FREE with PhotoSnack

Forget about SlideShare, Slide.ly and other boring, complex slideshow maker flooded online!

If you ever wanted to create a straight-out decent photo slideshow FAST, well, then, you've got to check out PhotoSnack. 

What is it?

PhotoSnack is yet another awesome online photo slideshow maker that lets you create elegant & web embeddable photo slideshow for FREE. Yes, PhotoSnack gives you the HTML embed code so you can publish your awesome image slider on your Blogger, WordPress or Tumblr blog. Of course, your photo gallery can also be shared to your favorite social media networks.

Prezi: Create Visually Engaging, Rich Media Presentations, Slideshows Online FREE

PhotoSnack's quick and easy way to import photos for your image gallery is also something to behold.

Some notable goodness of PhotoSnack:

• You can add music to make your photo slideshows less boring
• You can add photos directly from your PC or from sources like Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket, SmugMug and Instagram
• All PhotoSnack slideshows are all responsive,meaning they all look good both on mobile and tablets

Who is it for?

PhotoSnack is for anyone who want to turn their precious snaps into visually stunning photo slideshow. This online photo slideshow maker is also useful for bloggers & web publishers who may need to create instant HTML5 image slideshow that can be embedded on any web pages.

Why I love it?

Aside from the delightfully quick and ease-of-use, PhotoSnack's embed capability is one big “cool” factor here. If you're fond of sharing your snaps on Tumblr, PhotoSnack is really useful. And for content writers who blog about troubleshooting tips, apps and gadgets, adding screenshots or image walk-throughs is always part of the chore. And this is where PhotoSnack comes in handy.

The elegance it adds to your photos is also something hard to ignore. See PhotoSnacks slideshows examples.

Mozilla's Popcorn Maker Lets You Enhance, Recreate Existing Videos from YouTube, Vimeo

Been really hunting good online image slideshow maker that works outside the box, without relying heavily on plugins (and all that stuff). Until I stumbled upon PhotoSnack which I ultimately fell in love with.

Link: PhotoSnack

Send Files Directly To Your DropBox, Email Using Only the File URL

You can now send files or large file attachments by just using the file URL directly to "the cloud" without downloading to your computer or mobile device. At present, "the cloud" can be your e-mail account or your DropBox account. You can even send large files within 10 seconds to a minute.

It's called Side Cloud Load.

Scan File Before Download - Scan URL for Virus

There are times during your busy work schedule that you have to download work files fast for your PC, but you need to go somewhere and don’t want to lose the files. By using Side Cloud Load you can remotely upload it by means of sending it to your e-mail account or can send it to DropBox.

Transfer Files From Host URL Directly To Your DropBox, Email (link)

The steps to using Side Cloud Load are so easy:

1 Go to the Side Cloud Load website (link).

2 On the first blank space, paste the file URL or upload the file.

3 On the second space, select the cloud service, whether e-mail or DropBox.

4 On the third space, enter the receiver’s e-mail address. If you’re sending the file to your e-mail account, then enter your e-mail address.

5 On the last space, enter the file name.

6 After filling all field spaces, click on the "sideload it" button.

7 Don’t forget to fill in the security code before sending the file.

When receiving using the e-mail, check the spam box as the filter might have mistaken the sent file as spam.

Cloud Save: The Quickest Way To Download, Backup Files Straight To The Cloud

Side Cloud Load will prove useful if you are using a gadget or device you cannot download a file to, such as a smartphone or tablet.

At present, the "large file" limit stands at 25MB. Hopefully this limit can be increased in the future. There are now more than 2,000 users of Side Cloud Load. URL Droplet (link) is also a good alternative if Sound Cloud Load doesn't work for you.

New Web App Lets You Create Hyperlapse Videos Using Google Maps Data

UX design company Teehan + Lax has rolled out yet another jaw-dropping web app that lets you create spectacular hyperlapse videos out of Google Maps data.

Hyper-lapse photography is the technique used in creating such stunning videos, which requires a great deal of time and precision to stitch time-lapse photos and sweeping camera movements together -- something that's extremely hard to perfect.

But the guys at Teehan + Lax had managed to make the job simple. Using only Google Street View data as source material, aided with the right tool available, they were able to come up with a very usable, fantastic Google Street View Haperlapse creator.

Google Street View Haperlapse Lets You Create Amazing Journeys (link)

Google Street View Haperlapse is very straightforward to use. All you have to do is to search for location and move around any two transit points in Google Maps, and wait for a couple of seconds until your hyperlapse video gets played. There are also a number of featured trips that are really cool.

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As with the conventional Google Street View, you can also pan around the view during hyperlapse video playback. Controls, however, are minimal; there's no way to adjust animation frame rates, and the hyperlapses are a bit faster especially if you span much longer distances from point A to B.

But yes, this experimental app has a GitHub page and so you're free enhance and experiment with things such as custom frame rates.

Google Street View Haperlapse is built with Hyperlapse.js, Three.js (r57), a modified version of GSVPano.js, and Google Maps API v3. This app also requires WebGL and is best viewed in Google Chrome.

Best & FREE Alternatives To Otixo To Manage Multiple Cloud Storage Accounts

Otixo is absolutely one of the best productivity web tools out there that web workers use almost every day.

For the uninitiated, Otixo is a file management web service that gives you a consolidated view of all files stored across multiple cloud storage accounts such as DropBox, Google Docs, Box, MobileMe, among others, thus making it easier to manage all your files stored in the clouds.

One awesome use of such file management tool is you can easily free up some space on your DropBox or Google Drive in just a matter of copy-pasting or dragging your files to another virtual drive (e.g. SkyDrive).

Cloud Save Is The Quickest Way To Download, Backup Files Straight To The Cloud

But just as any other online services out there, Otixo cannot offer the service for free forever. Which means you’ll have to spare about $3.99 - $4.99 for the monthly paid subscription in exchange of “premium” features and better cloud support.

And for those who don’t want to spend a single cent to enjoy such service, I've got you here three decent alternatives to Otixo which offers almost the same level of convenience at no cost -- as in FREE.

Best Web-based Alternatives To Otixo To Manage Files Stored In The Clouds

ZeroPC (link)

ZeroPC's Cloud Navigator gives you a centralized, quick and easy way to access all your files stored in the cloud. Cloud services supported by ZeroPC includes Box, Dropbox, Evernote, Facebook, Flickr, Google Drive, Instagram, Photobucket, Picasa, Recood, SkyDrive, SugarSync and 4shared.

Get A Consolidated View Of All Email Attachments In Gmail — View All Gmail Attachments All At Once

Just like Otixo, it's easy to locate and manage all of your cloud content with a single ZeroPC login straight from your web browser, tablet or smartphone.



Joukuu (link)

Joukuu is another good file management solution that makes it simple to track, edit and manage files across multiple cloud storage accounts through a unified platform.

Supported cloud storage providers include Google Docs, Dropbox, Box.net, SugarSync and Evernote.



Primedesk (link)

Primadesk takes the stress out of managing your files on the web. From single sign on to your accounts, to uploading photos to your Facebook, Primadesk makes it simple.

Just like Otixo, you can drag and drop files between your cloud storage accounts or you can do a quick search across personal online content including selected cloud back-up data in a single operation. Or you can locate files by topic, date range and content type and with a single mouse click you get instant access.

Also available on Android and iPhone.

Play, Stream All Music Files, MP3 Saved From Your DropBox

That's it! If you know other online FREE file managers, don't forget to buzz off in the comments and I will sure update the list. Thanks.

How To: Browse, Access Your Photos From Your iPhone, iPad To Your Computer Over Wi-Fi

If only iPhone had the option to attach multiple images all at once for a single email message, then, I wouldn't take the moment to look for apps similar to Software Data Cable, which I absolutely fell in love with for my Android.

Yes, there's no way for you to attach multiple files for a single email message on the iPhone. So for people who constantly need to send photos from iPhone to someone, this can be a pain.

Transfer Large Files Between iPhone and Other iDevices Over Existing Wi-Fi Network

Part of my job as a web ninja is to grab iPhone/iPad screenshots of websites we developed and send them off to our QA guys. And the process cannot be any simple: you've got to plug in your iPhone with a cable to your computer -- and that's so primitive, less cool.

Thankfully, there is this tiny iOS app called Wi-Fi Photo Transfer (FREE) that lets you transfer photos from iPhone to your computer without the need of a data cable.

Wi-Fi Photo Transfer: Access Your Photos Via Wi-Fi From Any Computer With A Web Browser (link)



Wi-Fi Photo Transfer makes it easy to access, browse your iPhone photos from your computer so long as both devices are of the same Wi-Fi network.

Here's how it works:

1 Download and install Wi-Fi Photo Transfer HERE.

2 Once installed, launch the app. You should see something like this:

3 On your browser, plug in the given web address (e.g. http://192.168.0.106:15555)

4 That's it! You can start moving your photos from your iDevice to your computer (you can even download them in zip).

Sure, Wi-Fi Photo Transfer interface definitely needs a face-lift but it's free and gets the job done quickly. If you want to wirelessly transfer your photos from your iPhone, iPod or iPad to your computer, well, then Wi-Fi Photo Transfer is what you need.

Coffitivity: The Ambient Coffee Shop Noise App to Enhance Your Work Creativity

Undeniably, we all have our individual reactions to background or ambient noise when we study, work on our computers, or just doing some paperwork.

Some like quiet spaces. Some like music in the background. The most amazing ambient noise that some react to however, is the ambient noise from a coffee shop.

'Coffitivity' Promised To Boost Your Creativity By Producing Ambient Noise Of A Coffee Shop (link)

Coffitivity is a creative web app that gives you the ambient noise generated by a coffee shop straight to your work area or headphones to boost your work creativity. The app even allows you to play your music in the background of the Coffitivity ambient noise. You also get to control the volume of the ambient noise, your music, or just use one or the other.

This all is actually backed by some true scientific studies. Many studies have been conducted on this subject by universities and social scientists (the most recent one released by the Journal of Consumer Research). The common findings in the studies reveal that ambient or background noise does play a key role as a variable when studying or doing work that may affect creativity. A moderate amount of ambient noise (50 to 70 dB) enhances performance and creativity. However, high levels of background noise (85 dB and above) is distracting and makes learning and working difficult. On the other hand, almost complete lack of noise levels (below 45 dB) may enhance understanding and focus, but does not improve creativity.

New App 'PowWow' Seeks To Revolutionize The Way We Collaborate Online

Based on this study, it would seem that some social scientists, after studying the effects of different types of ambient noises, found the mixture of calm and commotion in a coffee shop environment to be the best ambient noise for enhancing creativity.

Coffitivity was developed by Justin Kauszler, Nicole Horton, and Ace Callwood.

The developers of Coffitivity do have their comments and warnings. For instance, the app might not work for everybody since, as mentioned above, we react differently to different ambient noises. Some coffee shops are quieter than others so this again might affect our brain’s reaction.

Access, Manage All Files Stored Across Multiple Cloud Accounts All At Once

The best tip we can offer for Coffitivity users is to set the volume just right for the kind of ambient noise you are used to. Try also a mix of music and Coffitivity and experiment with different volume levels. The thing is, this beats going to a coffee shop everyday just to enhance study or work. You get to make your own coffee if ever you are using the app in your home.

Link: Coffitivity