Why Microsoft Allows People To Use Pirated windows

If you think you are  smart enough to get away with Pirated Windows, then I am must tell you that you are wrong. The moment you connect your PC to the internet, Microsoft can easily detect if you are running pirated version of Windows 7/8 or not.

So this brings us to the Question Why Microsoft allows people to steal their product ?

Honestly, if Microsoft does not want people using their OS without paying, they would have stop it long ago. As of now they do not really care about privacy in developing countries like India and China. And this what Bill Gates had to say about this.

Although about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, people don’t pay for the software. Someday they will, though, And as long as they’re going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They’ll get sort of addicted, and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.

[BizSpark]

Therefore it won’t be untrue to say that, Piracy helps windows to build their customer base.

On the other hand even tough Piracy is morally wrong (which few of us care about) there are also some disadvantages to it. For example no tech support, vulnerability to malware and annoying pop-up alerts to activate your windows.

Therefore if you can’t afford License windows you can give try to Linux distros which are free and quite user-friendly these days. Or just like Mr. Gate assume next time when you money, make sure you buy paid Windows version.

For startups, it’s hard to pay for their software requirements as most of them run short in their funding. To solve this issue Microsoft has introduced   global program global program where software startups can have FREE access to Microsoft software development tools for 12 months.

Read more »

5 YouTube URL Tricks That You Can Learn in 5 Min

As you are reading this, over 3 million YouTube videos are already watched, by the people around the world. [source]. YouTube is second most popular Search engine after Google. But instead of just streaming those funny cat videos there is much more you can do on YouTube. (See the following tutorial)

Here are some YouTube url tricks, you can learn in less than 5 minutes but will be useful for the rest of your life.

1. How can I download videos from YouTube

YouTube don’t allow its users to download videos however there already tons of programs and online websites that can do it for you. But why do we bother about those bulky programs when we can easily dot that with this simple urltrick, by Replacing youtube with ssyoutube in the video url.

This workaround is not only for videos but you can also directly download YouTube videos as mp3 and listen offline on your mobile devices.

2. How to put a YouTube video on repeat

If you are having a party or just want to listen to your new favourite songs on YouTube again and again you can easily do so by Replacing youtube with repeatyoutube in the video url.

3. How to watch age restricted videos

This trick is useful when you are working in your office or some public computers and don’t want to login to your YouTube account to check out some spicy video on YouTube

To do that just Replace youtube with nsfwyoutube in the video url.

4. How To Download YouTube Thumbnail Images

If you want to use only the thumbnail image of the video on your website or insert in your video as a reference than you can easily get the highest resolution. To do that Copy the video id of the video, for which you want the thumbnail and then paste it in the following url.

http://img.youtube.com/vi/<video_id_here>/maxresdefault.jpg

For instance, to get the thumbnail of this YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZNpr78WTqQ, the code will be http://img.youtube.com/vi/QZNpr78WTqQ/maxresdefault.jpg

5. How to make a gif from a YouTube video

Since all major social network now supports animated gif (not Facebook yet) you will need a quick and easy way to get gif from YouTube video. And the easiest way to do this is by Replacing youtube with gifyoutube in the video url.

 Note

In case you are getting 404 error while redirection to these websites then make sure to remove the https part from the url. This secure connections tends to block the redirection to third-party websites.

Even tough these YouTube Tips and Tricks has been there for a while now, but since most of them are not officially related to YouTube they can disappear anytime. But until then make hay till sun shines.

Read more »

Find out How Well Two Person Know Each Other on Facebook

So you are curious to find out if two people you know on Facebook already; knows each other. And you even want to find out, the kind of relationship they have ? Are they close friends or simply acquaintance.

Off-course there is no 100% solution for this, but there is one simple trick that will give you a lot more information about any two people’s relationship on Facebook.

When you want to find out if two people already know each other or wants to study their relationship, then copy the paste the following url and replace the  username1 and username2  with the Facebook’s username of the those people.

https://www.facebook.com/username1?and=username2

This link will bring you to a page listing their mutual friends, photos and events that they both have shared together. The good part is, it’s not necessary to have those people in your friend list. You can check relationship between any two people all you need is their username.

If you scroll down you can see years appearing on the left side of the screen. Clicking on them will give
exact information that is publicly available at that particular year; like wall post, life events, birthday wishes etc. Therefore using this stats you can guess the kind of relationship they have which would have been difficult otherwise.

Read more »

16 Things You Didn’t Know Your ES File Explorer Can Do

ES file explorer is a popular file manager app; that everyone has, but no one uses it quite well.

On the surface it may looks like a regular file manager app. But if you dig deeper, you will be surprised to see its potential. This single app can do work of more than 10 apps. For instance using ES file explorer you can extract .apk & uninstall multiple apps at once, access your computer over WiFi, create encrypted folders, edit host files etc etc.

1. Access your Computer from Android over WiFi 

This option enable you to browse your computer directly from your android. Open your ES file explore and goto Fast Access menu by swiping the screen from left to right.

Tap on Network > LAN > Scan on ES file explorer.

2. Browsing android files from your PC   

This is helpful, while transferring files from PC to android. Before knowing about this feature, I used Airdroid, but not anymore.

From your ES file explorer > Network >  Remote Manager > turn ON.

Once you start the service, ES file manager will display a ftp url. Enter it, in any computer’s browser (connected to same WiFi network as your android) and access content of your android SD card.

3. Quickly Uninstall multiple apps  

To uninstall multiple apps at once, open your ES file explorer > Library > App. Select the apps you want to uninstall and tap on uninstall. All the selected apps will be uninstall one by one.

4. Hiding media from gallery 

If you wish to hide content of any folder, from appearing in your gallery (or photo for lollipop users) then simply rename the folder, by adding a full stop in front of its name.

For example, to hide WhatsApp images from appearing in your gallery, simply navigate to ‘WhatsApp_image‘ folder on your SD card and rename the folder name to ‘.WhatsApp_images‘.

5. Extract apk from your install apps  

From quick access menu > goto library > Apps > select the application whose .apk you want to extract > and select backup option from bottom menu.

6. Quickly Transfer big files between two Android  

Connect the two android under same WiFi network. If you don’t have WiFi then you can even connect them with device’s hotspot.

Launch ES file manager > choose the files you want to transfer > then tap on the send option > it will list the other android, select it and tap on send.

7. Remove pre-installed system apps [ROOT]

To uninstall system apps launch file explorer > root explorer > turn it on > tap on the root explore name > select ‘uninstall system app’ from the pop menu.

A window will open with list of all system apps, select the app you want to uninstall and tap on the uninstall app at the bottom.

8. Installing Any App As System App [ROOT]  

This is done in 2 part.

First move the apk of the app that you want to install as system app. To do this copy the apk in the clipboard and navigate to Local > device > system > app, and paste your apk.

Second part requires you to, change its permission. This can be done selecting the apk, you have just paste > tap on ‘more’ at the bottom right > select permission > change the permission to what shown below.

Read detail guide at Addictivetips.

9. Deleting pattern lock on android  [ROOT] 

Android pattern is store is ‘gesture.key’ file found under  Local > device > data > system. If you delete this file, then your lock pattern will be disabled however, it will disable your pattern lock. So you will still have pattern lock, but it can be open with any pattern. This is cool to trick prank your friends

10. Increase your flappy bird score [ROOT]  

Install flappy bird and play it for once. Now from your ES file explorer, navigate to flappy bird’s data folder. It can be found under Local > device > data > data > com.dotgears.flappybird >shared_pref > flappyBird.xml.

Edit the flappybird.xml file and put any score, you want under value field. Save the change and close the file. Next time you open flappy bird your score will change to what you set.

11. Create an encrypted files with password protection

If you have sensitive data in your android, that you don’t want other to see, For instance a private video or images. then the best approach is to encrypt it, with password protecting. right ?

Well look no further, because using ES file manager you can encrypt any files, with password protection. And once you that the content will automatically be hidden from your gallery as well.

12. Edit host files on android [root]

Like Computer OS, android also has a host file, which is used to map host names to IP addresses.

But if you want to block a particular website for your children, or for any other reason , you can simple edit the host file by mapping the website name to localhost ie your own android.

Go to your host file from device > system > etc > hosts. Edit the host file using ES text editor and put the localhost ip addresses (127.0.0.1) in front of the domain name of website you wan to block. (see screenshot)

13. Save files directly to your Dropbox & Google drive

Very few people know, that ES file explore has built-in cloud storage. This is helpful because you don’t need to install third-party application for Dropbox or Google drive.

Moreover moving files between cloud storage and your SD card is much quicker as this feature is build in right into your file manager.

14. Use ES file explorer as browser

Another less known feature of ES file manager is built-in Internet apps like Facebook, Google and YouTube.

Now this is not substitution of original Facebook app or browser like chrome. but you can use them when your friends want to login to their account but you don’t want to sing out.

15. Mount Pen drive on Android using ES file manager [root]

To do this trick, you will need- OTG cable, rooted android device that support OTG cable, pen drive, ES file explorer and stick mount android app.

Install stick mount on your android and connect the USB end of otg cable, to pen drive and micro USB end to your android. After successful connection, the app will popup a alert box, listing the directory where you’ll find your files in the file explorer app.

For steps by step instruction check out this article on greenbot.

16. Extract the content of any Android App

This is useful, when you are playing game on your Android and want see its music file, or you want to extract images from wallpaper apps etc.

Start by taking the backup of the app, (see 5) and once you get its apk extract it. You will notice couple of files. Music and images files are usually found in the assets folder. See the screenshot below.

Read more »

Use Your Android as Surveillance Camera

3 COMMENTS

Do you know you can also use your Android as Surveillance Camera. How?  Well, Simply connect the Android to your Computer and use the phone’s camera to send footage. But doing it, is a lot easier than it sound. All you need is a free android app called Airdroid.

There are also few advantages of using smartphone as security camera, for instance- you can easily hide a phone, it doesn’t look suspicious and above all, no need to spend money on expensive security system.

Some practical use-case :

• Monitor children remotely
• Guard property in un-friendly neighborhood
• Catch thief red handed
• Monitor pets at homes

Requirements:

1. Android phone/tablet with functional camera
2. A computer to monitor the activity
3. AirDroid (Free App on Google play)
4. WiFi or Internet connection

Use Android as Surveillance camera

Follow the steps

1. Install Airdroid on your android device. The cool thing about this app is, it works even when the phone is locked and screen is turned OFF.

2. Launch the app and create a new account. In the next screen, you will be asked to connect your Android to your computer. You have two choice:

2.1 Use WiFi-  Recommended when your android and computer are under same WiFi network. Type in the ip address (like 192.168.1.xxx:8888) in your computer’s browser and confirm the same on your Android. If you don’t have WiFi you can also create hotspot to connect both devices.

2.2 Use Internet- Type in the url ‘web.airdroid.com‘ in your browser and sign in with the account you have created. Use this option only when WiFi is not available, as it require high speed internet and consume a lot of bandwidth.

3. If everything goes well, you will see Airdroid homepage in your browser. To access your Android’s camera click on camera icon.

And that’s it. Your android’s camera will send video footage to your computer, just like a security webcam. See the gif below.

Bonus Tips

1. There is option to take screenshot however if you want to record the video then you turn camera into full screen mode and use any free screen recorder.

2. The quality of video, depends on both, your camera and internet connection.

3. Most modern camcorder or camera can also be connected to Television via HDMI cable. So you can also use them as security camera.

Conclusion

We have seen simple way to use your Android as surveillance camera. I use this workaround to keep an eye on my nephew while he sleeps in the bedroom and I am in the office. And trust me it works like a charm. So how are you going to use it? Let me know using the comments below.

Read more »