Wednesday, June 1, 2011

MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [May 31st]” plus 11 more

MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [May 31st]” plus 11 more

Link to MakeUseOf

Cool Websites and Tools [May 31st]

Posted: 31 May 2011 08:31 PM PDT

Check out some of the latest MakeUseOf discoveries. Most of the listed websites are FREE or come with a decent free account option. If you want to have similar cool website round-ups delivered to your daily email, subscribe here.

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B00mbox – YouTube playlists can easily be created and effectively used to share a bunch of videos with your friends. But these playlists are created by individual YouTube users – to create YouTube playlists as a group, you will need to pay a visit to Boombox, a collaborative youtube playlist tool that lets you create YouTube playlists with your friends. Read more: B00mbox: Collaborative Youtube Playlist Creator

 

Snack & Munch – Many people cannot get a quick break from work to buy something to eat. Instead of going to the snacks, a new service called Snack & Munch helps bring the snacks to you. These packs comprise of 24 snacks and cost a total of only $24. You can select snacks from the list available on the site. Read more: SnackAndMunch: A Service That Ships Snack Packs At Your Home & Office

 

 

Lubith – While WordPress is a highly popular blogging and site platform, it does not offer an impressive collection of themes by default. People who know how to code can get their desired themes with a bit of work but people unfamiliar with coding are helpless in getting their desired themes. Lubith is a tool that aims to change this. Read more: Lubith: Create Custom WordPress Themes Without Coding Knowledge

 

 

Mppp.It – Often while streaming songs, you find one that you like and add it to your iTunes library by first downloading it. The time it takes for you to find the song, download it, and then place it in your iTunes library can be greatly saved by using a tool called Mppp.It, a free to use web app that lets you find and stream songs online. Read more: Mpppit: Stream Music & Download Straight To iTunes & Dropbox

 

 

My Stream – When friends ask to listen to the songs on your iPhone, you often have to uncomfortably share your earphones with them. But thanks to an iOS application called myStream, you will never have to share your earphones again. Using the app, an iOS device owner can use Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to stream the music that is stored on an iOS device. Read more: My Stream: Stream Music Stored On iPhone Via Wifi & Bluetooth

 

These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed.


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The 13 Toughest Tech Questions [MakeUseOf Answers]

Posted: 31 May 2011 06:31 PM PDT

MakeUseOf AnswersMakeUseOf Answers relies on expertise in many different areas to solve some of the most ridiculous and difficult questions out there. Do you have what it takes to come up with great ideas and smart solutions? If you feel you do, please contribute your skills to Answers.

The Best Answer of the Week is rewarded with $50 and two runners-up win $30 and $20, respectively. Every answer automatically enters the contest. Just make sure we can contact you in case you win.

Please help us out with these questions:

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Need help? Ask A Question at MakeUseOf Answers.


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Mobli – View Mobile Photos & Videos About The Things You Love [iPhone]

Posted: 31 May 2011 04:31 PM PDT

iphone media sharing appPhoto sharing apps have officially taken off, thanks primarily to mobile devices. These kinds of apps let you take pictures on your phone and share them with your social graph. There are a lot of great apps out there that promote social photo sharing, like Instagram, Color, Path, and Picplz, for starters. Each of these applications has seen success in the mobile space and is helping to transform how we use our phones, and they all offer something unique that makes them worth using.

Enter Mobli, the iPhone media sharing app that instantaneously uploads your pictures and videos in the background while taking them. This app is hot on the scene with plenty of interesting features to get us all excited about. In this article, I’ll show you what those features are and why you should add Mobli to your photo sharing arsenal.

What Is Mobli?

Mobli enables people to quickly and easily share high-quality photos and videos that are uploaded in real-time. With the integration of channels and geo-location, users can share their events and experiences with communities of individuals looking to do the same thing.

“Mobli is a real-time visual media platform made up of subject-based channels such as people, places, and topics. Mobli enables users to see the world through other people's eyes!”

iphone media sharing app

Simply put, Mobli is great for seeing what’s going on somewhere you couldn’t be and for showing others the cool places you do go to. Whether you’re at a concert or sporting event, Mobli gives you the platform to connect with others and watch “Channels”.

iphone photo sharing app free

For instance, let’s say it’s Sunday and your favorite football team is playing. If you are at home watching the game, you can use Mobli to view your team’s Channel and see any photo or video taken during the game in your feed. You can interact with other fans and “see” the game from different angles, making it feel like you are there. If you are there, you can share content directly from your seat.

iphone photo sharing app free

On Mobli, you can see what is happening as it happens through a live feed, as well as view what is going on around you at any time. You can also leave comments and interact with others socially through pictures and videos.

iphone media sharing app

If you would like to share the photos and videos you take with Mobli with your personal networks, you can connect the app to your Facebook, Twitter, and email accounts as well.

Conclusion

Mobli is currently available for iOS devices (iTunes link) with versions of the mobile app for Android and BlackBerry still in alpha. You can head over to Mobli’s homepage to check out what’s popular and see the types of Channels and photos you’re likely to find on the app.

I’m a fan of social photo sharing apps, and even though there is certainly a lot of competition in this space this generation of apps seems to be thriving. I like the idea of using my photos to help depict an event I’m at rather than just putting them on display for everyone to see.  What do you think?


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Entrustet Ensures Your Digital Assets Are Smoothly Passed On After You Pass On

Posted: 31 May 2011 02:31 PM PDT

digital asset managementHave you thought about what’s going to happen to your online assets after your death? Have you even really considered what might count as an online asset? Who do you want to give access to your accounts after death? Which accounts would you prefer closed immediately? Would you want your family to read your email? So many questions to consider!

While the world of physical assets is fairly clear-cut thanks to wills and legal procedures, digital asset management is a little more confusing. Most online companies are happy to close an account after death, but don’t want to get bogged down with the confusion involved in account succession. You can imagine how difficult it would be to ensure requests were real! But, not to worry. Entrustet gives us a way to get things under control from one single control point.

Managing Online Accounts After Death

If you think your online accounts aren’t assets, think again. What will happen to your domains? Where’s that Adsense money going? What about your PayPal account? What about your blog? How will your family update things to ensure your work now benefits them? Do you have lots of photos in Flickr? The half-finished novel backed up in Dropbox? How will your family have access to these?

Now, consider your options here. If you want to give someone access to an account after your death, how will you do it? Give them the password now? Write the password into your will (and update your will every time you change your password)? Keep a secret list with that password on it? None of these options are ideal — they all post a current security threat and leave the plan vulnerable if you forget to update the password with them in time.

Even if you expect your account will be deleted your family may step in and demand access, such as with Justin Ellsworth’s Yahoo account.

digital asset management

It’s one thing to know what should happen to your online accounts after death. It’s another to have some degree of control.

Get Your Free Entrustet Account

Sign-up with Entrustet is free, meaning you can set things in motion without paying a cent. After verification, you can immediately begin to add your accounts to Entrustet, nominating what should occur with them after your death.

digital assets

Note that Entrustet cannot control accounts which are covered by a regular will, such as bank accounts.

digital assets

Up to 2GB of documents may also be added to Entrustet thanks to a partnership with Mozy.

Who Looks After Your Entrustet Account?

You may choose a digital executor for your estate. This person will receive an email immediately notifying them of their role.

digital assets

You may add unlimited heirs to Entrustet and designate your accounts to them as you wish.

If you already have a lawyer looking after your affairs, you may add their details to Entrustet, ensuring they can easily work together when the time comes. You should also ensure your lawyer knows about your plans with Entrustet and your digital executor.

If you don’t yet have a legal will, Entrustet can point you in the direction of some who understand digital estates. There’s also plenty of places online where you can ask legal questions for free and get an understanding of what you need to do.

What Happens Then?

The Entrustet digital asset management service supplements your regular will. Your lawyer will look after your regular assets, while your digital executor will look after your digital estate.

digital asset management

After you die, your executor notifies Entrustet and supplies a death certificate as proof. They then go about transferring your accounts to the heirs as nominated.

Alternatives To Entrustet

There are several alternatives to Entrustet which all offer a similar service. No doubt as more people consider their digital assets worth protecting even more new services will spring up in competition. Entrustet is still one of the very best services in my eyes and very little could be done to improve on it from here. I would love to see them add oAuth and other automatic login services to their system, as it would save users from accidentally forgetting to update their passwords.

You may also be interested in reading about some other online services which help you to prepare for death.

What do you think of Entrustet? Will you use it to protect your digital assets? Why or why not?  If not, what will you use to ensure that your digital assets are properly passed on after you pass on? Let us know in the comments!


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Hot Tech Deals – Lenovo Laptop Dicsounts + more

Posted: 31 May 2011 01:30 PM PDT

It’s a good time to buy a brand new laptop, especially today with discounts on i3, i5 and i7 Lenovo Laptops and savings up to $350!

For more fresh hot deals, visit our Hot Tech Deals page, which is constantly updated.

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  3. Lenovo IdeaPad S205 AMD Dual-Core E-350 (FUSION) 11.6in Laptop (4GB/500GB) $399.99 via code USPS29526 (Exp 6/2)
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  6. Lenovo IdeaPad Y460p Intel Core i7-2630 Quad-Core Sandy Bridge 14in Laptop $849 via code DOORBUSTERY460p2 (Exp 6/1)
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7 Chrome Extensions That Help You Look Up Words & Meanings As You Browse

Posted: 31 May 2011 12:31 PM PDT

chrome word meaningsBloggers, wordsmiths, and writers of all hues live in a sea of words. Thanks to the web, we also live most of the time in our browsers. Looking up words for their meanings and definitions is no big deal. A glut of free online dictionaries has made it a matter of a selection and click. Helping you further are right-click context menu searches, browser add-ons and extensions. Just like any other browser, Chrome has its own legion of extensions that help us look up words and meanings as we browse.

The Chrome Web Store is where we are headed. Now let's pick up seven extensions that make word searching not only easy, but also fun and educational.

Google Dictionary (by Google)

chrome word meanings

This dictionary extension has probably seen the most downloads. On a webpage, you can double click on any word and see its complete definition displayed in a bubble. The extension supports multiple languages and also can translate a foreign word to your default language. Clicking on the reference link takes you to the Google Dictionary page where you can see more web definitions on the word. You can set language and other choices from the Options menu of the extension.

If you want a word meaning with a right click, install the Context Menu Button for Google Dictionary.

Dictionary Lookup

word definition add on

This dictionary extension sources word meanings from Wiktionary, but what's more revealing is the Dictionary Lookup Options page which tells you all about the handiness of this browser helper. The Content section allows you to streamline the information that you want to get with a click of the mouse. The meanings are displayed in a clean and minimal inline box. You can set the extension to show other info like usage examples, audio pronunciation and synonyms. You can also lookup manually-entered queries using a shortcut which displays a small lookup box.

Quickrr Dictionary

word definition add on

You can search for a dictionary meaning by clicking the address bar icon and entering the word in the field box. Quickrr also lets you lookup Google Dictionary, Google Image Search, and Wikipedia for the word. This extension could benefit from a richer display of meanings as it seems a bit too simplistic.

Image Definitions for Dictionaries

word definition extension

To enhance your vocabulary, it pays to use words in sentences and also visualize them with the help of real world images. This extension solves part of the recommendation by sourcing relevant images from Flickr and inserting them into the three online dictionaries it supports – Google Dictionary, Google Search (using the define: operator), and the Urban Dictionary. You can set it to search for 'Safe' images from the extension's Options.

Urban Dictionary Search

word definition extension

If you are talking about Urban Dictionary and if you want to look up the usage of a slang or a colloquial word, then this handy extension is just the thing to have in your Chrome browser. Click on the icon and enter the word. You will be taken to the page with the meaning in a trice.

Phras.in

word definition extension

If you are in any way interested in the English language then this phrase comparison extension is a must install. This extension is for the grammar buffs who would like to see which among two phrases is a better fit. You can compare two phrases and also contextualize them to see their usage in real world sentences.

Codec Dictionary

chrome word meanings

So far, we have catered to the English buffs. As this is a tech website, you could also do a bit with the Codec dictionary. It's a dictionary for multimedia geeks who want to look up words like DivX, colorspace, transcode etc. I have found it to be useful on more than one occasion. All the definitions are under 300 characters.

Remembering the meanings of all words that we are bombarded with every day may be a problem. Looking up their meanings and their usage context certainly is not with the help of these educational extensions. Do you have one installed in your Chrome extension gallery?


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Control What Permissions Applications Get With “Permissions Denied” [Android]

Posted: 31 May 2011 11:31 AM PDT

android application permissionsHere’s an interesting question: why does an application such as a Blackjack game require permission to send out SMS messages on your behalf, or read your phone identity? I’m not singling out this one application – it just popped up in a casual stroll through the market. The fact of the matter is that there are numerous applications that require very invasive permissions, and could potentially cost you money in all sorts of sneaky ways.

One solution is to just avoid such applications; Another solution may be to install them, but selectively deny their invasive permissions. That’s what Permissions Denied for Android offers.  But since Permissions Denied modifies basic system settings, you will need a rooted Android device to try it out.

As you start the app, you’re greeted with an inspiring quote from Yoda and a list of apps and their permissions:

android application permissions

Okay, so the graphics on that header could be a touch more polished, but we’re not here for the pretty looks. Let’s scroll down the list and tap Words With Friends to see what permissions Zynga’s scrabble clone requires.

android application permissions set

Instead of outputting a bunch of permission names and letting you figure out what they mean on your own, Permissions Denied takes the time to explain in elaborate detail what each and every permission means. The descriptions are clear and don’t use difficult jargon. Under each permission you can clearly see its current status.

I am not quite sure why Zynga needs access to all contact information stored on my phone. Let’s disable that permission:

android application permissions set

This is where we see the first root prompt. I gave Permissions Denied root access, of course. Once I did that, there was a notification asking me to wait for a few seconds, and then the READ_CONTACTS message was changed:

android application permissions set

There’s a bit of a contrast issue with the text and the background color, so I’ll type out the message here: “This permission will be disabled AFTER a reboot”. Alright, so we need to reboot. Tapping the Menu button reveals a single handy option:

android permissions app

How convenient. After tapping the menu option, Permissions Denied popped up a verification prompt, and once I confirmed, the phone rebooted.

android permissions app

After rebooting, I opened Permissions again and tapped Words With Friends to see if the permission was indeed disabled:

android application permissions

Indeed, the permission was disabled. That means Words With Friends can no longer access the contact information on my phone, and I’ve regained just a tad more privacy by sharing less of my personal information with Zynga.

Caveats

Before you try Permissions Denied, there are a couple of important issues you should be aware of:

  • Some applications may force-close if you disable their permissions. Obviously, not all permissions are there for nefarious purposes, and applications may try to use them at any time. It is strictly up to the developer to control how an application reacts when it doesn’t have permission to perform a certain activity. In simple terms, this means some apps may crash after you’ve denied them permissions. If that happens, you should be able to restore the permission and use the app again. Incidentally, Words With Friends worked just fine even after I denied its READ_CONTACTS permission.
  • Permissions Denied does not work on all phones, even if they’re rooted. The real test is the reboot: Once you deny a permission, reboot your phone and go back into Permissions Denied (as I did above). If the permission is still denied, it obviously worked. Otherwise, the permission would simply be marked as “Active”, as if you haven’t tried to disable it at all. The developer isn’t sure why this happens — he speculates it may be due to different ROMs.

Bottom Line

Permissions Denied is a worthwhile app, if only for the educational value. You might be surprised to discover what permissions certain apps require on your device, and what each permission means. Since it’s a completely free and open-source app, you’ve got nothing to lose by trying it out. If it works, you’ll gain that much more privacy and control over your data. To install it, go to the Permissions Denied page on the Android Market.


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Download & Stream Files & Torrents Faster With Fetch.io

Posted: 31 May 2011 10:31 AM PDT

faster torrent downloadsAre you an avid downloader? If you are, then you must know that direct downloads and torrents are two of the most popular ways to download files from the net. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. But all download methods are always limited by the download source. No matter how fast your connection is, your download can’t be faster than the source speed.

One new web service called Fetch.io tries to solve the problem by downloading the files to their server then letting users fetch those files faster from their server. The service works with torrent files and also files from online storage services. Best of all, the service is free during the beta testing period.

The Reason To Use Fetch.io

Why would anyone use this service? Wouldn’t it be easier to download the files that we want directly to our hard drive without any intermediate party?   Here are some reasons why you should consider using this :

  • Upon signing up, each user gets 20GB of storage and 40GB of bandwidth for free. Compared to other online storage services, 20GB of free online storage is a lot. The arrangement will change when the service leaves the beta stage, but Fetch.io has promised that a free option will always be available alongside the paid options.
  • Fetch.io will help users to download torrent files faster to its server and make the files available – either as streaming or as a direct download – also in a faster download speed. Since torrents tend to get slower in time as the number of seeders decrease, this feature is indispensable to torrent lovers.
  • Fetch.io will keep seeding the torrent file until it reaches 1:1.25 ratio. If you’re a torrent fanatic, you will know how important leech/seed ratio is. At the time of writing, the torrent feature is overloaded (by freeloaders, I assume). But other download features are working just fine.

Start Fetching & Streaming

After the usual registration process, you will arrive at your account’s file page. To start downloading, click the “Fetch Files” button.

faster torrent downloads

You’ll get a notification informing you that the torrent fetching is currently overloaded. If you feel lucky, you can try to use torrent fetching. It occasionally works.

faster torrent

Then paste the download link(s) in the “Paste Links” area. You can use any direct download link, or other supported links, including Rapidshare, Megaupload and MediaFire. You can paste more than one link if you want.

faster torrent

Click “Next” to continue.

faster torrent

You’ll get a confirmation window with a list of file(s) that you want to download. To continue, click “Fetch!“.

faster streaming downloads

You can monitor the download by looking at the progress bar. You can also see the download speed.

faster streaming downloads

I tried downloading a torrent file and failed, due to the overloaded service mentioned earlier. On the other hand, the direct download was completed successfully and the completed media file could directly be streamed/downloaded.

01zz torrent n download

To Download, To Stream, & More

All of your finished download(s) will appear on the “Files” page.

faster streaming downloads

When you hover above the file, you will have options to “Download“, “Share“, “Rename“, “Move“, and “Delete“.

02b download to desktop

If you click the “Download” link, the file will be downloaded to your computer, as any normal download would.

04c download

But if you choose to share the file, you will be given a link that you can share with your friends. To improve this feature, maybe Fetch.io can integrate a URL shortening feature to beautify its hideous share URL.

04e share

Other things that you could do aside from downloading files are uploading files from your computer and creating folders to further manage your downloaded files.

04f upload create folder

The ability to upload and share files gives users a stronger reason to use Fetch.io as an alternative file sharing service.

04g upload file

Another possible usage of Fetch.io is as an online media storage. You can upload (or download) your media files to its server and then open them from your mobile devices.

I tried to upload one of my songs, then logged into Fetch.io from my mobile browser and opened it. The song was automatically streamed and successfully played in the mobile media player. Those with limited storage in their mobile device can really use this solution to bring their media collection everywhere. But please note that streaming requires an Internet connection, and on a mobile device that could become very costly.

faster torrent downloads

What do you think of Fetch.io? Do you know of other similar services? Please share using the comments below.

Image credit: Sean Davis


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Google Search Now Shows Flight Schedules [News]

Posted: 31 May 2011 09:37 AM PDT

Just in time for the summer holidays, Google has begun to offer flight schedules in search results. This makes it a whole lot easier to quickly see regular flight scheduling, analyse how often your desired route is offered and which airlines offer the route you’re looking for.

It’s a move which is also reflected worldwide, including international routes and the smaller airports, which enables everyone to quickly ascertain their available holiday flights and which airlines to approach in order to purchase tickets. The results do not show pricing, but merely allow you to understand how often the flights run and how long they will take.

In order to search for flights, simply type in “flights” followed by your two end-points. For instance, “flights paris amsterdam” will show you flight schedules for the Paris to Amsterdam route.

In the basic results, you can easily see the airport codes, airlines which take this route, how long a direct flight will take and how often flights run per day. If you click on “Schedule of non-stop flights” you’ll also see details of the hours these flights generally run and their flight number.

It’s also possible to search for all flights from a certain location in order to find an easy holiday destination. To do this, search for “flights from XYZ” and replace XYZ with your local airport.

If you’re interested in cheap flights, you might also like to read about the 3 best websites to find cheap flights and the best sites for cheap travel deals for your next vacation.

Did you just search flights leaving your local airport? Has it got you thinking about possible trips to those locations? How do you think this will affect the travel industry? Let us know in the comments!

Source: MacWorld


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How To Shrink & Extend Volumes Or Partitions in Windows 7

Posted: 31 May 2011 09:31 AM PDT

extend partition windows 7When you have a large hard drive and some space to spare, it may make sense to create more than one volume on this hard drive. For example you could use additional partitions to separate system files and installed programs from personal files or to open up an entire volume as a network drive.

In Windows 7 and Windows Vista, resizing your volumes or re-partitioning your hard drive has become a lot easier than in previous Windows versions. However, there are still a few pitfalls that will require you to use third party applications rather than the internal Windows Disk Management tool. In this article I will show you how to change the size of volumes or create new ones and which tools to use.

Windows Disk Management

As mentioned above, Windows Vista and Windows 7 are equipped with a Disk Management tool. With this tool you can partition your hard drive, shrink or expand volumes, and create new ones. I will walk you through the process as seen on Windows 7.

To launch the Disk Management tool go to > Start and type > partition in the search box. From the results click > Create and format hard disk partitions.

extend partition windows 7

You will now see a list of volumes and their properties. They can refer to several hard drives or partitions on a single hard drive. Below is a screenshot of what my single hard drive setup looks like.

shrink partition windows 7

Right now I have three volumes (C, D, and E) and some unallocated space.

Example 1:

Let’s say you have a single hard drive and a single volume called C on which your operating system and all your programs are installed and on which you keep all your personal files. You have several GB of free space and want to create a new volume or partition called D to store all your personal data. You do not have any unallocated space.

Before you can create a new volume, you must free up space from which you can create it, meaning you have to create unallocated space. To do this, right-click on > C and select > Shrink Volume… Windows will take a moment to query the volume for available shrink space.

shrink partition windows 7

In my example, I only have 6217 MB available for shrinking. That’s because I already freed up 9.77 GB in unallocated space for this demonstration. You should leave at least 5 GB of free space on your C volume for Windows updates, program installations, and general Windows operations. Keep in mind that 1GB equals 1024 MB, in other words, leave at least 5120 MB of ‘available shrink space’ on C. Once you have decided on the amount of space to shrink, click the > Shrink button and wait a moment.

You will now see the space by which you shrinked C as unallocated space right next to your C volume. To create a new volume, right click > Unallocated and select > New Simple Volume…

shrink partition windows 7

The Volume Wizard will guide you through the process. You can decide how much of the unallocated space you want to assign to the new volume, you can pick a drive letter, and a file system.

partition windows 7

For the changes to come into effect, you have to reboot the computer.

Example 2:

Let’s say you already have two volumes called C and D. You want to shrink C and then add the unallocated space to D. You would go about it just as in the previous example, only that after creating the unallocated space, you would not create a new volume, you would attempt to extend volume D.

When you have unallocated space, you can in theory extend any partition by that space. Simply right-click the respective partition and select > Extend Volume… Now you might realize in frustration that this option is greyed out and hence not available.

partition windows 7

This is a limitation of Windows 7. You can only extend a volume with unallocated space that is located to its right. So in my setup, I could extend C, but I cannot extend D. This is when you need to turn to third party applications. I recommend EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition.

Another limitation in Windows 7 is that you can only shrink or extend NTFS or unformatted partitions.

EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition

In principle, this tool works the same as the Windows Disk Management tool. The difference is that it offers more features and is a lot more flexible, for example because you can extend a partition, regardless of where the unallocated space sits.

Right-click the respective partition and select > Resize/Move partition.

partition windows 7

In the window that opens you can either enter the numbers or drag the little balls on either side of your volume to change the size or move the partition.

move partition

When you’re done click > OK. In my example, the result looks like this:

extend partition windows 7

To make the changes come into effect, you must reboot your computer. Note that since the entire volume has to be rewritten, this process can take quite a while. Moreover, you should make a backup of your data before you are moving a partition!

If you found this post helpful, you might also be interested in the following articles:

How many internal hard drives and partitions on each drive do you have and if you have more than one, what do you use them for?


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GDocsDrive and Speck CandyShell Flip Giveaway Winners

Posted: 31 May 2011 09:00 AM PDT

And now, it’s time to announce the winners of the 2 giveaways which recently came to a close.

Do you think that you’re lucky enough to bag a free iPhone case or a license for GDocsDrive? Find out now.

GDocsDrive

  1. David Rainbolt
  2. Nikki Rettelle
  3. Frances Nicola Mendez
  4. Mandy
  5. Rigoberto Garcia
  6. Steve Clayton
  7. Rick McIntire
  8. Kris Wenrick
  9. Kajsa Sexton
  10. Johnson Osonwa Ukaike
  11. Mike Baker
  12. Jaros?aw Janeczek
  13. Mosko
  14. Dale Millson
  15. Donal CahalanE
  16. Jose Hernandez
  17. Mikeyuniati
  18. Tim Nicholls Harrison
  19. Phillip Neal
  20. Toni
  21. Tony Butka
  22. Steve Dougherty
  23. Debbie Mathews
  24. Mary bricker-jenkins
  25. Gil Salazar

Speck CandyShell Flip

  1. Curtis Blair
  2. Vic Carter
  3. Dan Garcia
  4. Chris Patton
  5. Dustin Garrett

Congratulations! To the GDocsDrive giveaway winners, your licenses have already been sent via email. To the Speck giveaway winners, an email has been dispatched to retrieve your shipping details. Please confirm in 48 hours in order to claim your prize.

Enjoy!


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How To Turn On Your PC With Your Android Phone Using Wake-On-LAN

Posted: 31 May 2011 08:31 AM PDT

android wake on lan appIf you're a techie, one of the first things you do when you walk in the door is turn on your computer. Perhaps you simply tap your keyboard or mouse, or maybe you press the power button. Either way, you have to be at your computer before you can start it.

Wouldn't it be easier if your computer was ready for you as soon as you sat down? If you own an Android device, that's possible thanks to a free app called PC Auto Waker. The setup can be a little complex, but the payoff makes it worthwhile.

The Quick & Easy Setup

android wake on lan app

Once you've downloaded PC Auto Waker off the Android marketplace, you'll need to set it up so that it has the ability to communicate with your computer. It depends on 802.11 WiFi, but it's not necessary for each computer to have WiFi hardware. The PC you'd like to wake only needs to be connected to a broadcasting WiFi router.

The basic setup consists of three steps. First, you'll need to enter a name for the computer you're going to wake. This name DOES NOT have to be the same as the computer's network name. This is merely a way of identifying the computer in the app's interface.

android wake on lan

After that, you'll need to enter the MAC address of the target computer. Do a Windows Search for  ”cmd” to open your command line interface, then type ipconfig/all and press enter. The MAC address will appear as a string of six two-digit numbers labeled Physical Address.

Finally, you need to enter the SSID of the wireless network the target computer is connected to. It's not necessary to enter any security information, regardless of whether the WiFi network is secured or not.

Once you've handled all of that, it's time to see if you're set! Place your computer into sleep or hibernate mode, and press the Wake All button in the PC Auto Waker app. If it works, great! If not, you have a few other settings to mess with.

The Nitty-Gritty Setup

If your computer did not wake it's probably because the computer is not set up to accept a Wake-On-LAN packet. Fortunately, most computers can be configured so that they will accept it.

android wake on lan

First, restart your computer and enter BIOS. This is done by entering the correct key at boot, which should be indicated on the POST screen that appears before Windows beings loading. Once you've entered BIOS, look for the Wake-On-LAN setting and enable it. You're likely to find this along with other settings related to power management or networking, but BIOS vary from computer to computer, so you'll have to do some digging of your own.

android wake on lan app

Once you've enabled Wake-On-LAN in BIOS, you'll need to make sure Windows is configured properly as well. Do a Windows Search for Device Manager and open it, then navigate down to Network Adapters. Right-click on the one you use to connect with the Internet and then click Properties. On the Power Management tab you will find three checkboxes. If they're not already checked, do so.

This should clear up any trouble that's causing PC Auto Waker to malfunction.

Conclusion

PC Auto Waker is an awesome app. Once you have it set up, your computer will start as soon as your phone makes a connection with your WiFi network. This means you can walk in the door knowing that your PC is already starting. It's magic!

What do you think about it?  Are there any similar Android wake on LAN apps that do a better job?  If so, let us know about them in the comments.


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