Monday, 28 October 2013

Best dictionary for Smartphones and PCs - Wordweb


We all at some or the other time need a dictionary to consult with. No matter where we go or what we do. No matter if we are reading something by someone or we are ourselves into a writing process, we need to clarify meanings of various words regularly (If you do not do that, you should).
I have been looking quite a lot of dictionary software but nearly all of them had some other the other lacking or annoying thing about them.
Finally I came across Wordweb. A powerful dictionary with neatness.
Well, I would keep this post as simple as I can. So let us discuss the most attractive features about Wordweb that I rejoice all the times...

* Wordweb dictionary is available for Windows, MacOS, Android, iPhone, iPad etc.
* It is Free! We all love free things. ;) No annoying ads either!
* Simple and easy but powerful interface.
* Equipped with an enormous word database that works fully offline - without any need of internet.
* Each and every word you see is clickable! There are instances when you find that we may not understand meanings of words within a definition of a word. Simply click on the word and it's meaning would be displayed.
* It keeps word history. You can go through all the words which you looked up in the dictionary. It is a handy feature to help you recall and memorize the already searched words...
* Easy pronunciation is present for each word.
* It may also present online references to words if you prefer so.

Download for PC and Mac from their official website:
http://www.wordwebsoftware.com
For iPhone/iPad and Android, the app can be searched in App Store and Play store respectively.


Friday, 26 July 2013

Make your android phone's battery last longer!


Android devices are really powerful and the ability to multi-task in android seamless. On the other hand, it comes at a cost of high battery consumption! Well, that is one of the only negative points about using android. There are certain tips by which you may make your android phone's battery last longer than it normally would.

The key towards making your android phone's battery last longer is to reduce the burden of processing, memory and above all network (internet/data usage).

Disable features when not in use

From energy saving point of view, the features that literally eat away the battery are GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Mobile data. Do keep them all off unless you absolutely do not need them.

Uninstall useless or rarely used apps

Most of the apps create services in the background that would hog memory and waste CPU's power and consequently consume more battery power. You may uninstall such apps or if there are certain apps which you think you would need after some time, you may use an app called "App Backup and Restore" to create archives of the apps. You may uninstall those apps after archiving them. Those archives then then be restored later on when you need them.

Reduce the apps that may remain open in background.

Uninstall any apps that you think may remain open in background. Typical example for such apps is messenger apps like: Whatsapp, WeChat, LINE, Kik, Skype, Gtalk etc. Their services would be sitting in background checking and waiting for new messages, wasting your phone's resources and consuming network traffic. They tend to drain your battery very fast by being busy on network. You may reduce the number of such apps as much as possible by uninstalling them.

Reduce the use of live widgets and live wallpapers

Live widgets and live wallpapers consume much resources even while you're using your home screen or even when you wish to keep your device on standby.

Close apps after use

Make it a habit to close down any app which you are done using. You may do that simply by long pressing the 'home' key and swiping the app's thumbnail sideways.

Disable Transition animations

Animations do that considerable processing for generating and displaying the intermediate frames. You may disable the transition animations by going to:
Settings > Developer Options

Use Power Saving mode

The android devices are now-a-days equipped with powerful CPUs (which for sure wastes energy on standby or less-load times). Whenever you do not use any processing intensive apps, you should use the Power Saving mode which will make your phone work a bit slower but in a more energy efficient manner.

Use flight mode when battery is to be conserved for future.

Keep your android phone in Flight mode whenever you wish to conserve battery and when you can do without receiving calls or messages too. Or if at all you need to conserve the battery without any loss, switch off your phone and switch it back on when needed. 

Use battery extender apps like Du Battery saver.

There are quite a lot of apps available which will do all the cleaning and optimizing jobs on your phone to help you extend your battery backup time. Du Battery Saver is one good way to go.

I hope these tips would help you extend your battery backup time.

Please write your comments or additions to this subject. :)

Wednesday, 1 May 2013

Best Cloud Hosting (Togglebox Review)


I usually do not write reviews of any kind. But this one would be more of a 'Thank you' message to Togglebox.

I had been using one of the UK's best dedicated hosting providers. Well, they have been the best. No complaints against them. Resources are resources and we, most of the times, already know what we buy and how much performance we would get from it. The real tension comes in when in crisis: misconfiguration, server overload, network issues, 'superstitions' etc. In those times one needs a helping hand one one's shoulder to wade through the situations, in a right direction. To sum up, I am referring to Customer Support, of course. My previous company provided me that too, promptly whenever needed.

I have been very happy with their services. But my pocket was not. Their services were quite expensive so I had to find an alternative.

For several last months I have been looking for a suitable dedicated host as a replacement in order to:
1. Cut down recurring costs.
2. Upgrade the system resources to more powerful ones.
3. Shift my datacenter to US (US has better connectivity than any other country if one has global users)

So then, I had to Google, Google, Google and Gooooooogle my way...

My requirements overall have been:
1. Good amount of RAM/Memory.
2. Powerful multi-core processors.
3. As less disk space space as possible.
4. High speed network.
5. Good support which would be rarely but critically consulted with.
6. Reliability (everyone needs it)

When searching for a good hosting provider, Google can confuse a lot these days. Whoever offers you good system resources would be over priced. Even if you manage to get some too-good-to-be-true deals, reliability and support would be questionable.

ENTER TOGGLEBOX

After surfing hundreds of hosting providers I arrived on Togglebox. The quick attractions to hold me there was the easy scalability, reasonable prices and instant bubble chat for support. Later I realized that Togglebox provided me all those services which my previous host provided me at a very reasonable price.

After showing some typical consumer behavior, I finally signed up for a Togglebox Cloud Package. I was amazed at the almost instant setup!

UI and AUTOMATED SYSTEM
The UI for management is very smooth and highly functional. I could easily allocate, divide and manage my resources. Also I can easily ssh into my server from the management panel. It is quite helpful in case server firewall bans my own IP during testing.

NETWORK and UPTIME
Togglebox's network is super fast and I never faced any issue till now. Also there have been no downtimes at all!

SUPPORT
Another amazing quality of Togglebox is their Support Chat. They provide 24x7 support. Their staff are very friendly and well armed with knowledge and functionality to assist.

PRICE
Togglebox's services are really very genuine. The best part is that you pay for only what you want and what you use! For an example, in my case I did not need much disk space so I deliberately kept it less.

THE BEST PART
Cloud infrastructure is truly a revolution. It saves you from conventional hardware failures especially like disk failures. So no data losses ever! Also the cloud would always perform very stable no matter what. Togglebox provides SAN storage which is many times faster than normal disk i/o. It surely makes the web sites superfast and highly available!

MY SPECIAL THANK-YOU!
I would like to thank Togglebox and all their staff for their unmatched service and support. Especially I would like to thank Sam for having helped me when I was full of dilemma and despair. Sam, thank you for helping me with Nameservers, Mailserver, MX entries etc. You are one of the best assets of Togglebox. Also I would like to thank Rafael and Veer for having helped me with several issues I faced.

CONCLUSION
I would highly recommend Togglebox to anyone who needs highly performing resources, amazing network and superb 24x7 support through chat, all for a very genuine price.

Personal recommendation: If your site(s) do(es) not need a lot of disk space like me, shifting to Togglebox will highly cut down a big recurring cost.

Friday, 4 January 2013

Recover accidently deleted files


You may recover accidently deleted files very easily using an application called Recuva. It is free, small and efficient. :)

Download link:


Do let me know if you face any issues or you have any questions. I would be happy to help.