TechnoBB – Page 26

Twitter Has Released Periscope for Android

Although the iOS version of popular social media streaming app Periscope has been out for a bit, the Android version has just officially been launched by Twitter. If you’ve never used Periscope, the idea is simple. You can stream anything from anywhere on your phone and share the feed with anyone, especially your Twitter followers. Like its namesake, Periscope provides you a viewing port to anywhere in the world where someone has set up their video stream. The applications for this are nearly endless and can give you an incredible front row seat to places and things you’d never be able to see otherwise, one of the marvels of modern technology. Periscope is also notable for allowing viewers to chat and interact with the one doing the broadcasting so it’s a more social and interactive experience for everyone.

The Android version features helpful notification settings that allow you to get in on the biggest streams happening on Periscope. If you enable notifications, anyone you follow on Twitter who begins streaming will send a notification to you so you can join in. On the other side, if you’re the one broadcasting you can set it to alert your followers so that they know when to tune in. One very helpful new feature in Periscope is Return to Broadcast, which at the touch of a button will return you to the stream you were watching should it be interrupted by a call or message on your phone. It’s fantastic for making sure you miss as little as possible and are able to find the original stream quickly.

Periscope is set to shake up the landscape of streaming and social media as well as society at large. How will we deal with nearly infinite roaming, streaming cameras everywhere? What are the implications in terms of privacy and copyright holders when people choose to stream media they don’t own? It should be an interesting ride to say the least when it comes to how the vast Twitter user base chooses to use Periscope.

Source: Periscope for Android on the Google Play Store

How To Check iphone Battery Status From Your Apple Watch

Enterprising developer Tom Etminan has written a lightweight app called Battery Monitor that allows you to check the iPhone’s battery status right from an Apple Watch. It’s a bit surprising that Apple neglected to include this feature as standard when the Apple Watch released. Because the Apple Watch’s functionality is so tied to the iPhone, it would make sense that you’d like to be able to make sure it has enough charge to keep both the Apple Watch and iPhone working. Interestingly enough, the Apple Watch can serve to dramatically increase iPhone battery life as some simple checking tasks are offloaded to the watch itself. You don’t have to constantly turn on the iPhone screen and drain the battery just to check that latest notification.

The app can be launched manually, or for more convenience you can enable it in Glances and simply swipe up to check your iPhone’s battery right through the Apple Watch. The app itself has a fully animated indicator ring that shows how full or depleted the iPhone’s battery is. There is also a short text indicator on the top that tells you if the battery is charging, low, or fully charged which is helpful for people who prefer text and want to know exactly what the battery is doing currently. It’s a great way to be sure that you never find your Apple Watch unresponsive because the iPhone’s battery died. You can instantly check to see whether or not you need a quick iPhone charge.

For now Battery Monitor is available on the App Store for free. The developer plans to begin charging users for the app soon however, so it might be wise to grab it if you still want it at no cost. If you’re ever prone to battery charge anxiety, it’s definitely recommended. Who knows if Apple will ever get around to implementing it as a default part of the iPhone, Apple Watch software?

Transfer Contacts From Android to Your iPhone

If you’ve decided to switch from an Android phone to the iPhone or if you’re a user of both, you’ve likely had the need to transfer your list of contacts between devices. There are a few ways of transferring contacts from an Android phone to the iPhone ranging from the very simple to those requiring a little more effort. Because this is such a common task, it’s relatively easy and already built into Android and your Google account. Try out these methods to transfer all of your important contacts between devices.

1. Under Settings on your Android phone, go to Accounts and Sync. It could also be named Accounts or something close to that.

2. Make sure you have a functioning Google account and that sync is turned on for Contacts. If possible, manually sync your account so that all your contacts information is up to date.

3. Now on the iPhone, go to Settings, Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and tap Add Account.

4. Tap Google to add your Google Account. You will need to log in using your Google account name and password.

5. Toggle the Contacts option to On.

6. Google should sync all your Contact data with your new iPhone.

You can also accomplish the same thing with a few more steps in a more manual process.

1. On the iPhone, go to Settings, Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and tap Add Account.

2. Choose Other, then Add CardDAV Account.

3. You will now need to fill in some information. For server, enter ‘google.com’. For username and password, enter your Google account credentials. For Description, enter a name you’d like to use for your contact list, i.e. ‘Contacts’.

4. Tap Next, make sure Contacts is toggled On.

5. Now on the iPhone, go back to Settings, Mail, Contacts. Make your Google Account the Default Account and everything should sync.

Contacts can also be transferred directly by SIM card. You’ll need to have a micro-SIM or nano-SIM in your Android phone for this to work and it must match the type your iPhone uses.

1. Make sure all of your contacts from the Android phone are saved to the SIM card.

2. Remove the Android SIM card and insert it into the iPhone.

3. On the iPhone go to Settings, Mail, Contacts, Calendars.

4. Tap ‘Import SIM Contacts’. Your contacts will be transferred to the iPhone.

5. You can now remove the Android SIM and replace it with the iPhone SIM and return the Android one to the Android phone.

The final way to transfer contacts is using a variety of helpful apps available. Copy My Data is a popular app for performing a contact list transfer. Hopefully everything goes smoothly and you can enjoy your full contact list on that new iPhone.

How to enter Boot Into Safe Mode for Windows 8/8.1

Computers aren’t perfect and from time to time you’ll get crashes or odd errors that might need some debugging or a bit of extra work to correct. If you’ve been a Windows user for a while, chances are that you’ve had to boot into Safe Mode at least a few times. Safe Mode is designed to boot Windows with only the bare minimum files and drivers needed for Windows to function and is great for carefully picking through errors to find the part of the system that’s acting up. On a desktop, the familiar way to boot Safe Mode is to hold F8 or Shift + F8 while booting, but Windows 8 and 8.1 boot so fast that there is no time for the system to recognize these inputs. Luckily though, Microsoft has added a few options to tell the system you’d like it to reboot into Safe Mode.

1. Press the Windows button and ‘R’ (Win + ‘R’) simultaneously to bring up the Run dialog.

2. Type ‘msconfig.exe’ and hit OK. This will bring up System Configuration.

3. Now under System Configuration, click the Boot tab.

4. Now in the Boot tab, click the ‘Safe boot’ box under Boot options. Then click OK.

5. You will be asked to reboot and when the computer does, it will automatically boot into Safe Mode.

You can also boot into Safe Mode through the Windows Restart button.

1. In the Windows Charms Bar, click the Power button. This should bring up options to Sleep, Shut down, or Restart.

2. Hold Shift and click Restart (Shift + Restart).

3. Now click Troubleshoot on the next screen.

4. Next click Advanced Options.

5. Click Windows Startup Settings.

6. The computer will reboot and present some startup options. Hit F4 for Safe Mode, F5 for Safe Mode with Networking, and F6 for Safe Mode with Command Prompt.

The major downside to these methods is that they require you to be able to start up normally to access these options. If your computer is in such bad shape that you have trouble even accessing these methods, you’ll have to use something like a bootable USB or DVD and Windows Recovery Media to accomplish the same thing. Here’s hoping that these methods are all you’ll ever need anyway!

Extract All Images From Any Microsoft Office Document

Microsoft Office sets the standard for nearly every type of common office task from writing documents to creating PowerPoint presentations. Though the rise of competing cloud-based office software has tried to unseat MS Office from its throne, it easily remains king of all things work related. It’s not too rare to embed an image in a Word document and it is even more common to add some images to a PowerPoint presentation. If it’s a lengthy piece of work, obviously there is even more opportunity for images. If you’ve ever had to handle such a document or created one yourself, you know it can be quite a chore to have to manually move and edit images from the original document. With this simple trick, you can get all media from the original document in a single folder where it can be conveniently saved and edited. This trick works on both OS X and Windows.

1. Make sure the original document has a file extension name that ends with ‘X’ (DOCX, PPTX, XLSX).

2. Replace the existing file extension name with ZIP. Document.DOCX would become Document.ZIP.

3. Right-click this renamed file (which will now be recognized as a zip archive) and extract the contents to a folder.

4. Inside this folder is another folder called ‘word’, click it to open the ‘word’ folder.

5. Inside ‘word’ is yet another folder named ‘media’. Open this folder and inside will be all media associated with the original document.

Now you can easily sort through, save, edit, etc. any of these media files. You don’t have to go through every one in the original and tediously copy and paste images, etc. Even better, when you’re done you can simply change the ‘.ZIP’ extension back to the original ‘.DOCX’ (or PPTX, XLSX) extension and the file will be returned to its original state that can be opened in Microsoft Office. Pretty convenient don’t you think?

Download the Google Play Store 5.5.12 APK Install Free

The latest version of the Google Play Store, version 5.5.12 is now available for download. It is not currently being pushed by auto-update but you can sideload the 5.5.12 APK if you have root access on your phone and just can’t wait for the official update. Be aware that there could be a few hiccups or glitches as Google has not officially released this version to the masses yet.

To install this latest version, you will need a rooted Android device and a link to the Google Play Store 5.5.12 APK. After that, you simply download the APK, enable unauthorized APK installation on your device, and then install it. Now you should be running the latest Google Play Store and you can get back to downloading all those apps.

As with other Android apps that have been receiving cosmetic facelifts, the Google Play Store has undergone some changes so that its closer in spirit to Google’s Material Design philosophy. Many of the icons and transition animations have been changed to conform to the Material Design aesthetic, mostly with a more minimalist, flatter and simpler look with strong colors. Overall the app looks cleaner and lighter with better organization and usability. The most popular opinion tags also now appear above app descriptions so you can get a quick feel for what the masses think of that particular app.

It’s very possible that there have also been some performance tweaks or improvements with this release though it’s hard to say until the official Google release happens. When it does, they will surely outline all changes that have been made to the Google Play Store app. Google is ramping up its update schedule to prepare for the wave of wearables and the need for various Android devices to communicate with Android Wear devices and apps.