Wikipedia Gets Export-To-eBook Feature, Lets You Export Wikipedia Articles Into Instant Free e-Book

You can now easily convert Wikipedia articles into free e-Books.

For those Wikipedia lovers who love to spend eons of time researching on various subjects or who just love to read from Wikipedia articles, here is a new feature introduced by Wikipedia itself for both reading and storage convenience. When you need to read Wikipedia articles offline, you can now transfer them into e-Book form, all for free.

Grab Existing Website and Browse It Offline - Turn, Convert Any Websites Into eBook

Since we mentioned offline, the advantage of having an e-Book means you can read the article from any e-reader, tablet, mobile phone, or just your desktop when you're offline. You get the chance to read the e-book anywhere: in your car while stuck in traffic, in the subway, or while waiting for your doctor's appointment. You no longer have to lose an article among the hundreds of bookmarks you have hoarded. 

The feature is very simple to use. Just activate the "Create A Book" link located at the left sidebar of Wikipedia at the "print/export" section, as seen below:



Once activated, the user can start compiling articles or complete categories into a personal collection, and begin exporting them. Format choices can be PDF, EPUB, or OpenOffice.

Convert Texts From Printed Documents, Books Into PDF Using Phone’s Camera

Should you choose to, the user can also order a printed version or book through Pedia Press, the official print-on-demand partner of Wikipedia. Here's a video walkthrough:



Now is your chance to compile all your favorite articles on Metallica. Or was it J. Edgar Hoover?

How To: Convert Texts From Printed Documents, Books Into PDF Using Phone’s Camera

We have already seen how fast mobile technology changes and improves our lives. We have already witnessed how this tiny piece of device takes us to the next wave of portability and convenience. Today, mobile phones are not anymore used as an attraction device nor are they used as a communication device. Smartphones today are little too advanced that they’re even slowly killing those desktop applications we’ve been dependent for quite some time.

Auto-Switch Off Your Phone At Later Time

Before I dive into the most advanced document scanner apps for the iPhone and Android, I am going to reborn this innovative solution of Nokia first. To the best of my knowledge, Nokia was the first mobile platform to produce a “working” document scanning software that can convert any text from a printed document and turn it into an instant eBook or PDF. The process is simple: just point your camera to the document or anywhere that has recognizable characters and let your phone do the magic.

Let Your Phone Recognizes Texts From Books, Printed Documents Using Phone’s Camera

The application is called MultiScanner for Nokia, a free scanning software designed for Nokia Symbian s60 handsets. This application uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, making it possible for your phone to recognize texts/characters from any given printed sources such as books, newspaper, among others. By just simply pointing your camera to the paper documents, you can instantly turn any printed material into an instant PDF.

Learn How To Recover, Backup SMS Text Messages

Alright, screenshot speaks better so here’s a quick walkthrough (just click the image to enlarge):

    
Nokia’s MultiScanner can be handy if you hate to write or simply you find yourself in a situation where you need to obtain the same copy of document but no scanning or fax machine available in your area. The application works fine with N95 8G and should work Download MultiScanner for Nokia below:




Download MultiScanner

Best iPhone Apps That Convert Text Into Audio MP3

Prompted by a friend who asked me if is there such a mobile app that turns any text document into audio MP3, I'd like to share this awesome mobile applications that do exactly as what the name goes: turn or export any text documents into MP3 sound straight from your phone.

I have already demonstrated how easy it is to turn your speech/voice into text. By just saying out loud your message, your phone will automatically transcode your voice into text making it easier and quicker for you to compose emails or SMS text messages.

Learn How To Execute PHP Scripts on iPhone

This time I'm going to show you the other side of the process: convert any given text into audio MP3 using only your mobile phone. Below are my top picks of the best text-to-speech applications designed for your iPhone and iPad.

Speak It - Exports Texts Into Audio MP3

It's the applications that make any piece of computing device a kick-ass smart, and makers of Speak It have shown it once again! If you're a regular of App Store, you should have already known about this awesome TTS iPhone app. Speak It is a top-rated text to speech solution designed for the iPhone. It converts text into speech, making it perfect for anyone who prefers to listen rather than to read. Speak It comes with advanced text to speech functions such as new word highlight -- each word is highlighted as it is spoken (this word highlight feature requires the keyboard to be up to activate, and iOS 4.0 or greater).

One of the reviews says:

I've been using this app to read aloud long emails while I drive, or to read e-books to me until I fall asleep, or to read just about anything on car trips or long boring periods of time. The voices are understandable and do a very good (none are perfect - it's on par with Kindle's text-to-speech process IMO) job at matching inflections and sounding out words.

Don't Type, Just Say It -- Smartest Way To Input Texts On Your Phone

Speak It is a must have app for the iPhone. You can download the evaluation copy
here.

Write & Say - Reads Out Loud What You Type

Write & Say is another killer iPhone app that reads out loud every single text you type. The 28 amazing lifelike Text to Speech Voices can help you deal with long boring period of time, or you can use it just for fun. Just type or specify the text document you wish to export, and Write & Say will automatically create an MP3 speech audio out of that text file.

Automatically Turn Off Your Phone At Preset Time

Write & Say also comes with play, pause, resume, replay, or stop speech function, while Talking Avatar is there to make the app extra cool! Write & Say is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later. Get Write & Say from the App Store here.

How To: Turn Your Laptop, PC Into Wi-Fi Hotspot Without Using Ad-Hoc -- Internet Sharing Made Easy

Ever wondered how to turn your laptop or notebook into portable Wi-Fi hotspot without using Ad-Hoc? If yes, well, then, this post is for you.

Ad-Hoc, in its simplest term, is a technology that enables “within reach” wireless devices to directly connect and communicate. If you have multiple wireless devices at home, you can actually connect them altogether via an Ad-Hoc wireless network. Ad-Hoc is commonly used as a tethering/internet sharing tool that enables you to share your broadband internet connection at home.

Easiest Way To Block, Restrict Access To Unwanted Websites - No Additional Software Needed

Ad-Hoc is awesome, but only for above-average users. Setting up an Ad-Hoc wireless network requires tidbits of configuration, which if wrongly carried out, can lead to hours of frustration. Thankfully, there’s such an app that simplifies the sharing of internet connection on the fly.

The Quickest and Easiest Way To Share Internet Connection Without Using Ad-Hoc

Meet Connectify, a tiny piece of app that eliminates the hassle of sharing your internet connection via Ad-Hoc. For uninitiated, Connectify is a simple network- connection sharing solution for Windows 7 that turns any laptop, PC with a wireless connection into a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Sharing internet connection with Connectify is simple enough; all you have to do is to download the Connectify app (see link below), set your desired hotspot name and password, and you’re good to go!

Grab Existing Website and Browse It Offline - Turn, Convert Any Websites Into eBook

There are two variants of Connetify: the Free and Pro version. The free version of Connectify is already powerful that it even comes with handy web connectivity and management options like the ability to disconnect attached clients.

Access Your Firefox, Chrome Bookmarks On Any Computer Anywhere

Connectify must be the quickest and easiest way to share internet connection as it requires nothing more than setting up a password and a connection type to turn any notebook, laptop into a Wi-Fi hotspot.



Connectify Free Download

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

Why purchase expensive surveillance cameras, motion detectors and alarm systems when you can just use your camera phone to monitor and protect your home/office in realtime?

In an attempt to demonstrate how smart and powerful your smartphone is, I'm going to share some of the most advanced and incredible mobile applications that convert your s60 Symbian, iPhone, and Android phone into an instant surveillance camera with full-featured motion detection and alarm system function.

Automatically Send SMS, Text Messages At Scheduled Date and Time

Think I'm talking about the most expensive sensor or accelerometer phones? That's a big no. As long as your phone's camera is in good condition you can instantly turn your phone as surveillance security camera that can perform certain SMS, call and internet function.

Surveillance, Motion Detection App for iPhone, Nokia Symbian, and Android

ImageSpy Motion Detection app for Nokia - A mobile app that can detect movements and raise alarms

ImageSpy is an innovative mobile app with full sensing and motion detect capability. Using only phone's builtin camera, it automatically notifies you when it detects movements. When motion is detected the ImageSpy can:

• save the image
• send the image as a MMS to predefine number
• silently initiate a phone call to your number and listen what's going on in your home (or you can auto notify police department that your home is under attack)
• send an SMS to preformatted number
• play a loud siren or selected sound file to scare the burglar

ImageSpy is a must have application both for fun and security. It can be installed on any s60 Nokia device such as N70 (see full list of s60v1 and s60v2 devices). Download ImageSpy here. For s60v3 user, may want to check out SensyScan -- it works almost the same as ImageSpy.  Dowload SensyScan here.

Motion Detector Pro - A Surveillance, Motion Detection App for Android

Motion Detector Pro is a camera surveillance app for Android that uses native camera to detect irregularities and movements in the
surrounding area. If motion is detected, this Android app will send an email or an SMS/text message with a picture link to another cell phone, allowing you to remotely monitor an area using your Android phone.

Auto Reply All Incoming SMS, Text Messages

Motion Detector Pro costs only $0.99 and comes with better GUI and handset support as compared to its predecessor Motion Detector FREE version. Download Motion Detector Pro for Android here.

IP Camera - Turn Your iPhone, iPad into an instant IP Camera

This $1.99 remote surveillance app for iPhone takes a photo from your iPhone's camera every 12 to 15 seconds, then posts it automatically to a local Web server that can be accessed from other computers via web. Download and install IP Camera for iPhone at iTune App Store.

I hope I have just made every Symbian, iPhone and Android owner out there happy again! Extend the capability of your phone; install any of those motion detection app and see how smart your mobile camera phone is.

If you enjoyed this post, kindly share it to your Facebook friends or tweet them!

5 Handy Google Sheet Tricks To Help You Work Fast & Save Time

Just like Microsoft's Excel, Google Sheet has equally powerful functions hidden up its sleeve. It can help you do routinary, mundane tasks fast and perform time-saving complex operations.

With Google Sheet, being an open-source software and with its collaboration support, it's likely that you'll end up using the app more often than not. It's one indispensable tool every web master and virtual assistant can't live without.

While you may not use below's list of useful Google Sheet functions everyday, it pays to be familiar and well-verse with these shortcuts. We hand-picked this shortlist of five essential Google Sheets hacks to help you save time in dealing with spreadsheets.

1. Use SPLIT function and obtain the first word from a phrase

Suppose you want to extract the first word from a string in a Google Sheet column. You can use SPLIT() function to split a string and obtain first word , as follows:

=index(SPLIT(A2, " "), 0, 1)

With the above function, a string “10042 Ferrara” yields “10042”.

To obtain the n word, just replace 1 with n accordingly.

2. Use REGEXEXTRACT to retrieve number from a string

Suppose you have this data in a column and you wish to obtain the price

<p>Lined Linen Tunic with Silk Hem</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>RRP    $99.95</strong></p>

You can do so with REGEXEXTRACT function to extract the price, as follows:

=REGEXEXTRACT(C2, "[0-9]*\.[0-9]+[0-9]+")

3. Using CONTACT to combine multiple values

Suppose in Column A you want to get the first word and combine it with the value in Column J, you can achieve it using CONCAT function.

=concat( index(SPLIT(A2, " "), 0, 1), concat("-", J2) )

Or use ampersand to combine multiple values:

="RRP "&value(REGEXEXTRACT(E12, "[0-9]*\.[0-9]+[0-9]+"))

4. Use SUBSTITUTE() & RegexReplace() to search and replace

Say you have a column of data that contains HTML ASCII codes and you want to get rid of them. Here's how you do it:

=SUBSTITUTE(B2," ", "")

Or you can go creative, do a nested SUBSTITUTE

=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(B2, "</p>", ""),"<p>", "")

Or you can go use RegExReplace to get rid all HTML tags

=RegexReplace( B2, "<\/\w+>|<\w+.*?>", "" )

Or a combination of Substitute and RegexReplace

=SUBSTITUTE(RegexReplace( B3, "<\/\w+>|<\w+.*?>", "" ),"&nbsp;", " " )

3 Things You Didn't Know Google Spreadsheet Can Do For You (Part 1)

5. Use VLOOKUP to search by keyword and return a specified cell from another sheet

Google Sheet's vertical lookup is a powerful function you need to master. It lets you search down the first column of a range for a key and returns the value of a specified cell in the row found.

If that doesn't make sense, imagine you have Sheet14 containing sku and color columns

Sheet14

And wanted to append the color initial found inside a separate table from Sheet15

Sheet15

You can do a quick search using VLOOKUP and return the color initial (from Sheet15) by providing color from Sheet14.

The full formula:

=VLOOKUP(I2, Sheet15!A1:B7,2, false)

Where I2 is the keyword, Sheet15!A1:B7 is the range, and 2 is column position from Sheet15 we want to retrieve.

Excel Gets OCR Support, Lets You Snap Tables and Convert Into Editable Spreadsheet

So next time you are asked to update a Google Sheet and do dead boring, repetitive tasks, try to look around inside Google Sheet list of functions and see if you can automate stuff and save huge amount of time in the process.

Grab Existing Website and Browse It Offline - Turn, Convert Any Websites Into eBook

There are many great tutorials in the web. Reference sites such as W3Schools and Hscripts are everybody’s best friend particularly to those who're complete beginner in web programming. Instructables, wikiHow, eHow – name them all – are also great web resources that provide useful information, DIY tutorials on how to accomplish something.

Create Professional-Looking Catalogs, Journals, Manuals, etc Online for FREE

Yes, these websites are cool. But wouldn’t it be much cooler if you can take these websites with you and browse them offline? If you’re a student who relies heavily on the (sometimes sluggish) internet, here’s another useful tool you can use to turn any existing website into an instant eBook so you can browse it offline.


Free Web-Grabbing Software To Make Existing Website Available for Offline Browsing

Source: HTTrack.com

HTTrack is a free and easy-to-use website copier that allows you to grab or copy existing website into an instant eBook. Here’s the notable feature of HTTrack:

• HTTrack recursively builds all directories, fetching all HTML, images, and other files from the server to your computer.
• HTTrack arranges the original site's relative link-structure. Simply open a page of the "mirrored" website in your browser, and you can browse the site from link to link, as if you were viewing it online.
• HTTrack can also update an existing mirrored site, and resume interrupted downloads.
• HTTrack is fully configurable, and has an integrated help system.

Learn How To Extract All Images Embedded In .DOC Files All At Once

HTTrack can also be a good alternative for those looking for ways on how to turn a website into .CHM. HTTrack is available both for Windows and Mac. Get it here.

Create Professional-looking Catalogs, Journal, Newspapers, Magazines, etc. Online

If the large part of your daily task is to create professional-looking catalogs, journals, manuals, presentations or reports, then, you know exactly how troublesome it can be. Creating such documents trully is a headache especially if you're not familiar with Photoshop, Microsoft's Publisher, or any other publishing tool to complete the task given short period of time.



Thankfully, online publishing tool Issuu is here: to simplify the whole creation process while at the same time allowing you to save both time and money -- all for FREE!

So, what is Issuu and why you need to use them?

Quick Tip: How To Create, Edit PSD Files Online

Issuu is a FREE online publishing tool that allows you to create professional-looking ebooks, catalogs, magazines, journals, manuals, resource newspaper, presentations, corporate reports and even photo albums in an instant. Issuu has been widely used by thousands of companies and business organizations, NGOs and educational institutions. With Issuu, you can instantly turn a poorly-formatted word document into an exceptionally beautiful brochure or catalog -- no design skills needed; just a simple upload.

Issuu - Best Online Creator of Brochures, Flyers, Catalogs, Journal, eBook, Magazine, Photo Albums, etc. [LINK]

Quick Tip: How To Recover Unsaved Word Documents

To start creating professional-looking reports, presentations, user manuals, brochures, flyers, magazines, etc. on Issuu, you just need to upload your documents. Here's how you can start publishing on Issuu:

1. First, you need an Issuu accountto host your publications under.
2. Once you're logged in, click the blue 'Upload document' button.
3. Select the document file and fill out the required details
4. Click 'Upload' and let the file upload completely.
5. Issuu will now automatically convert your uploaded file to an awesome, nice-looking Issuu publication.
6. Once the conversion has completed you can find your uploads in My Library.

What kind of documents can be uploaded on Issuu?

Issuu supports most common document types such as PDF, DOC, PPT, RTF, WPD, ODT and more. The documents must be less than 500 pages and 100 mb.

If you find this post useful, please share or recommend this to your friends. Find more tips, tutorials and how tos here.

Batch Process, Resize Multiple Images All At Once

Few days back, I was tasked to upload hundreds of photographs to a WordPress site so I can immediately create an elegant gallery to the site. Unfortunately, all images are of over 6MB in sizes each so I needed to resize all images first to reduce the size before finally uploading to the site. The process was not at all complicated; I just had to launch the default image editor then do the resizing of all pictures. I did it for over an hour, but I could have actually done it in few minutes if I was just resourceful enough to take advantage of free image resizing tools available out there that can resize all images inside a folder at the same time.

Upload Photos In Facebook In Bulk or By Folder

If you don't want to waste your time manually resizing multiple images (just like what I did), you should take advantage of Bulk Image Resizer tool. Bulk Image Resizer is a handy image resizing tool that lets you quickly and easily resize  multiple images at the same time. The resizing engine supports the most popular formats and features high quality image resizing. The resizer will make any photo email friendly so you can email, upload, view, and move your images faster then ever.

Bulk Image Resizer (see screenshot) is developed by MariusSoft that can even convert JPEG, JPG, BMP, GIF, TIF, TIFF, PNG formats with no image size limitations. Here are Bulk Image Resizer key features:

• Converts multiple files from multiple locations at once
• Ability to specify new width or new height
• Ability to force a specific width/height combination
• Keep aspect ratio or skew image
• High quality distortion-less resizing algorithm
• Support for popular formats including JPG, PNG, BMP, GIF
• Multi threaded to take advantage of multi core cpu's
• Resize unlimited number of files of unlimited quality
• Ability to rename files with a prefix or suffix
• Ability to overwrite original image or specify a new location
• Specify jpeg compression quality to further reduce filesize for photos
• Drag and drop functionality for quick image queuing

Protect, Lock Certain Applications Installed On Your Computer

While other free image resizing software usually only allow you to batch resize images that are located within a single folder, Bulk Image Resizer can resize multiple images at once even if each image is located in different folder. Download  Bulk Image Resizer for free and start saving time now.

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

New AI-Powered Apps Help You Generate Captions, Hashtags for Instagram

Whether you're using Instagram for business or not, writing a killer caption and well-optimized hashtags is a must. Ask any Instagram marketer it's second most tricky part immediately next to generating the visuals to post on Instagram.

A good caption should drive user engagements and virality, while a relevant set of hashtags ensures you have the most optimal reach to get the exposure you need. People discover interesting posts thru hashtags, and it's a good opportunity for your brand to get discovered and ultimately earn followers.

While the best way to come up with words to accompany your Instagram post is to write it yourself, it doesn't hurt to try and get some assistance from new breed of apps to do just that.

Excel Gets OCR Support, Lets You Snap Tables and Convert Into Editable Spreadsheet

In this post, we'll be featuring an Android and iOS app that should help you decide what captions to post next.

Caption AI - Your Smart Instagram Caption Assistant ()

Caption AI currently hosts 15,000 captions (and growing) grouped into easy to navigate categories. Running out of caption idea for your next Instagram post? Just launch the app, open an image to post and Caption AI will automatically detect what caption and hashtags to post based on your picture.

Not happy with the generated caption? Just tap on any of the categories like Nature, Fitness, Travel, and Caption AI automatically suggests a caption for you.

Of course the auto-generated captions aren't original. They're mostly coming from third-party sources that curate popular lines and quotes from notable people and writers. Perhaps in the next update the developer gives proper attribution to each line.

This Android app can also suggest the most popular hashtags relevant to your post. So next time you're stuck deciding what to post, check out this app.

Auto Caption - Get Caption Ideas for Instagram (, )

Another app that I am pretty much impressed is Auto Caption for iOS. The moment you open a photo to post, it automatically detects whether it's ocean, mountain or food. Auto Caption will then suggest a caption and hashtags based on what it sees.

It's pretty clever and helpful app ideally recommended for Instagram marketers or casual Instagrammers.

Wrapping it up

Again, the above-mentioned apps aren't for everyone. A more personalized and well-thought out captions will still do wonders in your Instagram marketing efforts. But if doing so takes you forever, then, maybe time to explore those apps?

Finally, An AI-Powered App That Transforms Sketches Into Interactive Digital Prototypes in Realtime

The latest advancement of AI continues to offer us a whole new way to experience our digital lives. We’ve seen how Google predicts traffic delays & bus crowdedness, well, thanks to AI. We’ve also seen how YouTube enables you to virtually try on makeup and help you with your purchases decisions, thanks to its immersive AR Beauty Try-On.

With millions of power users’ growing appetite for anything automated, it’s not difficult to imagine a future where mundane, routinary tasks are being kept to a minimum. And fact is : it has already begun.

One of the coolest finds we’ve come across is Artyline, a free iOS & time-saver app that converts hand-drawn sketches into digital equivalent in realtime. All you have to do is to give a good scan on your sketches and you’re done.

Not everyone will appreciate this app, but such an app comes in handy if you’re an app developer or designer who wants to skip NinjaMock or any online mockup tools to quickly visualize your ideas.

Why Artyline is such a great app

The trouble with hand-drawn sketches is that it can potentially be misunderstood by most clients who normally aren’t adept in UX design elements. So whether it’s a simple app or not, the best way to present your idea and get their approval is to give prototypes as realistic as possible.

Excel Gets OCR Support, Lets You Snap Tables and Convert Into Editable Spreadsheet

With Artyline, generating prototypes is as simple as scanning your sketches and you immediately get an interactive version of our mockup. Think of it as an additional team member in your UX / design department where design sketches drawn from whiteboard or paper are quickly converted to digital formats. So you’d come well-prepared when meeting your client to discuss the next big app.

Artyline limitations

Because Artyline is powered by AI, it has a limited set of training to recognize basic shapes and transform them into design elements. Good thing is Artyline has this easy-to-follow guideline to make your sketches more recognizable by their AI.

Pro Tip: Use markers instead of writing pens. Don’t use pencils as they’re too illegible to recognize by Artyline scanner.

Artyline is still in its infancy and got tons of areas to improve especially in the execution side. However, I can’t easily denigrate an app idea this good just because of those hiccups. So, we are still impressed.

Give your app designs workflows an upgrade. Get this iOS app while it’s free. Thank me later!

Download: Artyline [Apple App Store]

Voice Recognition Apps - Speech-To-Text Apps for Mobile

Why type your SMS text message when you can just say it?

Let's face it: using our keypad to type SMS text messages, notes or email is not always practical. Mobile phones especially the touch screen ones have tiny keyboards, making it difficult to type. In addition, speaking without a doubt is always faster as compared to typing.

Welcome to the world of mobile voice recognition technology, a revolutionary way to input just about anything straight to your phone. With voice-to-text app installed on your smartphone, you don't have to fiddle through your keypad to input text. Now, you can just 'say out loud' your message with speech-to-text app for mobile! If you own a Symbian, iPhone, Android or Blackberry phone, this post is for you.

VoiceMode for Symbian - Translates Your Speech, Voice Into Text

Whether you text or tweet a lot on your smartphone, you will surely love VoiceMode, a revolutionary product of VoiceSignal that converts your voice into text. With VoiceMode, you just have to say what you want rather than having to use the keypad. With VoiceMode, you just press and hold a key and say what you want. When you release the key, you'll see your spoken words become text before your eyes!

Automatically turn off your phone at preset time

What seems to be interesting about this voice-to-text app for mobile is that voice recognition is NOT performed in the cloud. That means, VoiceMode doesn't have to constantly connect to a remote server to convert your speech into text. The typical voice-to-text mobile software collects your voice as input and digitally transfer it over the Internet to a remote server (where voice-recognition is performed), and then finally return the corresponding text in seconds. Thankfully, that is not the case of VoiceMode; this voice-to-text app for Symbian works out of the box -- just install, let your phone adapt your voice, and begin sending SMS text message, emails without having to type in your keyboard.

Avoid Overcharging: Play audio sound when phone's battery is full

You can use VoiceMode to add text to messages, notes, calendar entries, and even documents - almost anywhere that you can type. To download this voice recognition app for Symbian, just visit the official website or google it with search string "VoiceMode 2.0 for Symbian s60v3".

Dragon Dictation - Best Voice Recognition app for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch

Dragon Dictation works almost the same as VoiceMode for Nokia Symbian. Dragon Dictation is an easy-to-use voice-to-text application for iPhone, iPad that lets you to quickly speak rather than typing in your text or email messages. So when you are on-the-go, turn talk into type with Dragon Dictation - from short text messages to longer email messages, and anything in between. Get it at iTune App Store.

If you have Android device, you might want to check out FlexT9, another smart speech-to-text app for Android. It works out of the box, amazingly accurate, and works well both rooted and unrooted Android device. Visit FlexT9 official website for details.

Export SMS text messages and save it as text file

For voice-to-text app for Blackberry, visit Nuance Mobile Life, the leader in voice recognition technology.

Mobile Software/Application Ideas - Top Picks

Nokia's Make My App was an open competition that invited anyone worldwide to submit an idea for a mobile application and get the chance to have it turned into a real app. From more than 7691 brilliant ideas to the voted shortlist of 90, judges chose 13 winning ideas. Those 13 winning ideas were made into real apps at Nokia World event held in London, September 14-15.

Looking at the rich diversity of the applicants, Nokia were proud to announce that creative people can be found everywhere in the world. Brazil, Latvia, Kuwait, Jamaica, India, France, Egypt, Malaysia and UK all got their own Make My App –winner. In fact, India got 3.

Here are the 13 winning mobile app ideas:

Face Recognition Based Device Locks "According to me every smartphone needs some securing tool. Here i am talking about an application that will guard the device at different levels of system.take it as complete device lock,particular file lock,applications lock,phonebook lock(particular contacts or groups),and a data encryptor." Says Piyush Veere, a 19 year-old Computer Technology student of India.

Toddler Tutor "A talking app that teaches kids Alphabets, Numbers and Common Words. The app should display flash cards we can swipe through and a speak button that speaks out the displayed card. The app should also include a coloring book with lots of images where children can select different colors to fill in." Says Revathy Sreedharan, a 29 year-old Software Engineer from India.

Mobile Photoshop "This is a thought for a miniature form of photoshop application or a boosted mobile image editor. A super phone like nokia n8 deserves such a creative tool." Says Piyush Veere, a 19 year-old Computer Technology student of India.

Auto HDR photography "As known N8 will feature amazing camera, so why not make it even better with app which could take HDR photos and merge them? I mean take 3 photos one after another with exposure -2, 0 and +2, and merge them together to get amazing looking photo. So far to do so we needed more equipment like tripod to keep phone steady (there should be almost no movement when taking HDR), remote keyboard to change exposure without moving phone and additional software to merge images into HDR. But it would all be solved with such app which automatically takes 3 photos and merges them together. For anyone taking photos with N8 this would be amazing addition. Attached pictures are examples of HDR pics I've made with Nokia N82 so far." Says Arvis Pukitis, a 17 year-old student from Latvia.

BioSeen "Take pictures of wildlfe with the phone's camera and the BioSeen app will be able to download info on the organism to your device while simultaneously uploading geotagging info as well as photographer comments. Usefull for locating and preserving valuable/rare species and sharing them with the world." Says Paul Heaven, a 21 year-old Civil Engineering student from Jamaica.

Document Creator Manager "Nokia should develop an app that can utilize the macro mode of the excellent 12MP camera to take optimized photos of a document and convert it into a WordPDF document which can be saved on the phone. The operation should be done on phone instead of uploading images to a 3rd party server. The app should also be able to manage these documents. This would certainly help reduce the carbon footprint and reduce the need for printing documents for reference." Says Dileep Devapal, a 29 year-old Software Engineer from India.

Emergency Geotagged Photo "This application would allow you to send in a easy way Geotagged Photos to your local Emergency unit, such as Police, Firefighters o others. This way they would know exactly with what they will be dealing, the exactly location and also would be avoiding prank calls. " Says Adamo Pinheiro, a 25 year-old Architect from Brazil.

First Aid "This app would provide users with information about how to apply basic first aid recommendations in case of an accident (Protect victims, Alert services, Aid victims !), heart attack or drowning : perform a heart massage ? Perform an Expired air resuscitation procedure.... " Says Yann Lossouarn, a 35 year-old User Experience and Usibility Specialist France.

Green News "This app should be source for environmental & climate change news & statics allover the world it should also allow widgets and may be donation to certain related organizations. " Says Omar Rafat Orabi, a 21 year-old Petroleum Engineering student from France.

I-Friend "Hi it's the time to have your electronic friend with you always A voice program using the mobile sensor, calender , GPS hardware, google answers, here & now ,and meeting reminder to be an electronic friend speaking and reminding to the owner and also answering him good morning you have a meeting." Says Amro Kira, a 29 year-old Senior Accountant from Kuwait.

Instant Voice Translation "Instant voice translation app combining voice recognition feature on Nokia phones and the huge collection of voice pronunciation in dictionary.com or Google Dictionary. Just speak to the phone in foreign language, the app will translate the words on back-end then produce the translated voice output." Says Yuen Liew, a 29 year-old Online Business Owner from Malaysia.

Sound Editor "Everyone likes music and a lot of us might wan't to make some. So what about little sound editor where you put sound samples together (like kicks, hihats, other drums, piano and such which should come with thhe app, at least some) in patterns and put patterns together to make a simple beat. WIth editing BPM (beats per minute) it would make a great, fun and useful app, which would be very useful for those who want to make simple beats anywhere with N8. Image attached of how I think it might look like." Says Arvis Pukitis, a 17 year-old student from Latvia.

Story Maker "An app that allows anyone to collaborate on making a story. You can select categories or topics, users write a paragraph or two and another user continues where the other person left off, again writing a paragraph or two. App can have friend lists, time limits etc to enhance the experience ! " Says David Lee, a 35 year-old Field Service Engineer from United Kingdom.

How To: Circumvent, Remove The Maximum 2MB File Size Upload Limits In Google Docs

While working with other collaborators in our team on a certain web project, I recently learned that uploaded document files that are converted to Google documents format cannot be larger than 2MB. Google Docs seem to protest for any uploaded files/documents of more than 2MB in size, which I believe a big turn off for anyone who wants to get the job done fast.

Here's a sample failed upload prompt from Google Docs. It says "Sorry, this file is too big. We can only convert files up to 2 MB in size.":

Well, obviously there is this file size upload restrictions on Google Docs, and unfortunately there's not such a good web app similar to Google Docs that offers seamless, real-time collaboration at no cost.

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So let's get our head back to Google.

Getting Rid Of Google Docs' 2MB Upload File Size Limits

If you ever found yourself in a complete need to upload large documents, spreadsheets to Google Docs but could not due to file size restrictions, you might find this simple workaround useful. (For more of our Google-related goodies, you can find them HERE).

Alright, here's the trick:

Rather than uploading your large files, spreadsheets and documents to Google Docs, send them all to your own Gmail account. As soon as you receive all the documents, save them to your Google Docs account. Yes, it's really that quick.

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Here are the basic steps:

Step 1 Send the document to your own Gmail account.

Step 2 Once received, click on "View". Gmail should launch Google Doc viewer in a separate tab/window.

Step 3 Now, hit that tiny "Save in Google Docs" button at the upper right corner of the viewer. Once done, you should see your newly-added file to your Google Docs collection.

It's quite surprising to note that it takes only Gmail to remove that file size upload restriction in Google Docs. So next time, if you encounter that same Google Docs prompt again, just follow that dead simple Google hacks. Enjoy!

How To: Quickly Move, Import Your Spotify Playlists To Apple Music

Now that Apple Music is finally out, you probably have given it a spin and eventually fell in love with the app.

It is hard not to fall in love with Apple's streaming app; its much larger iTunes library plus better radio recommendation make it really a prime music app you can't miss.

And if you've finally decided to move from Spotify to Apple Music, your next step should be: export all your Spotify playlists and import them to Apple Music all at once. And that's the painful part as currently Apple hasn't rolled out yet its own migration tool that makes it easy to move, import your Spotify playlist to Apple Music. And no, both Exportify and Beats Music migration tool do not work either as yet.

How To: Remotely Control Apple Music on Computer, Mac Using iPhone, iPad

The Fastest Way to Automatically Convert Spotify Playlists to Apple Music Playlists

If you can't wait to jump ship, Applefy seems to be the only best & painless way to transfer your beloved Spotify music playlists to Apple Music. But it only works on OSX right now and can be a bit buggy if dealing with music available in Spotify but not in Apple Music. Here's how to get started:

Step 1 Download & install the latest build of Applefy (3.02MB)

Step 2 Launch Applefy and login with your Spotify details.

Step 3 Select the playlist you want to export from the dropdown list and hit 'Save Playlist' button, as seen below:

Step 4 Navigate to your home folder and there will be a folder called Applefy (bring your Spotlight and search for Applefy. This folder contains your exported Spotify playlist containing MP3s.

Step 5 Open iTunes, go to the Playlists tab and make a new playlist.

Step 6 Drag the MP3 files into your newly-created playlist, and then Select all and right click and Choose 'Add to iCloud Music Library' (SEE DEMO)

Step 7 Once the songs have been registered, right click again and hit 'Remove download', you can now stream or download the full song using your Apple Music subscription.

You're done!

How To: Remotely Control Apple Music on Computer, Mac Using iPhone, iPad

How To: Download Torrent Files Fast Without Torrent Client

Are you tired of waiting for long number of hours or even days for your torrent downloads to complete? If you're looking for ways on how to download torrent files double the speed of BitTorrent or uTorrent, then, this post will help you.

BitTorrent and uTorrent are the two most popular and widely-used torrent clients today. They allow simultaneous downloads of big files using peer-to-peer connection. But the problem is, you cannot enjoy full download speed even if you've tweaked your third party torrent client to allocate more bandwidth for your downloads.

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Fastest Way To Download Torrent Files Without Using Torrent Client

One best way to download torrent files fast is to convert torrent into direct link and download them using Internet Download Manager (IDM), the unbeatably fastest, lightweight and easy to use download manager on earth. IDM basically doubles or even triples your normal download speed. If you're on slow internet connection and sick of BitTorrent or uTorrent download speed of 20-50kbps, then, you better switch to this technique and enjoy uncompromised torrent download speed of about 100-150kbps.

So, how can we obtain direct links of the actual torrent files and instantly download them using IDM?

Torrific.com is a free web service that instantly generate direct link of large file out of .torrent URL. Torrific eliminates the need for you to download and install third party torrent clients such as BitTorrent or uTorrent.

Download YouTube video as mp3 online

Here's how to download torrent files via IDM through Torrific-generated direct link (I assume you've Internet Downloader Manager installed):

1. Create Torrific account here.
2. Go to thePirateBay.org or any other similar site and search for torrent you wish to download.
3. Obtain torrent URL. To do this, right click "download this torrent" and select "copy link location".
4. After you've copied torrent link, go back to Torrific and paste torrent URL to the textbox and hit GET button (Torrific will then process your request and you can optionally opt to receive direct link via email).
5. Depending on the number of your torrent seeds, you should be able to see direct link for your file.
6. If direct link for your torrent is now available, copy its URL, launch your IDM and start downloading!

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Torrific may sometimes require you to wait for a couple of hours especially if your torrent has limited number of seeds or you avail the service many times. In order to avoid this, clear your browser's cache or create another account using dummy mail and start downloading torrents at the speed of IDM -- no BitTorrent or uTorrent needed!

Downloading torrent files via IDM is that easy. Just obtain direct link of torrent file using Torrefic and wait for Torrefic to generate direct link available for download.

If you like this post, kindly share it to your friends.

Update: Torrific is currently down. But here's a good alternative good alternative.

How To Download YouTube Video As Audio MP3

If you're looking for ways on how to rip, grab or download YouTube video as audio mp3, then, this post should be a great help. 

    
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You can now escape all the hassles involved in turning YouTube videos into an instant mp3 with YouTubeToMP3 [link], another cool service that allows you to download, rip, or grab YouTube videos as MP3s all for free. Youtube to Mp3 uses advanced technology that converts YouTube videos on the fly into high-quality MP3s.

YouTubeToMP3 is relatively simple and fast. Just specify a valid YouTube video URL, optionally provide an email address (YouTubeToMP3 will send you a download link via email once conversion is done), specify audio quality, and hit convert to start the conversion process. 

Tip: Google Hack: Access IP Surveillance Cameras Around The World 

In order to get the highest audio quality possible, I would advise you to choose the YouTube video with the highest quality video possible (HD). This is because the YouTubeToMP3 conversion will only turn out as good as the file you select to be converted. 

This free YouTube video (FLV) to MP3 online converter uses dedicated servers that makes conversion process extremely fast and easy. So no matter how big the YouTube FLV file is, YoutubetoMp3.com will always get it done correctly and quickly for you.

Update:

YouTubetomp3 now prompts you to login before you can proceed with your second or subsequent downloads. In order to bypass this and make your download unlimited: just right-click anywhere in the page and select "View page source" (shortcut CTRL + U) and press "CTRL + F" and search for ".mp3". That exactly is the download link -- click on it.

Excel Gets OCR Support, Lets You Snap Tables and Convert Into Editable Spreadsheet

Microsoft just rolled out an update to their spreadsheet editing app Excel that allows you to point your phone's camera into printed tables and turn them into editable spreadsheets.

The update is made possible by artificial intelligence (AI) trained to recognize characters and detect datasets inside printed tables before finally importing them as spreadsheets. If you're familiar with how Google Translate app works that translates words in realtime when you point your camera to a foreign text, you can expect the same capability with this update but for printed tables.

The update is first available on Android, but iOS should expect the roll out in the coming days.

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Excel is not the first app that gets AI treatment from Microsoft. A few weeks ago, Microsoft-owned Skype also gets AI-assisted background-blur support that smartly obscures your often messy, distracting background.

Satya Nadella's helm at Microsoft continues to deliver the much-needed disruptions and innovations. And with its billions of cash being pumped into their Machine Learning (ML) department, we can expect few more nifty advancements in AI in the next few years.