Add Device Frame To Images

Web Developers always add device frame to image but it is difficult for beginners. It is very important for web developers especially when they want to showcase their work. But how to do it? Its simple. I will walk you through the website named Device Shot (http://www.deviceshot.com). This website allows users to add images to desktops, laptops, mobiles and tablets.

The awesome part is that this website provides device frames of iOS Devices, Android Devices, Blackberry, Windows Phones & Tablets and MacBook Pro 13.3 and 15.3 inch.

Requirements

1. Image File
2. Internet Connectivity

Procedure

1. Open your web browser.
2. Go to http://www.deviceshot.com
3. Click on Get Started in the top navigation bar.
4. Select your device frame type. It can be either Apple iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone or Desktop.
5. Select the device frame.
6. Click on choose file. Browse for the image to which you want to add the device frame.
7. If the resolution is perfect then it will properly fit the image and allow you to download it. But if it is not of desired resolution then crop the image and download it, once the processing is done.

Demo Screenshots

Here is a demo screenshot of device frames, I added to my images for my website i.e. http://www.techbarrack.com.

Device Frames Added To Images, Source – Tech Barrack Solutions

Video Tutorial

The post How To Add Device Frames To Images appeared first on Techie Sparks.

Larry Page At Google I/O 2013

Google I/O 2013 had some really cool announcements. Mostly the announcements were of new features and new interfaces added to the Google services. And lastly Larry Page, gave a short speech and took in lots of questions.

Statistics – There have been totally 900 million Android activations and 48 billion app downloads. Now this is real crazy as Apple iOS App Store has just reached 50 billion downloads. Plus Android came in a bit late but has definitely taken a huge bite at Apple. Google Chrome has reached 750+ million active users. This includes Desktop, Tablet and Mobile users. 300 million users switched to chrome since 2012. Google Cloud Messaging service is being used by 60% of Google Play apps and 17 billion messages are pushed every single day.

Google Play Game Services – Just another Game Center but with some cool tweaks. Users need to sign in using their Google Plus ID. It supports Leaderboards, Achievements and Cloud Save. Using Cloud Save user can start the game from the point where he stopped on his devices. So if I was playing a game and I cleared level 1 and stopped. Now when I use another device which I own, I can begin from where I stopped. This is the most awesome feature of this service.

Google Play Store Apps Branding – New features to promote application and what the application lacks were demonstrated. Developers will get new testing options. The testing options will include Alpha Testing, Beta Testing and Production. Developers can adjust their settings and begin the roll out.

This is an awesome feature coming and waiting for it.

Android Studio – is an IDE which Google launched yesterday. This IDE helps in developing apps for Android. What’s cool is that, it has been developed specifically for Android Developers. Changes to the app can be made in real time. The IDE allows developers to view the app in different screen sizes. Developers can view the translated version of app on various screen sizes and accordingly adjust the font sizes. Various identifiers in the code will get highlighted in different colors. So an awesome IDE in short.

Google Play Music All Access – Rumours comes out to be true. Google actually did unveil a music streaming service. It allows users to start radio station and choose songs they like. Google will also give recommendations of new songs that the user should listen. The service will cost $9.99 monthly. All users will get a 30 day free trial and all users who sign up before 30^th June, 2013, they will get $2 off on their monthly fee.

Web – Google is strong promoter of the WEB and it announced Web Components. It also announced that VP9 video codec will soon come to YouTube and will reduce the file size immensely. WebM image format was also discussed. WebM image format supports animation too and compresses the images in a more efficient way than JPEG.

A new Chrome Experiment named RACER was demoed. And believe me its awesome. It makes use of Web Audio API to deliver sound effects and also uses HTML5, 3D CSS, WebGL, etc. A web app supported on all devices which have Chrome application.

Redesign – Many Google services got a new design. Google Play Store, Google Plus and Google Maps were the most popular ones. Google Play Store now has an option to search for apps specifically designed for tablets. Google also announced Play for Education where students can search for educational content based on age and other criteria. It makes use of Google+ Groups, so schools and universities can immediately push an app to the store and bill a central account. Currently the sign up window is not available for general public till this year’s fall.

Google Plus brings in a sleek and a complete new UI. The UI looks more similar to Google Now cards. Every post is shown as a small card and the tags used in it can be searched directly from the post itself. Google Plus can now find out the location by just analysing the picture. Google Plus full photo upload storage now increased from 5GB to 15GB. Apart from this on uploading pictures, Google will automatically select the best pictures (if you enable this). A new feature named Motion Picture makes GIF of multiple images taken at the same point of time. Google Plus now has a auto enhance button for enhancing the image. And believe me its really nice.

Google Maps brings in new UI. The new UI also shows the Earth along with the places in broad daylight and night. Places now can provide offers directly. Users can also get reviews from their friends and other users. Google Maps app now shows live traffic and informs users if there is high amount of traffic. The application will automatically re-route and choose the shortest path with minimum traffic. Clicking on any point on the map gives information about that place along with a street view if available.

Samsung Galaxy S4 With Stock ROM – was also one of the products announced. It will be completely unlocked and is packed with LTE support for AT&T and T-Mobile. The device will receive prompt updates and the 16GB model will go on sale on June 26^th, 2013 for $649.

Google Checkout Button – for Android smartphones will make it super easy for users to do online shopping on their mobile devices. Just press the checkout button and verify your card details on Google Wallet (which will have your previously added card details) and BOOM! Payment done.

Hangouts App – Google Talk gets revamped as Hangouts. A all new app which brings in iOS, Android, Chrome and Gmail to the same page. The app supports shared pool images and emoji support. Live Group Video is also a new feature. Text messages have watermark which basically tells who is writing and reading.

Google Now – gets new cards. The new cards include reminders, real time public transit info, music recommendations and video games.

A very good demo of these features was given at the Google I/O 2013.

Okay Google – Voice search comes to desktop via Google Chrome. So you just need to say Okay Google and speak what you want to search.

Google TV Update – Google TV gets updated to latest refactored Android 4.2.2. This will allow manufacturers to roll out updates faster and it will also bring hardware based content protection. Google Chrome on Google TV will get added into the 6 month update cycle.

So that’s pretty much what the Google I/O 2013 was about.

Video

The post Google I/O 2013 In A Nutshell appeared first on Techie Sparks.

Blackberry Messenger Coming To iOS & Android

Its been years, when a rumour sparked off that BBM will come to iOS and Android. However this time, Blackberry has officially announced that they are going to launch BBM as an application for iOS and Android. So users can connect to their friends and families on BBM even if they use iOS or Android.

The first version of BBM for iOS and Android will allow users to do multi-person chats, make groups with max size of 30 and share voice notes. Voice and Video chatting will be added in future updates.

Blackberry also announced BBM Channel which will be a social platform within BBM, thereby allowing users to connect to businesses, celebrities, groups they are passionate about, etc. The BBM Channel support for iOS and Android will come in future updates.The application will be FREE.

However I feel, Blackberry is showing signs of weakness, as BBM was their strongest weapon which actually lured users to buy Blackberry Smartphones. But soon this might probably change. We might just have to wait to see how Blackberry Smartphone sales get affected.

BBM is being used by 60 million users and approximately 10 billion messages are sent in a day. However Whatsapp stats say that 20 billion messages are shared through their app. From company point of view, Blackberry wants to increase their market share and they want to be in direct competition with competitors like Whatsapp which is one of the most widely used Messenger today.

Blackberry tried to do revamp the OS and make their smartphones more unique, thus, trying to keep up with the pace of iOS and Android. Blackberry will have to do something really special to actually keep the users lured to their device.

The post BBM Coming To iOS And Android This Summer appeared first on Techie Sparks.

Configure A Networking Switch

Networking Switch is a awesome device, if you want to connect multiple computers to each other, thereby creating your own LAN Network. After this file transfers and chatting between all these computers becomes a piece of cake.

Requirements

1. Networking Switch. A basic switch of ₹300 to ₹600 should do the job. I am using D-Link 10/100Mbps 5 Ethernet Port Switch.
2. Few computers. Be it Mac OS X, Windows or Linux.
3. Ethernet cables. One for each computer. A Fast Ethernet cable (CAT5 and Untwisted pair) should be good enough.
4. Applications like IPMessenger or Dukto. Both are cross platform softwares.

Procedure

Read the instructions and then see the video for a better understanding.

1. Connect the Networking Switch to a power supply and Turn it on.
2. Connect all the computers you want on the LAN Network to the switch via Ethernet cables.
3. Now download an application like IPMessenger or Dukto. Both are cross platform softwares. However IPMessenger doesn’t work well with linux, so I would suggest Dukto.
4. Once you have installed the application on all your computers, the next step is the IP Configuration. This is the most important step. All computers will get an IP in sequential order.
5. Turn off the Wi-fi if it is ON.
6. The PC connected to port 1 on the Networking Switch will get an IP – 10.0.0.1, Router/Gateway – 255.255.255.0, DNS – 10.0.0.10
7. The PC connected to port 2 on the Networking Switch will get an IP – 10.0.0.2, Router/Gateway – 255.255.255.0, DNS – 10.0.0.10
8. The PC connected to port 3 on the Networking Switch will get an IP – 10.0.0.3, Router/Gateway – 255.255.255.0, DNS – 10.0.0.10
9. Do this till the IP Configuration is complete on all the computers.
10. Now open IPMessenger/Dukto.
11. All the computers connected to the switch should show up. Now go ahead and do some file transfers and chatting on your own LAN Network.

Video Tutorial

The post How To Configure A Networking Switch appeared first on Techie Sparks.

OPPO Find 5

Chinese manufacturer OPPO might launch its flagship Android Smartphone i.e. Find 5 in India. Currently it is said that, OPPO is working on regional languages for various countries and once thats done, they might launch it in many more countries.

OPPO Find 5 has a staggering 5 inch IPS 1080p display with a pixel density of 441ppi. All this is achieved at a mere 8.86mm of thickness. The smartphone has a 13 megapixel rear camera with built in CMOS technology. The camera is capable of shooting HDR photos and videos which is good in low light conditions. In burst mode the camera is capable of taking 100 photos at once at a rate of 5 photos per second. The camera also is capable of shooting videos at 120 fps. The mobile phone is packed with Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 APQ8064 chip which is clocked at 1.5GHz. The chip uses Adreno 320 GPU. OPPO Find 5 uses DIRAC HD Sound for better sound output. 2GB of RAM is embedded inside this powerful phone. The phone is DLNA compatible.

The Find 5 sports a superb build quality. Unlike other smartphone vendors like Samsung, OPPO uses some metal to make the body. All this is expected to be available at ₹27,445 for 16GB model and ₹31,259 for 32GB model. This is quite cheap compared to the flagship phones provided by Samsung, Apple and LG.

Unlike other smartphone companies like Samsung, LG, HTC, etc who rarely provide updates for their phones, OPPO provides software updates regularly and that is because currently they have launched only 2 smartphones till date.

The Find 5 has received admired by most of the users who bought it. It would be awesome to see how the Indians find it.

Official Features Video

The post OPPO Might Launch Find 5 In India appeared first on Techie Sparks.

Many users have faced issues while installing an Operating System on their personal computers. And one of the major reason for this is the need of a Bootable Disc/Disk. A Bootable Disc/Disk contains the setup files of an Operating System which boot automatically when the computer starts.

Requirements

1. A blank CD/DVD.
2. Mac OS X
3. Image file of Operating System. Usually it is .ISO

Procedure

1. Locate the image file. Right click on it. Open With, DiskImageMounter.
2. Go to Spotlight and search for Disk Utility.
3. Put the CD/DVD in the optical drive of your Mac.
4. Right click on the image file in Disk Utility and click on Burn ISO.

Burn ISO In Disk Utility

5. The image files will start writing on the disc and soon you will have a bootable disc/disk.

Testing The Disc/Disk

Before testing the disc, make sure that the Optical Drive is on the top of the list in the boot order. To check the boot order, go to your computer’s BIOS settings. For each computer this is different, depending on the manufacturer.

Just search Google or try pressing F2 or F4 or F8 or F12 when your computer boots.

Video Tutorial

The post How To Make A Bootable Disc On Mac appeared first on Techie Sparks.

WD My Net N900 Central

Western Digital has come up with a device which will act as a router as well as a network attached storage. It comes in two models i.e. 1TB or 2TB of internal storage. Let’s dig in further to find out what this device is capable of and whether it is worth the money.

Price & Models

WD My Net N900 Central comes in two storage models i.e. 1TB and 2TB. The 2TB model is priced at ₹22,000 to ₹25,000 (price varies from shop to shop).

Design

PLASTIC is the word I will use. The build quality is pathetic. Its competitors like Apple, wins in the build quality. It is heavily priced and a user expects good quality. The device seems to be very cheap when you hold it in the hand. The front of the device is transparent and has 5 LED’s. Each LED signifies something. This is the order of LED’s i.e. Power, Wi-fi, Internet, Sync and Storage. At the back we have 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports (10/100/1000 Mbps) for LAN and 1 WLAN Gigabit Ethernet port (10/100/1000 Mbps). A WPS (Wi-fi Protected Setup) button is also present at the front. Along with the Ethernet ports we have a power ON/OFF button. At the bottom we have a reset button and vents to drain out excess of heat.

The LED’s are blue in color but thats not an issue. The issue is, they are so dim that, it is hardly possible to see whether the LED is glowing or not from a distant area in daylight. However if you are in a pitch dark room then this should not be an issue.

Setup

Setting up this device was a piece of cake. Though WD says you require Ethernet cable but in most of the cases, by connecting to the default WesternDigital Wi-fi, we can easily set up our network.

WD My Net N900 Central Dashboard

Features

WD has focussed more on features than on the build quality and design.

• Mode – My Net N900 Central can be used as a Router or Access Point.
• Frequency & Bandwidth – The device has Dual Band support i.e. works with 2.4GHz and 5GHz spectrum. The device is capable of delivering a bandwidth of 450 Mbps on both the spectrums. However this is theoretical value and we get 150 Mbps on 2.4GHz and 300 Mbps on 5GHz.
• Guest Access – A guest network can be created on 2.4GHz or 5GHz or both.
• Quality of Service – It also supports WD’s FasTrack Plus Quality of Service technology which basically means that data gets prioritized in a more efficient way on the network. Well this technology works great but it will cause a lot of hindrance, if you are an avid user of Torrents. The technology brings down the download speed to 0.5KB/s to 1KB/s.
• Protocols – The Wi-fi protocols supported are 802.11n/g/b/a. No support for 802.11ac makes it technology backward.
• Antenna – Multiple Antennas for improving coverage of the Wi-fi signal.
• Accessibility – Well a user gets Web Access, Mobile Access and Remote Access using awesome application named WD2Go. So wherever you are, if you have Internet, you stay connected with your data.
• Parental Controls – This feature is awesome if you want to block certain websites to either increase security or deny access to certain websites.
• Time Machine – Using AFP server, it supports Apple Time Machine and this makes backup on Mac really simple.
• UPnP & DLNA – It is compatible with UPnP and DLNA, thus making Home entertainment simply more cool.

Performance

The My Net N900 Central does an average job at performance section. I got Wi-fi connectivity all over my house. The Wi-fi signal was quite good enough for browsing internet a floor above and down.

WD My Net N900 Central Speed Test Max Distance

WD My Net N900 Central Speed Test Min Distance

The download speeds saw lot of variations. The speed while downloading on a web browser fluctuated from 400KB/s to 490KB/s (my net connection is 4Mbps i.e. 500KB/s download speed). And this is ok compared to Apple Time Capsule which provided me with 480KB/s to 500KB/s of download speed.

While downloading on Torrents the speeds fluctuated by ±15% to ±20%. However this was obtained on disabling the FasTrack Plus Quality of Service technology. The technology which WD boasts of providing better prioritization of data over network. However it messed up with my Torrents completely while it was enabled.

Backing up was real simple on both Windows and Mac OS X. For Mac, the device actually supports the native application i.e. Time Machine, however on Windows WD SmartWare application is needed to get the backup done. I got an average speed on 4MB/s and it took around 10 hours to back up 145GB of data.

Streaming through this router was fun. It worked brilliantly. I streamed a 720p movie over the network on 3 different devices i.e. 2 MacBook Pro and 1 Android device. It worked like a charm. There were no lags or glitches. This was obtained when there was no downloading being done on the network. But when I was downloading and streaming on a single device, there were quite a lot of glitches that were observed. So a good Internet connection is necessary for simultaneous streaming and downloading. An application which can manage bandwidth between applications might also help.

Streaming & Remote Access

The parental security works very well with Porn/Adult websites. No need to add adult websites in the settings as the device is smart enough to check the headers of the website and find out whether to block it or not. Certain websites can be manually blocked too. A total of 60 manually entered websites can be blocked. The websites can be marked as safe or block. There is master settings or you can specify for each device.

Parental Controls

DLNA/UPnP works flawlessly. Just a click in the device settings and BOOM its on gets detected on your Television. Thats awesome. But the formats that the TV can play, only those will get detected.

DLNA

Pros & Cons

Pros – Easy Setup, Dual Band, Gigabit Ethernet ports, Compatibility and Automatic Backup

Cons – Build Quality, Average Performance, Reset Button, FasTrack Plus QOS (if you use torrents).

Video Review

Ratings

The post WD My Net N900 Central Review appeared first on Techie Sparks.

Make Fake Virus For Mac OS X

We have not seen any virus for Mac OS X yet but we have seen some malwares. This trick can be useful, if you want to scare your someone who is probably new to Mac. As the title suggests, this is a tutorial to make a FAKE VIRUS FOR MAC OS X. Let’s have a look at the requirements.

Requirements

1. Mac OS X
2. AppleScript Editor

Procedure

1. Open AppleScript Editor from spotlight or from the Applications folder in Macintosh HD.
2. Just copy the code below and paste it.
3. Download the code or application from https://sourceforge.net/projects/fakevirusmac/files/. The code is in the .applescript file while the app is in the .dmg file.
4. Once the code has been written, go to File>Save. Give a name to your Virus. In File Format select Application.
5. Go to a search engine and search for some cool icons for your application. Websites like http://www.iconarchive.com, should help you with this. Make sure you download a PNG file of the icon.
6. Right click on the saved Application and select Get Info. Drag the icon you downloaded to the blank icon on top left corner. That’s it. Close the Get Info.
7. Now go ahead and mail the application to your friend or personally give it to him.

Explanation

There are many changes that can be made. The script is self explanatory. And this is pretty much because the commands in the script are normally used in our English.

Virus Detected is the name of the dialog box which is just like the title of the website which shows up in the tab of your browser. Default button can be your choice. Here I have made 2 buttons with name Shut Down and Crash CPU. And selecting default button as 2 will make Crash CPU as the default button.

I have asked the script to make the Mac go to sleep whenever the Shut Down button is clicked. Before the Mac sleeps, there will be 10 beeps and after the Mac wakes up, the inbuilt voice over software will say Virus Downloaded Successfully.

If the Crash CPU button is clicked, then there will be 10 beeps and a dialog will come up saying Virus Downloaded Successfully. Once the dialog is closed the inbuilt voice over software will say Virus Downloaded Successfully.

So there are many things that can be added to the script. Go ahead and try it out.

Video Tutorial

The post Make A Fake Virus For Mac OS X appeared first on Techie Sparks.

World’s First Website

World Wide Web (W3), the habitat of millions of websites is growing rapidly. But CERN has decided to bring back the world’s first website live on the web for posterity. The website is hosted at http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html. The website was launched on April 30^th, 1993.

Tim Berners-Lee published the idea behind W3. The website is a purely HTML. There is no styling or effects and that is understandable. CERN plans to make info.cern.ch a website to remind people about the beginnings of the W3. The restoration of the website will also include the documents and IP Address that were associated with the associated with the first version.

Tim Berners-Lee made a software named ENQUIRE way back in 1980. The software would deal with hyperlinks. He then worked on large databases of hyperlinks which he called as the World Wide Web. After over a decade Tim Berners-Lee built set of tools to take the project forward. By 1992, various universities were sharing information and by 1993, Mosaic, a graphical web browser was made. By 1994, World Wide Web consortium made standards for World Wide Web, to make it freely available to everyone.

The post World’s First Website Gets Restored appeared first on Techie Sparks.

IBM HCPVT Solar Collector

Renewable Sources of energy are seeing huge growth in the past couple of years. Currently the maximum efficiency obtained from a Solar Panel is 20% only. But folks at IBM have managed to come up with a photovoltaic system which is capable of concentrating on average power of 2000 suns. The system is called as HCPVT (High Concentration PhotoVoltaic Thermal System). Other companies such as Airlight Energy, ETH Zurich and Interstate University of Applied Sciences Buchs NTB are also working on the project.

HCPVT is still under development. But a prototype has been tested. The new system will provide an efficiency of 80% i.e. collects 80% of incoming radiations. Traditional solar panels will immediately burn up if such high amounts of radiations are concentrated on its surface. So lot of cooling is needed.

HCPVT makes use of a parabolic dish with multiple mirror faces. The mirror faces are attached to a tracking system which determines the angle based on the Sun’s position. After the alignment is done, the rays of Sun reflect from the micro channel liquid cooled receivers with triple junction photovoltaic chips. Each 1×1 cm chip can convert 200-250 watts on average over a period of 8 hours on a sunny day.

HCPVT makes use of the cooling system used by IBM in Aquasar Supercomputer. The chips are mounted on micro-structured layers that pump liquid coolant within few micrometers off the chip, thus removing excess of heat produced. The excess of heat removed will be used in thermal water de-salination and cool air.

Today the Solar equipments are very costly and it becomes difficult for companies to bring in funds. This technology will bring down the cost of energy and equipment.

The first demonstration prototype was developed by IBM and Egypt Nanotechnology Research Center. A prototype of HCPVT is undergoing several tests in IBM Research Lab in Zurich, Switzerland.

HCPVT Testing

The post IBM Solar Collector Concentrates Power Of 2000 Suns appeared first on Techie Sparks.