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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

iMac touch

50 Android Jelly Bean tips, tricks and hints

Jelly Bean may not be the same huge leap forward as Ice Cream Sandwich, but it still brings a lot of new features and functionality to the operating system.

Many of these are improvements to the smoothness of rendering on the device - it even briefly boosts the CPU when the screen's turned on to make things super slick and speedy. Google dubs these little performance and software improvements as being "buttery", assumedly referring to some nice spreadable Lurpak rather than a solidified hunk of congealed milk.

The other big addition here is Google Now. This adds personalised recommendations and information based on your browsing history. Some people love its perceptive usefulness, others hate its pervy, intrusive nature.

One thing's for sure though: the Siri-like voice search feature is awesome.As ever, these tips are based on the vanilla installation of Android, so your mileage may vary depending on how many layers of extra "features" have been added by your phone or tablet's manufacturer.

1. Say "Google" to search

If you're in America, you can open Google Now and say "Google" followed by your query to search the net. If you're not in America, you can trick Android into thinking you are. Open the settings on your device, choose "Language and input", then switch Google Voice Typing's language from "Automatic" to "English (US)". Next go to Google Now's settings and again change the language to "English (US)". You should see "Search or say Google" in Now's search bar. Faking an American accent: optional.

2. Now settings

You can open now in two ways - either swipe up from the Home icon, or swipe the lock icon up when the screen is locked. When you first start it, Now will run through the basics of what it does, and even show you some example cards. In Now's settings, you'll find each card has its own notifications settings, which apply to both the Now homescreen and the Notification shade. Standard means that new cards are accompanied by a ringtone and vibration, Low priority places them at the bottom of the list without any notification, and off, well, turns them off altogether.

3. Talk to Google Now

Google Now also includes Siri-like functionality, supplying spoken answers to your inane questions. Try things like, "what time is it in Kuala Lumpur?", "when's Tom Cruise's birthday I want to send him a card?", "how do I get home?" or "will it be sunny tomorrow?" and Now will speak the answer back at you or search the web for relevant pages.

4. Get more Google Now cards

Google Now presents relevant information such as weather and places on "cards". To begin with it may be a little sparse, but searching the web from any device will give you more. Just make sure your web history is enabled: visit history.google.com, hit the settings cog and ensure that Web History is on and not paused. Next, search Google for favourite football teams, planned flights and destinations and the relevant cards will pop up automatically.

5. Notification Shade

We previously referred to it as the "pully-down menu thing", but apparently it's officially called the "Notification Shade". Niftily, certain notifications in the shade can be expanded by sliding two fingers outwards on them, giving you an overview of the subject headers in your email inbox, for example. Moving two fingers inwards on a notification neatly contracts them, too.

6. Rotation lock

You're sitting on a plane watching a vid in horizontal orientation. Suddenly, the plane banks sharply to the left and - oh no! - the video changes orientation. This worst-case-scenario can be avoided by tapping the rotation lock in the Notification Shade, which keeps the screen in its current orientation. Tap it again to unlock the rotation.

7. Turn notifications off

Install enough apps and the notification bar at the top of your Android device becomes the digital equivalent of an unending stream of ticker tape. In fact, Airpush is an entire advertising company that makes money in this way. Fortunately, each and every app you install in Jelly Bean has the option to turn this off. Go to its info page under Apps, uncheck the box labelled "Show notifications" and enjoy your empty notifications bar.

8. Equalise your music

The ability to adjust those all-important bass and treble settings has been sorely missed on Android devices - so much so that a bunch of apps have been made to enable it. It's fixed in Android's stock music player, though. Open a music file in the stock player, hit Settings then choose Equaliser. Here you'll find manual sliders, a load of presets and bass and 3D effects. Unfortunately it doesn't work for the whole device, but it will give your tunes a little more oomph.

9. Rearrange your home screens

Long-press on any icon or widget on your homescreen and you can move it around, and other icons and widgets will shift out of the way to fit it in. Bigger widgets can also be resized by long-pressing and releasing them, and then dragging the circles that appear on the edges. It's actually quite fun and satisfying. We just spent three hours doing nothing but this.

10. Fling to remove

Homescreen app clutter (surely the worst of all types of clutter) can be quickly and easily defeated. Long-press an icon or widget, then fling it upwards and it'll ascend into shortcut heaven. This won't uninstall the app, though - it'll still reside in your app drawer.

11. Owner info

Wait! Put down that blunt rock you were about to use to chisel your contact details into the back of your Android device! Jelly Bean includes the ability to display a few lines of contact details on the lock screen, such as your email address, name and phone number. You'll need to enable a screen lock from Security, and then you'll see the Owner info option appear. This information is mirrored across all Jelly Bean devices, too.

12. Access App info

The all-important App info screen - which allows you to uninstall, stop and disable apps - can be accessed in a completely new way with Jelly Bean. Pull down the notification shade, long-press on an open task and you'll be taken straight to the settings page for the relevant app. It's handy if you don't know which app displayed the notification.

13. Volume controls

You can now set the volume for all the noisiest bits of your Android device individually. Press the volume up or down key and you'll the familiar little slider with a settings icon to the right of this. Tap this and you'll see separate sliders for media, and notifications and ringtones. Bonus tip: each of these sliders can be, er, slid, with your finger.

14. Talkback

Designed for blind and low-vision users, Talkback provides an ongoing narration of what's displayed on your phone or tablet. You can turn it on via Accessibility, and then you'll be taken through a tutorial of its functions. It's a very different way of navigating your device, and quite interesting to experience. It also supports braille input and output devices via USB and Bluetooth.

15. Blink to unlock

While face unlock is smart and quick, more paranoid users may worry that a ne'er-do-weller could somehow steal an image of their face - or their actual face - and use it to access the device. Android's Liveness check requires the user to blink before the device is unlocked, preventing access if a quick eye-shut isn't detected.

16. Offline speech-to-text

Being able to dictate long and rambling texts to loved ones is quite an old Android feature, but it's just got a whole lot better with an offline mode. Go to Google voice typing settings under Language & input and choose Download offline speech recognition. Now you'll be able to dictate that great novel without being distracted by Reddit.

17. Beam it across

Android Beam works with near-field communication (NFC) to enable fast data exchange between two devices. You'll need to make sure it's enabled first - you'll find it under Wireless & networks. You'll also need to know where the NFC area is on your device. This isn't a problem for phones, but it can be just about anywhere on the back of a ludicrously large tablet, so do a quick Google to find out where it is.

18. Simple secure pairing

Simple secure pairing works alongside NFC to provide a quick and easy way to connect Bluetooth accessories such as headsets, speakers and keyboards. You don't actually need to do anything other than activate NFC to use it, but make sure whatever you're pairing with is Simple secure pairing-compatible.

19. Calendar notifications

Any events you've been invited to via Google Calendar will show up in the notifications blind. From here you can expand it and quickly send a pre-defined response (Such as "I'll be there in 10 minutes") or type your own. Quick responses can be edited from within the General settings of the Calendar app itself. Perfect for you social butterflies.

20. Gallery views

Android snappers will love its new gallery features. Pinch on photos to zoom out into a filmstrip mode, where all your pics are displayed side-by-side. Swipe left and right to browse all your snaps quickly, and slide up and down on individual images to delete them. The gallery then gives you just enough time to realise you've canned the wrong thing and undo your delete.

21. Wi-Fi savings

It's all too easy to run up costs when you're on public or mobile WiFi. Tethering a tablet to a phone can suck a surprising amount of data, and public WiFi, such as that found in hotels, sometimes have ridiculously strict usage policies. In Jelly Bean's Data usage settings you'll find the option to designate certain WiFi networks as Mobile hotspots, which stops background apps accessing data and could save you lots of cash. If there's another Jelly Bean device on the same network it'll pick up its Mobile hotspot settings, too.

22. Try the stock keyboard

The Swiftkey keyboard is enormously popular among Android users, and for good reason: it monitors your typing and grammatical style uses this to predict words. Jelly Bean's keyboard now offers the same functionality, using bigram prediction and correction to complete words and sentences. We've found it to be every bit as good as Swiftkey, and even slightly faster and slicker.

23. Reboot to safe mode

Ah safe mode, the saviour of so many Windows PCs. Thanks to the sheer amount of dodgy apps on the Play Store it's on Android now, too. Long-press the power button, then long-press the Power off option. Choose OK to reboot in safe mode, which completely disables all third-party apps on your device. Then hunt down and destroy that nefarious bit of software..

24. Reset app preferences

Android gives you loads of different options for each installed app, and on the whole this is a very good thing. Sometimes it can be a bad thing, though: you may find your phone playing up because a crucial app has been disabled, or you've changed the notifications for something important like emails. In the apps drawer, you'll find Reset app preferences under the settings. This resets all your apps on a global level, returning actions and data settings to their original levels.

25. Add emojis

"Emojis" are the Japanese version of emoticons, and like most things from Japan they're much better and cooler than their western counterparts. You can enable emoji support for the default Jelly Bean keyboard by choosing Language & input in the settings app, then going to the settings for the stock Android keyboard. Here, choose Add-on dictionaries and select Emoji for English words. When you next type certain words (there's a complete list here) you'll see its symbol appear in the predictions bar. It's like Wingdings never died.

How to add a search box to your blog

Adding Search Box to Blogger

Search Box is one of the most used tool for navigating of any website. It will bring the opportunity to your readers to find any topic within your blog quickly. Though Blogger do provide a default search box widget but unfortunately it does not provide accurate search result all the times. Today I will show you how to add a nice search box in your blogger. just follow the simple step.

Go to your Blogger Dashboard >> Select Layout >> Add a gadget >> Select HTML/Java Script >> Paste the code given below within the Java Script >> Save it. You are done. As simple is that.

Obviously you can customize the size of the search box. Just find width and height section and change it according to your need.

40 Secret iPhone Features and Shortcuts

There are lots of things that you can do with your iPhone, sure, but we’re willing to be that there are a few more that you either don’t know about or haven’t used before, particularly with all of the additions in iOS 5. Did you know you can put in typing shortcuts similar to Text Expander? Or that you can make custom vibrations for each person? If you didn’t — or just want to brush up on your iOS trivia — hit the jump and find 40 top secret, ultra-cool tips for the iPhone.

Camera & Pictures

Want to get the most out of the iPhone’s camera and photos? Follow along as we guide you show you some well known (and not so well known) features of iOS 5 and the iPhone.

1. Use Your + Volume Button as a Shutter on Your iPhone…

Taking a picture by holding your iPhone with just one hand is an easy way to get out of focus images. Fix it by holding your iPhone with two hands horizontally, and then push down the + button usually reserved for raising the volume. Now you’ve got a stable picture!

2. … and Your Headphones, Too

The same trick above works for the volume button on your headphones, too. This comes in particularly handy if you have a Glif or similar tripod mount for your iPhone. If you couldn’t already guess, this works for Bluetooth headphones as well.

3. Add a New Photo Album

If you find that your photo album selection lacks a little pizzaz, feel free to add more using this simple trick. Go to the Photos app, click Edit in the top right corner and then click the Add button that shows up in the upper left side of the screen. Now just title the album whatever you want and you’re golden.

4. Quick Look for Pictures You Just Took

Want to look at the most recent image you shot? Open up the camera app and slide the screen from left to right. It’ll show the last picture taken, and you’ll be good to go.

5. Take a Picture With a Double Tap

Stuck on the lock screen but want to take a picture? Double click the home button and look just to the right of your Unlock slider where you’ll find a little camera icon. Touch it, and away you go to taking pictures.

6. Edit Your Photos

Man, those red eyes in that shot look horrible, right? If only you had some kind of way to tweak your shots so that they looked perfect. Turns out you do, all baked into iOS. Just hit Edit on any image, and you’ll be presented with your tools along the bottom row. They’re not super extensive, but it’ll get the job done in a pinch.

Text & Email Functions

Everyone has to type things out on their iPhone, whether it’s text messages or just responding back to an email. Why not make your life a little bit easier? Here are a few tips that will help you out when you’re working behind the keyboard.

7. Text Expansion

Do you find yourself typing the same thing a million times a day? Go to Settings > General > Keyboard and look for Shortcuts after you scroll down just a bit. Then just enter the phrase and appropriate shortcut, and the next time you type that shortcut the phrase will appear. This is particularly handy for things like BRB or your email address.

8. Go Emoji

If you love using emoticons, add the Emoji keyboard to your setup. Just go to Settings > General > Keyboard, then add the Emoji keyboard. This also works if you want to use keyboard in other languages.

9. Use Extra Characters

Want to make sure the accent mark in Montréal is correct? Just hold down the letter you need to accent, and all of the extra characters will appear. Just pick what you need and go from there.

10. Turn On Caps Lock

If you’re really mad and want someone to get the point, or you just like typing in all caps, turn on caps lock by double tapping the shift key. Now you can type with fury!

11. Look Up a Word in the Dictionary

Stumped on what that word in your favorite novel in iBooks means? Wondering why your friend used such a complex word in a text? Look it up using the iOS dictionary. Just hold down on the word that’s got you befuddled, and then touch Define. Now you know the answer and can respond appropriately.

12. Flag an Email

If you’re one of those people who flags every email that comes through, make your OCD happy with iOS 5′s new flag an email feature. To do so, go to your Inbox, hit Edit then select the email(s) you want to flag. Select the Mark tag in the bottom right corner and then select Flag, and you’re good to go.

13. RTF Emails

For those that prefer their email fancy, RTF is now available. Just highlight the word or words you want to accentuate per your usual steps, then select the arrow and then the BIU button to pick between bold, italics or underline.

14. Read Receipts in iMessage

IOS 5 brought us iMessage, and with it the ability to get receipts when other people read your messages. It’s an opt-in deal though, so to turn it on, go to Settings > Messages and turn on Send Read Receipts.

Siri Only

Siri changed the way we communicate with our iPhones, and is one of the big features for the iPhone 4S. If you’ve got one, here are a few tweaks that should help you out along the way.

15. Tweet With Siri

Wouldn’t it be great if Siri allowed you to dictate your tweets? Turns out you can, but it’s a bit of a workaround. First, read up on sending your tweets via SMS, which is available on Twitter’s site. Once that’s all squared away, just add Twitter as a contact in your Contacts, and then treat the service just like it was any other person that you want to send a message. (By the way, if Siri cramps up on you because you used the word Twitter, change it to something different that you’ll remember and it’ll be fine.) You can do this with Facebook too, The Next Web has a great writeup.

16. Get Siri by Holding Your iPhone Up To Your Ear

Not everyone knows about this one, but there’s another way to call up Siri that doesn’t require holding down the home button. Go to Settings > General > Siri, and then select Raise to Speak. Now the light sensor on the iPhone will detect when you’ve got the phone up to your ear, and Siri will pick up. It’s a handy way to use Siri in public without looking like a jerk.

Web

One of the best things about the iPhone when it first came out was that it provided a really good web experience, where viewers could see full pages, not just mobile-optimized garbage. If you want to get the most out of your web browsing experience, here’s a few tips to make things go a little smoother.

17. Private Browsing

Want to make sure that your information isn’t getting sent out to the Internet via Safari? There’s a quick way to fix that: Go to Settings > Safari and then click the tab for Private Browsing. Now all of your activity on the web is top secret, so proceed at your own discretion.

18. Make a Reading List

If you don’t use services like Read It Later or Instapaper, but still want to read a webpage without advertisements, just check out Reader, built into Safari. Just click on the little Reader button next to the URL and your article will come up stripped of all distractions and in easy-to-read text.

19. Tap to the Top

Doesn’t it suck to scroll through a long webpage and then flip back up to show the Address bar again? Just tap the top of the screen by the clock and Safari will zip back up and reveal the address bar, no problem.

20. Saving Images

If you found an image on a website that you want to save for yourself like a wallpaper or icon, just hold down your finger on the picture for a second or two. A menu will slide in from the bottom of the screen giving you the option to Save Image or Copy it to the clipboard. Once it’s saved it’s in your Photo Library, ready for whatever you want.

Settings

There’s a lot you can do in iOS just by playing around with a few settings. Don’t believe us? Let’s show you, then.

21. Update Your OS

One of the nice benefits in iOS 5 is over the air updates, and if you want to find out if you’re eligible, it’s as easy as cracking open the Settings app. Go to Settings > General > Software Update and you can find out if you’re in the clear, or needing to update.

22. Adjust Your Notifications

You’ve probably already played around with your notifications, but there are tons of different ways to manipulate your apps and how they alert you, making it just about perfect to make each app function properly. To get there, it’s Settings > Notifications, and there you can adjust what’s in the Notification Center, and then get even more specific and tell the OS how you want each app to notify you. Everything is clearly described, so you know what you’re getting into beforehand.

23. Custom Vibrations

One often forgotten customization available in iOS 5 is setting your own custom vibrations. To do that, first go to Settings > General > Accessibility and turn on Custom Vibrations under Hearing. Then, go to Settings > Sounds. Scroll to the bottom, and there’s Vibration Patterns. Tap it, and now you can make your own custom vibration on the bottom of the screen. Just tap on the glass the pattern you want, holding down your finger for longer notes. Then you can assign these vibrations to a contact, or use them system wide.

24. Set Your Camera Flash For Alerts

That LED in the back of your iPhone isn’t handy for just taking pictures in the dark, it can also be used for a notifying beacon, similar to the LED on most BlackBerry phones. Go to Settings > General > Accessibility and turn on the slider for LED Flash for Alerts, and the next time something comes in, the LED will flash accordingly.

25. Customize Your Alert Sounds

Who wants their iPhone to sound like everyone else’s? Not us, so we customize our alert tones using this simple trick. Go to Settings > Sounds, and now everything from your Calendar notifications to Ringtones can be customized, just pick what you want and there you go.

26. Automatic Downloads

If you have multiple iOS devices, or you purchase things on your computer as well, one option for keeping things in sync is to allow Automatic Downloads of your Music, Apps and Books. To get there, go to Settings > Store and check off whichever of the three you want. Now all of your stuff will work in harmony. How very zen.

27. Fun With AirPlay

If you have an iPhone 4S, iOS 5 brought mirroring to the table, making it possible for you to display your iPhone’s display on your AppleTV. To do so, double tap the home button to bring up the multitasking bar, then swipe to the right twice. Tap the AirPlay button and select what AppleTV you want to deliver to, then check off Mirroring. Now what’s on your iPhone will be on your AppleTV at the same time.

28. Change Your Default Alert Times

If you use your Calendar app, then you know that there are default alerts built into the system, but did you know how to change them? Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts & Calendar > Default Alert Times (which is close to the bottom) and adjust your times accordingly.

29. Change Your iCloud Storage Size

If you find yourself always bumping into the size limit on your iCloud account, you can up the storage levels right on your iPhone. Go to Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup > Buy More Storage and select what level you want to use. You can also downgrade sizing if you think you have too much, too.

30. Tweet It

Twitter is now integrated into iOS 5, so if you ever feel the need to send that pic of Grandma drinking a bit too much wine off to the Internet, now’s your chance. First, setup your Twitter account by downloading the official Twitter app, then go to Settings > Twitter and enter your username and password (if you have more than one Twitter account, no worries, it’s all supported). Now whenever you take a picture, you’ve got the option to send it to Twitter without ever opening the official app.

31. Dissect Your Storage

We’ve got lots of apps that all vie for space on our iPhone’s flash drive, but what if you could find out who was using what? Go to Settings > General > Usage and there’s a list of all of your apps, and how much space they’re taking up. This way, if you find yourself low on space you can delete the offending apps entirely, or just preen them down using the app itself.

The Stuff That Doesn’t Fit Anywhere Else

There are lots of other good tips floating around in iOS, but not all of them are big enough to denote their own category. That’s why we’ve created this one; it’s a general grab bag for whatever other secrets don’t fit somewhere else. Get it? Good. Here you go.

32. Get Week View By Turning Over Your iPhone

It’s new in iOS 5, and it’s fancy. If you want to check a rolling week view of your calendar, just turn it over to a horizontal orientation. Then you can scroll up and down to see hours, or left and right to move through weeks. It’s pretty handy to have when you just want to see what’s coming up in your week.

33. Get Hourly Weather Reports

This one is easy. Pull up the Weather app to get your weekly weather report. Tap anywhere in the week and the current day will expand to reveal the hourly forecast for the rest of the day. It doesn’t work days in advance, but then again, neither does the local weather guy.

34. See Street View in Maps

Pull up Maps and search for something — anything — and you can usually see a little orange dude that shows up on the left side of the destination. Touch that and you go to street view where you can rotate 360 degrees. But what if you don’t have a search destination or just want to see a random area on street view? Just drop a pin. Usually that orange dude will show up again and you can scope out the area before you head down.

35. Take a Screenshot

All these pictures up above? They were all taken using this little trick. Press the home button and the lock button simultaneously and the screen will flash white. As an added bonus, if you have Photo Stream via iCloud, all those images go right into your stream (which is great if your business is posting screenshots like ours is).

36. Location Based Reminders

One of the big selling points with Siri was integration into the new Reminders app, but there’s some cool GPS features built in, too. Make a reminder, and then select to remind you At a Location. You’ll be presented with your current location and the options When I Leave or When I Arrive, or you can just make a custom spot up of your choosing. Just know that this can eat up your battery life because the GPS will be on all the time.

37. Add Twitter Handles to your Contacts

There are two ways to handle this one (see what we did there?). If you start at Settings > Twitter, you can click on Update Contacts and all of your current contacts in your address book will be trolled and connected to their appropriate Twitter accounts. If you want to do it manually (or Twitter can’t find it for you), then go into the contact, hit Edit and then Add Field. Scroll down and you’ll get to Twitter, and then you can manually enter the info.

38. Perform a Hard Reset

Sometimes nothing seems to work on your iPhone, and apps are giving you problems. The answer is a hard reset, which shuts the iPhone off completely — even mid task — and then restarts it. To do this, hold down the lock and home buttons simultaneously for at least 5 seconds, or until the Apple logo appears. When it boots back up, it should be good to go.

39. Give Your Contacts Nicknames

We’ve all got friends that we call by their nicknames, whether it’s KJ, Little T or Jackstands, and sometimes we can’t remember their actual name. To fix that, you can add their nickname into Contacts pretty easily. Go to the contact, hit Edit, then Add Field. Right there at the bottom of the first box is Nickname. Once you get back to the main Edit screen, just add in their nickname and now Siri will recognize it, as will Voice Command.

40. Customize Your Music Controls

There’s only so much room on an iPhone screen, and that’s problematic with the Music app. Some people prefer to search by Artist, others by Playlists, and some don’t even listen to music and just focus on Audiobooks and Podcasts. To customize your Music app, just open it up, hit More then Edit. You’ll see a whole grouping of icons, and then you can drag them to their new location on the bottom of the screen. Fancy.