December, 2010 | TECHRENA dot Net

Gmail For Android Gets Priority Inbox

December 10, 2010 by bharath

Google has just updated the Gmail Android app (version 2.3.2) with some really interesting feature additions. Gmail app for Android devices now supports the Priority Inbox feature which is already available in the desktop version of the Google’s free email service.

Priority inbox includes all the important messages (both read and unread) in your inbox. All the important messages will carry marker.

Gmail priotiy inbox in Android

You can always change the importance of a message from the menu.

What’s more? You can also get notified (vibrate, notify or ring) when an important mail arrives in your inbox. To set this, just go to Menu > Settings > Priority Inbox and configure the settings.

The other improved features in the Gmail for Android 2.3.2 include the improved compose mode. When composing a reply, you can quickly choose to reply only to sender, reply to all or to forward the mail.

Reply options in Gmail for Android

You can also choose a custom from address while composing a new email message, a feature which is already available in the desktop client from long time.

Custom from address in Gmail for Android

The update is available only for the users of Android 2.2 (Froyo) or later versions (Gingerbread). To get the latest version of the Gmail Android app, go to this Android Market Place link from your Android device or scan the following image your barcode or QR reader app. Have Android 2.1? Sorry, no luck!

QR Code:

Gmail for Android QR code

[How To] Disable Aero Peek In Windows 7

December 9, 2010 by bharath

Aero Peek is another nice Windows 7 feature that makes use of the “Aero” effects along with Aero Snap and Aero Shake. When you hover your mouse over the small rectangle found at the right extreme of your taskbar, you will see the desktop with the outlines of the active application windows s shown above. However, if you don’t use it much, you would like to disable it. Here are the two simple ways in which you can do it,

Method-1:

1. Right-click on the Taskbar and choose “Properties”.

2. Under the “Taskbar and Start Menu Properties” window, uncheck against “Use Aero Peek to preview the desktop”.

Click “OK” button to save the settings and close the window.

The “Aero Peek” effects should now be disabled. There’s another alternative away you can achieve the same.

Method-2:

1. Right-click on the Computer link on your Start Menu and choose “Properties”.

2. A new window will open up. Click on the “Advanced system settings” in the left side pane.

System settings in Control Panel

3. In the new “System Properties” window, click on the “Settings” button under the “Performance” tab.

System properties settings

4. Under the “Visual Effects” tab in the “Performance Options” window, scroll down until you find “Enable Aero Peek” option. Uncheck against and click “OK” to apply the settings and close the settings window.

Aero Peek settings in Performance Options

That is it! You have now disabled the Aero Peek in your Windows 7. To enable it again, just check the option back again in method 1 or method 2.

Get A Cr-48 Chrome Notebook As Part Of The Google’s Pilot Program

December 8, 2010December 8, 2010 by bharath

Google Chrome OS

Google has yesterday officially announced the details of the upcoming Google Chrome OS and also showcased the first ever Chrome OS laptop called “Cr-48 Chrome Notebook”. The netbook will have a 12.1-inch screen with a full sized (but tweaked a bit) keyboard, Qualcomm Gobi 3G chip (Verizon-only in US), Wi-Fi, more than 8 hours of usage on battery, a webcam and flash storage. The keyboard has been made such a way that there are no traditional “Caps lock” and “function” keys on it. Instead a new “Search” key has been added in place of the “Caps lock” key, which lets you quickly access the Google search just with a click. The full keyboard looks almost similar to that of Apple’s keyboard.

Cr-48 Chrome OS laptop

Google has launched a Chrome OS Pilot Program, through which it will initially distribute the Cr-48 Chrome OS laptops to those who are really interested in testing them out. Later, by mid-2011, laptop makers Acer and Samsung should be coming up with their own laptop models based on the Chrome OS. If you want to get this laptop, go here and apply.

Test drive Chrome notebook

Google is giving away only limited number of models for testing to interested users and if you are lucky (if you are in the US, chances are high!) you could also be one of those who get their hands on this notebook even before most of the others could get, Good luck!

via Engadget

Related: Is Chrome OS virus free?

[How To] Password Protect A Folder Without Using Any Third Party Software

December 6, 2010 by bharath

If you own a multi-user computer, you will always feel the necessity to password protect your important data so that other users will not have a direct access to it. If you want to lock or password protect your folders, consider using this free software (Secure Folder) to do it. It is easy to configure and use. However, if you are one of those who thinks you get all these sort of things worked on your Windows with tweaks, here is a classic (has been around since the days of Windows XP!) trick which allows you to lock (using a password) and make the folder invisible in Windows 7, Windows Vista and of course Windows XP. Follow these steps:

Steps:

1. Open notepad and type the following code saved in this text file.

2. Replace “ENTER YOUR PASSWORD” with your own password in the following line.

if NOT %pass%== ENETR_YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE goto FAIL

3. Save the file as a .bat (batch) file (you can name it whatever name you want)

Save as batch file

4. Now double-click on the .bat file that you have just saved. A new “Private” folder will be created.

5. Copy and paste all your private and important data to this “Private” folder.

6. Now again double-click on the batch (.bat) file. A command prompt window will ask you for confirmation. Press “y” to continue.

Lock folder private with password

7. The “Private” folder will go missing this time and you can only find the .bat file.

Private folder gone missing

If you have enabled the “Folder Options” to show the hidden files, you will an empty “Control Panel” system folder.

8. To get the folder back, double-click the .bat file again and you will be asked to enter the password that you have set in the step 2.

Enter password to open private folder

The “Private” folder re-appears again!

Private folder

You can see that the trick actually works but there’s a small catch. Anyone can open the above batch file in a text editor and can actually see the password that you had entered. Hence we’ll try to convert this batch file to an .exe (executable) file so that it can’t be opened it in text editor.

To workaround this issue, download this Batch to Exe file converter and convert the above .bat file to an .exe file. That is it!

Download Dropbox 1.0

December 6, 2010 by bharath

Dropbox

Dropbox has reached to 1.0! A nice achievement there. Dropbox team has released RC version of the Dropbox 1.0 which is available now for free download. For starters, Dropbox is a pretty popular too which allows you to store your desktop files on the cloud, share them and access them from anywhere in the world over the internet, irrespective of the platform (be it Windows, Mac, Linux or even any mobile OS). Dropbox also synchronizes the files between your offline directories and online directories to make sure it always has the latest version of the files within it.

dropbox graphic

Dropbox 1.0.0 RC is coming with a plenty of bug fixes and performance improvements and the latest version will use lesser CPU resources to run. The most appealing feature in the 1.0 RC version of the Dropbox is “Selective Sync..” which allows you to control which folders should be synced to your computer.

Dropbox preferences

Selective sync in dropbox

Selective Sync would be very useful in saving the bandwidth for you. With Selective Sync, you can choose a folder to be on the Dropbox server as backup without still needing the folder to be synced to all the machines where you use Dropbox. Download the Release Candidate version of Dropbox 1.0.0 from the following direct links.

Download Dropbox 1.0:

Windows [13.96 MB]

Mac OS X [20.90 MB]

Linux: x86 [13.77 MB] x86_64 [14.54 MB]

Note:

There are some bugs being reported by users on Mac and Linux when upgrading from 0.7.110 to 1.0.0. You might not want to install this version if you are on any one of those two platforms. However there’s a workaround available on Dropbox forum (scroll down to note section) to get this work.

Upgrade To Facebook New Profile

December 6, 2010 by bharath

Facebook has finally decided to give a facelift to the Facebook profiles. The new Facebook profile page will have basic information like where are you from, where you studied, your work location etc. Below that, there are some recent pictures where you have been recently tagged.

Below your profile pic, you will find some of your featured friends. Facebook lets you to choose the features friends from your list of friends, whom you feel are more important to you. You may create new groups of friends or may also choose to feature existing friend lists.

The new Facebook profiles also enables you to share your interest and activities. You can list the projects that you worked for your employer (you can also tag co-workers who worked with you!), favorite music bands, sports teams, political affiliations, and your favorite people you admire etc.

Facebook’s new “infinite scroll” feature lets you easily browse your photos. You can now search in the Friends page with number of dimensions like: search by name, hometown etc.

How To Start Using New Facebook Profile ?

1. Go to facebook.com/about/profile and click “Get the New Profile” button.

2. The page will list some of your information that Facebook already has. Click the “Edit Profile” link to add some more details about you.

When you are done, your new profile page will look like the one shown in the above pic, and all of your friends will be notified showing that you now have the new profile.

Please note that once you upgrade to new profile, there is no option to get back to the older version of the Facebook profile as of now. All the Facebook profile pages of your friends will be shown in the newer format no matter whether they are using the new profile version or older one.

via Facebook blog

[Download] Realtek R2.55 HD Audio Drivers

April 17, 2011December 6, 2010 by bharath

Realtek has recently released a new updated version of the HD audio driver codecs, Realtek High Definition Audio driver R2.55. Apparently there are no feature updates or fixes released with this version. This may be the reason why they haven’t released any release notes with the release of Audio Codes Driver R2.55.

If you are happy with using earlier version of Realtek HD Audio Codecs Driver you may choose to skip this update. However, if you are having with HD audio output of your audio device, download this HD Audio Driver R2.55 for Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP systems. Download the driver package from the direct download links added below.

Download Realtek HD Audio Driver R2.55:

Windows 7/Vista [32/64 bits – 77.92 MB – Exe file] [link expired]

Windows XP [32/64 bits – 30.55 MB – Zipped file] [link expired]

[How To] Change Keyboard Input Language In Windows 7

December 5, 2010 by bharath

Keyboard layout preview

Windows 7 allows you to change the default input language of your keyboard like most other operating systems do. This is pretty straightforward if you follow the steps mentioned below:

Steps:

1. Go to Control Panel, click “Change keyboards or other input methods” under the Clock, Language, and Region section.

2. A new Region and Language window pops up. Click on “Change keyboards..” button:

Region and Language

3. Again a new “Text Services and Input Languages” window opens up. To add a new keyboard input language, just click “Add” button found under the “General” tab.

Add keyboard input language

4. Choose the language that you want to add, check against it and click “Preview” too see how it looks like before adding it.

Add input language in keyboard

Keyboard french layout preview

Click OK to add this input language to your keyboard.

5. Your newly selected input language will appear under the “Installed services”.

keyboard input languages installed

Select the input language and you can either move it or move down on the order of priority. You will also get an option to “Remove” the added input language.

6. From the “Default input language” option, select the input language that you want to from the dropdown list and click “Apply” button.

select default input language

That is it! You have successfully changed your keyboard input language. Open notepad or any text editor to test the newly added input language.

[Tip] Force Chrome To Use Flash Player 10.2 Beta

December 4, 2010December 4, 2010 by bharath

Google Chrome logo

Adobe has recently updated the Flash Player and released the beta version of the Flash Player 10.2. The newer version included a major feature upgrades like Stage Video hardware acceleration which decreases your CPU utilisation when playing HD videos. When you download the flash player and install, you will understand that it’s only going to be used by all the browsers except Google Chrome. You may wonder why is Google Chrome left alone! But the fact is that Google Chrome (32-bit browser) includes a built-in Adobe Flash Player. Chrome automatically updates the Flash Player whenever there is new version of Chrome is released.

So even though you have installed the beta version of Flash Player 10.2, Chrome still uses the stable version of the flash player. To make Google Chrome use the 10.2 beta version instead, follow these steps:

1. Open Google Chrome, type about:plugins in the address bar and hit enter.

2. Expand the “Details” button on the upper right corner

3. Under the “Flash”, you should see two versions, one is the integrated plug-in and the other is the system plug-in file.

If you are on Windows, the location of the integrated plug-in would be :

C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Applications\<version>\gcswf32.dll

location of the system plug-in would be:

C:\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash\NPSWF32.dll

If you are on other platforms, these are file names for the integrated and system plug-ins:

Platform	Integrated Plug-in	System Plug-in
Windows	gcswf32.dll	NPSWF32.dll
Mac OS	Flash Player Plug-in for Chrome.plugin	Flash Player.plugin
Linux	libflashplayergc.so	libflashplayer.so

4. To force Chrome to use the beta version of the flash player, you must disable the integrated plug-in gcswf32.dll (i.e the plugin that is found in the Chrome folder) as shown. Click “Disable” button against it.

Disable integrated flash plugin in chrome

And when you have done that, it should look like this:

Disabled integrated flash plugin in chrome

That is it! Restart Google Chrome and see if the browser is able to load the flash content on the pages( ex: this Stage Video). If it is able to do, then it is to understood that the it is making use of the beta version of the flash player.

Note:

If you disable the Google Chrome’s integrated flash player plug-in, you will no longer receive the important security updates for the built-in plug-in and you need to use the system installed plug-in which has to be updated manually. Also, disabling this built-in Chrome plug-in will disable the Google Chrome’s sandboxing techniques incorporated to make the plug-in more secure. It is highly recommended that you use the integrated plug-in unless you really want to test some features using flash player beta on Chrome.

If you want to enable the integrated plug-in back, enable it in the step 4 to make run Chrome using it.

[via]

[Tip] Disable Or Remove GoogleUpdate.Exe Process

December 4, 2010 by bharath

When you install Google products like Google Chrome, Picasa and others on your system, new Google Update service gets installed on your computer, responsible for running “googleupdate.exe” process in regular intervals. This process regularly contacts Google servers to check if there are any updates available to the Google products that you have installed on your system. Agree, this is essential to keep your Google products up-to-date by installing the important security updates etc., but definitely you may not like to dedicate some of your CPU resources to the process to keep it running continuously. The same process is responsible for the Automatic Silent Update feature in Google Chrome. If you don’t want to run Googleupdate.exe process on your computer, follow these steps to stop running it on your computer.

You can’t find the GoogleUpdate.exe in the start up items using msconfig, but you can surely find it in the Task Scheduler as it gets added to the Windows Task Scheduler.

Steps:

1. Go Start Menu, type “tasks” in the search box and click “Task Scheduler” from the results under “Programs” section.

2. Find an entries starting with “GoogleUpdate” in the tasks and disable or remove them to stop running again on your computer.

disable google update tasks

3. Press Windows + R to open the RUN command box, type “regedit” and hit OK.

regedit in run command

4. In the registry editor, try and see of you can find an entry with value “Google Update” in the following paths:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run                                                     
                        and       
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

If you could find a value with that name, right-click on “Google Update” and select “Delete”. Restart your system to see the changes in effect.

Please note that when you remove GoogleUpdate.exe, the Google software will not be updated automactically you might need to download the updated versions manually. Also when you install any other products like Google Earth, the GoogleUpdate.exe comes back to your system and you might need to repeat the above steps all over again!