Snippets Of Internet Show: 2012

How to Use Facebook Timeline Movie Maker to Create Timeline Movie Read more: http://www.shoutmeloud.com/#ixzz1liI8aeLj Under Creative Commons License: Attribution No Derivatives

Login to Google Account on Any Public Computer Without Password Typing

Google has already made account logins too secure for its users with 2 Step verification and here I am sharing another added layer of security feature called Google Sesame where you won’t have to actually enter / type any password to login. Smartphone will suffice.

We always have fear of logging into Google Account on Public or Shared Computers because of Keyloggers which may steal our passwords. But, using this feature, you can log in to any computer without worries because you won’t be typing password on that machine.

How Google Sesame Works
1.Visit http://goto.google.com/login on Web browser of Computer where you want to login.
2.QR Code (Quick Response Code) will be generated and displayed as webpage.
3.Scan this code using Smartphone (Android / iOS / Windows / Blackberry / anything) which allows you to decode it.
4.This gets decoded into some URL which you have to open on Mobile Web browser. Enter the Login details including password on Phone and Sign in.

5. Click on Start with Gmail or iGoogle and Computer browser will automatically login to the account credentials you entered on mobile phone. You can access rest of the Google service once you are logged in.

This may sound terribly complicated to some users but it’s certainly not. It is ofcourse useful and pretty safe while logging in to any Computer which you may think is not safe. Just one time entering password on Phone and not giving any details to the machine on which you are actually logged in.

I don’t know since when this service is available and even Google didn’t have mentioned officially about it anywhere except for this thread.

Also, it must be taken care that the QR code generated remains valid for few minutes and in case you fail to login from Mobile device, reload the page to generate to new QR code and repeat the procedure.

Personally, I am impressed with this kind of login procedure and really admire Google for bringing up this innovative idea which I am obviously going to use.

Camtasia Studio Tutorials Available on your iPad

TechSmith has released a new iPad app called Fast Track that will help you learn the Camtasia Stuidio program at your leisure on your iPad.

The app has a collection of video tutorials, or screencasts, that cover almost every feature of the Camtasia screencasting program and whether you use Camtasia for screen recording or for recording PowerPoint presentations, you may learn something new through these tutorials. All videos tutorials have text transcripts as well though they are only available in the portrait mode.

TechSmith’s YouTube Channel (@ChannelTechSmith) also contains a good collection of screencasting related tutorials but the advantage with the new Fast Track app is that it also works offline – you don’t need an Internet connection to watch any of the tutorials. And it’s free.

I think, going forward, TechSmith will extend this app beyond Camtasia Studio and include tutorials for other products as well including SnagIt, Jing and Camtasia for Mac.

Amazon Online Store is Live in India

Amazon has just gone live in India as junglee.com but unlike the main Amazon.com store where most of the products are sold directly by Amazon, their India store is more like a yellow pages-style directory where hundreds of online and offline sellers in India have uploaded their product catalogs.

If you are to a buy a product from Junglee, you don’t buy it from Amazon.com (probably because of the FDI rules in our country) but will be redirected to the seller’s website. The seller is responsible for the shipping, they may have their own refunds and returns policies and each may offer a different payment mechanism.

Amazon in India

Thus, at this time, Amazon in India is mostly looking like a comparison shopping engine. There’s no universal shopping cart (you cannot buy products from multiple sellers in one go) though you can use your main Amazon.com credentials to log into Junglee.

I am still quite happy with this development though as it highlights the lesser-known online merchants in India and one can always use Junglee to get a better idea of the price of a product. It may not have an immediate effect on the business of Flipkart but going forward, that could change.

Full credit to BGR and MediaNama for breaking this story.

Google Launches an AdSense Toolbar for Chrome

Google today released a new extension for Google Chrome that will help you quickly access your AdSense earning reports without leaving the page you are currently reading.

The extension, known as the AdSense Publisher Toolbar, offers a summary of your AdSense earnings for the current day, the previous day, the current month and the previous month. In addition to daily earnings data, it also show revenue data for top channels that you have created in your AdSense account.

There’s an interesting “lifetime revenue” section in the report that shows your total AdSense earnings from the day your account was approved for AdSense.

Once you install the extension, it connects to your Google AdSense account using OAuth and then uses AdSense APIs to fetch your earnings data. You need to authorize only once and thus, if you enjoy checking your AdSense report every hour, this extension could save you plenty of time.

I have multiple Google Accounts (for security reasons) and my AdSense account uses an email address that is different from my primary Gmail address. Earlier, I had to log out of Gmail to check my AdSense reports but with the AdSense Publisher Toolbar now available, I can get my basic earnings data without having to switch accounts.

On a different note, I have no idea why the Google team is calling this extensions the AdSense Publisher Toolbar when it only adds a button near your Chrome address bar and there are no toolbars anywhere. You click the AdSense button and your earnings report are almost instantly display in an overlay.

And if you activate the AdSense extension while you are on your website (that is running AdSense ads), you can turn on the “site overlay” mode and it will display a quick summary of each ad unit’s earnings that are available on that page. Channel names are confusing, especially when you have tons of them, so this visual mode will come very handy.

Publish your Blog as a Magazine with Google Currents

Google’s widely anticipated alternative to Flipboard is finally here. It’s called Google Currents and the next screenshot should you give an idea of what Currents is all about.

Google Currents is a Flipboard like app that lets you read blogs, news websites and other online publications in a magazine format on your mobile phone and tablet devices. The app is available for both Android and iOS platforms.

One big advantage with Google Currents is that you can read your subscriptions offline and it will even download the embedded images for offline access.

You can get Google Currents now from the Android Market and the iTunes Store. This is currently available only for US users but there’s at least an easy workaround for iPhone /iPad users.

Publishing to Google Currents

As a web publisher, you can package one or more RSS feeds, image slideshows, tweets, videos, social network updates and any other HTML content into an “edition” and publish it to Google Currents which others can then subscribe to on their tablet or mobile phone.

[*] Digital Inspiration is also available on Google Currents.

There’s no programming required as Google Currents provides an web editor (screenshot) for publishers to create these bundles. You can also pull content from Google Docs andePUB ebooks into Currents. The default layouts are beautiful but advanced users may apply their own CSS styles to further customize the appearance of their magazine.

Read RSS Feed with Google Currents

Google Currents can also be used as a RSS reader to follow feeds that are not available as standalone editions. Simply subscribe to any RSS feed inside Google Reader and then pull it directly into Google Currents using Add More –> Library –> Google Reader. The plain feed will automatically be served in a magazine layout similar to other editions.

Google Currents vs Flipboard, etc.

There are quite a few reading apps – like Flipboard, Yahoo LiveStand, Pulse, Zite and AOL Editions – that let you publish (and consume) online content in a magazine format. However, Google Currents is probably the only app that will share advertising revenue with publishers which is obviously a big incentive.

Enable the Night-Reading Mode inside any iOS App

The latest version of Apple’s book reading app, iBooks 1.5, contains a new Night Theme that is designed to make reading easier on your eyes in low-light conditions.

When you activate the night-time reading mode from the fonts menu in iBooks, the default white-on-black color scheme is reversed – background goes black while the text color turns white thus causing less strain to your eyes in the dark. The Instapaper app too offers a similar dark theme for your late-night reading sessions.

Use the Dark Theme for Night-time Reading in any App!

iBooks or Instapaper aren’t the only apps where you read content. There’s your RSS feed reader, your email client and even Safari where you read web pages. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could bring iBooks style night-reading mode to all the other apps on your iPad /iPhone?

There’s an easy workaround. On your iOS device, tap the Settings icon and choose General –> Accessibility –> Triple-click Home and and set it to “Toggle White on Black.”

Press the Home button to exit Settings and launch any reading app. Triple-click the Home button on your iOS device in quick succession and it should enable white-on-black effect quite similar to iBooks Night mode. Triple-click again to switch to normal mode. Simple!

Find the Perfect Mobile Plan and Save Money!

If you are based in India and carry a mobile phone, which you do for sure, here’s a useful service that may help you pick the best (or most cost-effective) voice and data plan for your phone based on your actual usage.

Which is the Best Mobile Plan for you?

The plan comparison service is available online at Komparify.com or, if you have an Android phone, you can get their mobile app. Read on.

Once you have installed the Android app, choose your region (or telecom circle) and your existing cellular operator from the available options. The app will read the voice call logs from the phone and based on the local / national (STD) usage, it will recommend you a list of the most cost-effective plans from your existing operator and other operators in your region. With mobile number portability (MNP) available across India, switching operators is easy so if Airtel has a better deal than Vodafone, you can quickly make the jump.

Alternatively, you may use the Komparify website to compare plans. Here you need to manually input details of your monthly voice calls and SMS usage and the service will then figure out a more cost-effective plan for your mobile phone.

[Update] The latest version of Plan Hound app also considers roaming usage – calls you made (or received) while you were outside your circle – while recommending voice plans. And it can even track your data usage while on GPRS/EDGE/3G networks so you always have an idea if you are nearing that monthly data limit.

If you really want to save on your monthly mobile bill but don’t have the time to analyze your call logs manually, don’t miss this!

Twitter Embeds Amazon Products In-line

Twitter has offered in-line previews for photo and video sharing services like YouTube, Flickr and Instagram for some time and, expanding that list, they have now added support for shopping site Amazon.com as well.

If a tweet contains a link to an Amazon product, see sample, Twitter will automatically pull the product’s description, reviews and the price on Amazon.com and will embed this information to the tweet itself and you may save an extra click

Twitter isn’t however adding any Amazon affiliate links to the tweets so this enhancement is unlikely to be a source of revenue for them. Thanks @hunterwalk and @mathewi.

iPhone, iPad app rewards being a couch potato

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Want to earn stuff by watching TV? A free app for that debuted Wednesday.

When you tap the screen, Viggle's software for iPhones and iPads listens to what's on, recognizes what you're watching and gives you credit at roughly two points per minute. It even works for shows you've saved on a digital video recorder.

Rack up 7,500 points, and you'll be rewarded with a $5 gift card from retailers such as Burger King, Starbucks, Apple's iTunes, Best Buy and CVS, which you can redeem directly from your device.

With some back-of-the-envelope math, you can figure that it would take three weeks of watching TV every night for three hours to earn enough for a latte at Starbucks.

But the company plans to offer bonus points for checking into certain shows such as "American Idol" and 1,500 points for signing up. You can also get extra points for watching an ad on your device. The beta version awarded 100 points for watching a 15-second ad from Verizon Wireless.

7 Tips to Wake Up and Get Out of Bed Fast

You're late to work, again. No matter how much you reason with yourself, your lateness is probably due to the fact that you couldn't get out of bed. It's always unpleasant to drag yourself out of bed, so here are some tips to help you wake up alert and get you out of bed quickly:

Assess your health. Your drowsiness in the morning might be health-related. Perhaps you need a better diet and exercise plan or maybe you have sleep apnea. If you've been doing everything right, go to a doctor for an expert opinion.
Coffee on your bedside table. This is for extreme cases, but leaving some coffee or another caffeinated drink like Mountain Dew on your bedside table might be a good way to get yourself out of bed.
Place your alarm clock strategically. If you place your alarm clock across the room or outside your door, this might force you walk to the clock to shut it off.

Read on for more tips.

Get an alarm clock that lights up. You can mimic waking up naturally with this BioBrite Sunrise Clock ($134). This alarm clock will gradually glow brighter and brighter and will act like your own mini sunrise. You will no longer be jerked awake by jarring noises with this clock. BioBrite also has a cheaper version for $90.
Don't drink caffeine or alcohol the night before. It takes a while for caffeine and alcohol to get out of your system so for a better night's sleep, refrain from imbibing these liquids the night before.
Smelling salts. Smelling salts have been reviving people for hundreds of years, but you don't have to smell something distasteful. Put a bottle of a pleasant-smelling essential oil like orange, grapefruit, or mint next to your bed to sniff in order to shake yourself out of a groggy state
Train yourself. Instead of forcing yourself to wake up, train yourself to react instantly by practicing the motions of waking up. During the day, turn your lights off and practice jumping out of the bed as soon as your alarm goes off. Do this repeatedly twice a day for about 10 times until it feels automatic.

Report: iPhone 5 coming this summer

For years — well, starting in 2005, anyway — Apple released its latest iPhone during the summer. Then, the company bucked that trend with the October release of the iPhone 4S. The question of whether Apple would stick with this new release schedule or return the old schedule has been the subject of furious speculation.

Jumping into the fray with a theory, a report from 9 to 5 Mac, an unnamed Foxconn employee has said that there are “various sample devices” for the next iPhone already floating around. The blog’s Seth Weintraub said that, given Apple’s normal habits, that puts a new iPhone launch on track for a summer release.

As for the prototypes, the blog reported that the phones all have a 4-inch or larger display, that they are slightly longer and wider than current iPhones and have a different form factor than the iPhone 4 and 4S.

In Apple’s latest earnings call, Tim Cook — as usual — teased that Apple had some “amazing” products coming in the pipeline, but said he was unfazed by competitors’ 4G and larger-screened phones. Repeating that Apple had just announced the sale of 37 million iPhones, he said that it appeared that customers were already pleased with the phone.

6 Startups to Watch in 2012

An Olympic games, a U.S. presidential election and the end of the world are already planned for 2012, but we’re more excited about the startups.

Here are six of them (in no particular order) that we expect to help define the coming year. We chose companies based on the momentum they gained in 2011, promising new takes on old problems and, in one case, the possibility of an IPO.

Did we look at every startup in the world before compiling this list? Nope. Did we overlook some of the startups speeding toward 2012 definition-dom? Yep. Which is where you come in. Let us know in the comments which startups are on your list to watch in 2012.

1. Skillshare

Skillshare is an online marketplace for offline classes. When we spoke to the startup in May, a month after it launched, more than 100 users had posted classes about everything from crocheted jewelery to how to invest your first $10,000. Eight months later, thousands of teachers have used Skillshare to teach more than 15,000 hours of classes. A few have even quit their jobs to teach Skillshare classes full-time.
While the startup began with classes clustered in New York City, it now has budding communities in San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and elsewhere. Its site interface is already set up to accommodate more than 70 U.S. and International cities. There are no or few classes offered in most of them, but by the end of 2012, we’re betting there will be.

2. Zaarly, Taskrabbit or Something Similar

We’re pretty sure that the mobile, local version of Craigslist will gain traction in 2012. We’re just not settled on which one yet. Zaarly and TaskRabbit both allow users to find someone nearby to complete odd jobs. Zaarly also lets people request items like a reverse eBay. Both are liable to gain traction in 2012.

3. LevelUp/SCVNGR

While solutions such as Google Wallet try to introduce mobile payments through NFC technology at a time when there are few devices on the market that supports it, SCVNGR has launched a solution called LevelUp that works with any phone and any bank account. The app gives any merchant the ability to run a loyalty program that works similarly to the Starbucks App, which allows users to pay using a code displayed on their phone and collect reward points.
LevelUp users link any credit or debit card to their LevelUp accounts the same way that Starbucks links a gift card to its app. When they get to a LevelUp merchant, the app generates a unique QR code at the register that can be scanned with a merchant app to pay. Merchants can add rewards to LevelUp that are already waiting for customers the first time that they use the app, and customers earn free credit at that merchant every time they spend money there using the app.
Since launching in October, the app has signed up more than 100,000 users and has about 1,000 businesses. Meanwhile, T-Mobile has helped deploy more than 2,500 docking stations that stand in for the merchant app as a scanning mechanism at checkout counters. It’s a modest start, but LevelUp has all of the ingredients to become more widespread than competing mobile payment options.

4. Dwolla

Let’s be frank: transferring money through social networks sounds shady. Which is what makes it impressive that Dwolla, a payments startup that makes transfers through Twitter, Facebook, SMS and other virtual channels, was processing $1 million per day less than a year after launch.
Dwolla’s 70,000 users make payments through Twitter, Facebook, SMS and other virtual channels by connecting their bank accounts to their Dwolla accounts. The service integrates with social networks to alert payment recipients there is money waiting for them in their own Dwolla accounts that can be transferred to their bank account. Payments of up to $10 are free and anything larger costs $0.25 — which is cheaper than paying a credit card fee.
In December, the company launched a new feature called Instant that lets users pay on up to $5 of credit while waiting for bank transfers from their accounts, making this process instant.

5. Eventbrite

Eventbrite is the oddball on our list of companies to watch in 2012 because the ticketing platform launched five years ago. But here are some reasons we think that 2012 is a good time to keep an eye on the startup:

It’s on a growth streak. Last year it sold about 11 million tickets. This year it sold about 21 million.
It’s being taken seriously by big events. This summer, for instance, it handled tickets for a Black Eyed Peas concert in New York City’s Central Park in addition to 458,000 other events (more than twice as many as last year).
It’s expanding internationally. Eventbrite opened a London office in October and launched localized versions of its platform in Ireland and Canada in December.
It’s offline. A new iPad app lets event organizer sell tickets through Eventbrite at the door.
It could IPO. In a ZURB podcast this summer, Eventbrite CEO Kevin Hartz said that Eventbrite could file as early as 2012. “We have to continue to perform to very lofty expectations to do that,” he said.

6. Codecademy

Codecademy took something that scared people, learning JavaScript, and turned it into a game. And when it’s not intimidating, it turns out that learning how to code is something that a lot of people want to do. In its first 72 hours after launching this summer, Codecademy signed up 200,000 people for coding lessons. When it launched a New Years resolution class on Jan. 1, Code Year, it signed up 97,000 people in less than 48 hours to receive emails with weekly coding lessons. By the end of the week, more than 170,000 people had signed up for the class, including the Mayor.

What’s interesting about Codecademy’s traction is that its product is still quite limited. Lessons are restricted to JavaScript, and there isn’t a clear pathway for working through the lessons. In 2012, Codecademy will expand to other coding languages, and as it does so, it will also expand its potential userbase. Thanks to Code Year, the startup will for the first time have thousands of students working on specific lessons around the same time, which could present an opportunity to add social features to the platform or create curriculum.

Google, Facebook, Privacy — And You

Like millions of other people, I got an email from Google this morning. It was entitled “Changes to Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service”. The first sentence describes the intent of the changes as shortening 60 policies into one, and improving their readability.