Use Google Spreadsheet As Website's Time-Machine (Web Archive alternative)

This is the second and the last part of our tutorial on how to get the most out of Google Docs to get things done the clever way. In case you missed it, here's the first part: 3 Things You Didn't Know Google Spreadsheet Can Do For You (Part 1)

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

Web Archive is everyone's go-to place when they want to see how a specific website looks in the past. It's a wayback-machine that randomly creates snapshots of your site as reference so you can anytime check back when your site's gone awry in the future.

While Web Archive is one reliable tool to do just that, you cannot however specify how frequent a snapshot should be created. If you want to automatically create a site snapshop daily or weekly, then, Google Spreadsheet can do you a favor.

Using Google Sheet as Archive.org Alternative

Here's how:

1 Go to Screenshotmachine.com and create a FREE account. After sign up you will get an account key necessary for the API request.

2 Sign-in to your Google account and make a copy of this Google sheet (File > Make a copy).

3 Provide the required parameters as required like Account Key, URL to Capture and Capture Frequency.

4 Click Verify Now button to see if the API works or not. If it works, a new folder called Web page captures should be automatically created on your Google Drive account. This is where all screenshots will be saved.

Note: you’ll get a pop-up asking for authorization. Grant the necessary access.

5 Click Start Capturing button. You're done.

Depending on the capture frequency you specify, Google Sheet should automatically instructs Screenshotmachine.com to create a site snapshot and send it back to Google Drive.

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

(3/3) Use Google Spreadsheet to Scrape Web Contents Online

One of my favorite features of Google Sheet is the importXML function which basically allows you to grab contents from another site. It's one pretty useful feature of Google Sheet as it saves you time especially if you're asked to web scrape or copy the entire contents of a site.

Watch this video below and see how web scraping can be done so easily using Google Documents Spreadsheets:



The information you get can then be imported to your website using the right apps and tools like WP All Import (if you're using WordPress as your site platform).

How To: Extract All Images Embedded In .DOC Word Documents All At Once

So next time you're asked to export the existing content of a website, then, importXML of Google Sheet is one nice function you can exploit.

How To: Web-Optimize, Compress Videos Without Losing Quality (90% Reduction Guaranteed)

Few days ago, I ran into a problem trying to embed a 40-seconds video into a website.

The problem:

The short video was too large — about 80MB in size — which doesn't seem to justify the length of the video we need to upload. With that ridiculously large size, we cannot easily upload and make it publicly accessible in the website for some performance reasons (if you're a web guy, you get it).

Since video hosting services like Vimeo and YouTube were not an option at that point, we had to come up with ways on how to minify the video without compromising the quality before finally embedding it to the site. And thankfully, we found this awesome tool called Handbrake.

Optimize, Compress Video for up to 90% (Useful for Web Embeds)

Handbrake is one bad-ass video optimizing software that will surely save your day. It allows you to compress any videos of any format, thus significantly reducing the file size without losing quality. It's lightweight, free, and it just works like a charm.

Here's why everyone loves Handbrake:

• Great video format support. You can compress any types of videos like .wmv – Windows Media Video File, .avi – Audio Video Interleave File, .m4v, .mov, etc.
• It is Open Source. That means you don't have to spend a penny
• It works on Windows, Mac and Linux so everyone can enjoy.

GistBox: The Best Place to Store, Organize Code Snippets and Pastes

Using Handbrake is pretty easy. First, you have to specify the Source video file, define Output settings as well as the Destination folder, then, hit Start. It's that easy. See the demo below (click to enlarge):

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

The result:

Look at that file reduction I got — from 80MB I was able to shrink it down to 7.6MB. That's 90% reduction!

Still not convinced? Download Handbrake for Windows or Handbrake for Mac and see it for yourself.

New Chrome Add-on Lets You Watch YouTube Videos While You Search, Browse — Similar to YouTube Mobile App

Last year, YouTube rolled out a massively popular update to their iOS and Android app which completely redefines every YouTuber's streaming experience. The revamped YouTube's mobile app gets a multi-tasking support which allows you to watch videos while you search and browse channels and playlists.

That was pretty useful, clever functionality which, unfortunately, YouTube's web app counterpart is currently deprived of.

Get Instant Lyrics for Grooveshark, Spotify and YouTube Web Players with This Cool Add-on

Now, if you heavily stream YouTube videos on your computer, you too can get the same multi-tasking treatment with this Chrome extension called Seek 'n Play.

Watch YouTube Videos and Search at the Same Time, Like On Your Mobile Phone (link)

Seek 'n Play is yet another useful Chrome extension that brings YouTube mobile's multi-tasking functionality to your desktop. With Seek 'n Play, you can search and browse for videos while you are watching another video, just like the mobile app.

How it works?

Every time you navigate to another video or you browse through another channels or playlists, the current playing video will be automatically positioned, fixed at the bottom of your screen so you can continue watching while you keep exploring YouTube . And that's a big user experience boost!

New Browser Extension Turn Off The Lights Gives YouTubers The Feel Like They're In A Cinema

Seek 'n Play is truly a great extension. It's lightweight, free, and it works great!



Download: Seek 'n Play or check out developer's website for more.

GistBox: The Best Place to Store, Organize Code Snippets and Pastes

Whether you are a seasoned coder or a newbie dabbler, you need a code snippets repository.

A code snippets repository is a place where you can keep a file of your own most-used codes so you can check back and copy the needed lines of codes without having to rebuild them from scratch. Code snippets will basically save you time when developing or administering a website as you no longer have to rewrite the codes to achieve the desired results.

For example, here's a tiny code snippet you can add in your .htaccess file to speed up your site:

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

While there are already long standing, well-reputed code snippets storage sites freely available out there, there's not such an abundance of apps that can beautifully store and organize your code snippets similar to how GistBox works.

In this post, we're going to explore how GistBox can help you in becoming more productive and learn why you cannot stay away from it once you get your hands into it.

So, what is GistBox?

GistBox is another code repository service designed to make code snippet management a little less boring. GistBox uses GitHub's backend but it comes with its own advanced label and search functionality — the features which are missing in GitHub's Gist.

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

GistBox was designed to be a curated, personal snippet library – like long term memory for the practicing software engineer.

Here's a few reasons why GistBox is the best:

I like Gist, but it's too limited; it lacks of important functionality like being able to organize your code snippets via tags or labels. So here allow me to point out the notable goodness of GistBox.

Color-Coded Labels. You can create labels as much as you want and assign a color for each label. GistBox Labels works like categories, so for every code snippet you add you can organize it by language, project or purpose.

Advance Search. GistBox's search functionality is surprisingly amazing. If you like how Gmail's search works, then, you'll also love GistBox. With GistBox, you can search through the entire code snippet library or through specific labels.

Collaborate with a group. Another cool feature of GistBox is it's ability for you to create groups and share useful snippets among co-workers — great if you're working with a team.

Split Screen: Splits Your Web Browser into Multiple Resizable Windows

GistBox is lightweight, free and usable. And it's a must-have to all devs!
Still not convinced? Go, check out GistBox and see it for your self.

New Chrome Extension Lets You Preview Virtually Any Files (e.g. PSD, AutoCAD) On Your Web Browser

We are a big fan of anything that makes things less of a hassle. Whether it's about extracting text from an image without using image editor or moving around large files from FTP server to your DropBox account, we constantly hunt for the best apps and methods to make the process a little less painful.

And today, we are thrilled to share with you yet another interesting Chrome extension that you might want to add in your arsenal.

Preview Almost Any Kind of File In Your Browser (e.g.PSD, Word, AutoCAD, Video, Audio, etc).

Introducing... FilePreviews.io. It's a nifty browser add-on currently available for Google Chrome designed to generate previews of almost any kind of file including, but not limited to PSD, AI, AutoCAD, Excel files, and much more. And the real cream of the crop? It works straight from your web browser; no need to launch third party apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, AutoCAD apps, etc.

When is it useful?

FilePreviews.io may not be something you use all the time, but in case you want to have a quick look of that large PSD or AutoCAD files you stumbled on the web, you can turn to this app to quickly generate snapshots of those files.

How it works?

As with any other Chrome extension, all you have to do is to install FilePreviews.io from the Chrome WebStore. Once installed, just right-click on a link and from the context menu, select “Preview from source...”. The add-on should automatically take you to a new tab displaying the file preview without ever leaving your browser. How cool is that?

Lazarus Is Your Time-Saving Chrome Add-On That Saves Anything You Type On A Web Form

Go check out FilePreviews.io.

The Quickest Way To Remove Duplicate Tracks In Spotify Playlist

If you've been using Spotify for a long time, chances are you've come across an issue with duplicate tracks. It happens from time to time and as more and more songs you add in your playlist, so do the problems that come with it.

Dealing with duplicate files is no easy feat, much more if you're dealing with a large, collaborative playlist. Thankfully, finding and removing duplicate songs on Spotify playlist is not that difficult as what you might think. Here we're going to show you can easily declutter and deduplicate songs on your Spotify playlist in seconds.

Find, Delete Duplicate Media Files On Windows 7 (CopyTrans Method)

Find and Remove Duplicate Tracks in Your Spotify Playlists

Meet Spotify DeDuplicator, an online tool that allows you to remove all exact duplicate tracks from a selection of Spotify tracks. The tool works this simply:

1) You select all tracks in a Spotify playlist
2) Drag-and-drop them to the the textbox just above the “Deduplicate” button
3) Press Deduplicate
4) Drag-and-drop the result back to your Spotify playlist (or in a new playlist)

As seen on the GIF above, you may need to empty the entire playlist before you drag-and-drop the results back to Spotify, or else those tracks will be added as another duplicates.

Add or Set Music Sleep Timer To Spotify iOS App (No Jailbreak Requried)

So if you start seeing tracks displayed more than once in your Spotify playlist, go check out Spotify DeDuplicator.

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.

Use IFTTT As A Spy App: Secretly Collect iOS Photos Taken on iPhone, iPad (No Jailbreak)

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.

Bubbli Is A Jaw-Dropping App That Lets You Create Streetview-Like, Responsive Spherical Images (iOS)

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?

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

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.

Add Multiple Tabbing, Chrome-like Support To Windows File Explorer With Clover [Must Have]

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.

Add Multiple Tabbing Support To Windows File Explorer With Clover [Must Have]

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.

Get Instant Lyrics for Grooveshark, Spotify and YouTube Web Players with This Cool Add-on

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.

Learn How To Automatically Send Email Messages At Later Time

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.

How To: Bypass, Remove Restriction On YouTube - Watch Blocked YouTube Videos Anywhere

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.

New iPhone App 'Yinztagram' Lets You Add Some Pittsburgh To Your Photos

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.

Use IFTTT As A Spy App: Secretly Collect iOS Photos Taken on iPhone, iPad (No Jailbreak)

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.

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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.

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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:

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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". 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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