Computer and Tablet

10 Essential Tips To Speed Up Windows 7

The Microsoft Windows 7 operating system has been designed for delivering better
 speeds than its predecessors. However, as time passes by, the laptop/PC might 
tend to get slower. This is not exactly the fault of the OS. As the matter of fact, it
 is a common problem faced by many operating systems.

The major reasons for this are accumulation of junk in the system or a highly stuffed 

hard drive or running of too many unnecessary services and programs. Here we shared 

a few essential tips that can help speed up Windows 7 performance on laptops

 or computers. Hope it helps!

Visual And Sound Related

1. Using Minimal Visual Effects

Disabling certain (or all) visual effects can definitely enhance performance. To disable visual

 effects, do the following:

1. Press Windows key and while holding it down, press Pause/Break key.
2. In the window that appears, click on Advanced system settings in the left side pane.
3. In the Advanced tab, under Performance Section, click on Settings
4. In the Performance Options window (refer figure) that appears, under Visual Effects
5.  tab, disable the options that you do not need. Or simply selecting ‘Adjust for best 
6. performance‘ will disable all options.
7. After disabling the option, click Apply and then OK.

Doing the above might make the screen less attractive. But, the performance will surely get a boost.

2. Using Minimal Sound Effects

For disabling sound effects, do the following:

1. Click Start. In the search box type mmsys.cpl and press Enter
2. In the Sound window (refer figure) that appears click on Sounds tab
3. Set the Sounds scheme to ‘No Sounds‘
4. You could set only the essential sounds if needed in the Program Events, by
5.  selecting the specific event and then choosing the sound from the Sounds 
6. drop-down menu below.
7. You can as well disable the "Play Windows Startup sound" option.
8. After the settings are done, click Apply and OK.

Software And Services Related

1. Run A Trusted Anti-Virus Program

Ensure that you have a good anti-virus software loaded on your laptop/computer. 

This will ensure that no malware or spyware gets planted in your system. Without such

 protection software, there are chances of third party malware and virus being installed or

 stored on your system, causing harmful effects and also eating up precious space.

2. Install Only Essential Software

Ensure that you install only that software which you need. If you install any trial 

software and find out that you don’t really need it, uninstall and delete it immediately.

 Else, they might hog precious disk space, RAM and processor cycles. If you’ve installed 

a software, which you are unable to get rid of, and which is hampering the normal functioning 

of your laptop, then you might have to format your hard drive. Be aware that formatting your

 hard drive might wipe out all your data. Therefore it is best you take a back-up before going 

ahead with formatting.

3. Disable Or Make Unneeded Services Manual

Some processes and services, which might not really be necessary, are by default made to

 start automatically once the system starts up. They will consume RAM as well as the

 processor’s attention, slowing down other important tasks. It is best to disable them.

 For this, do the following:

1. Click Start. In the search box type services.msc and press Enter
2. Go to Services & Applications > Services. You’ll see the Services window (refer figure).
3. Right-click on a service that you wish to set to manual or disable. If the service is already
4.  started, Stop it first.
5. Once the service is stopped, again right-click on it and select Properties.
6. In the Startup type, you can either set the service to Manual, if you would be using 
7. it later, or Disableit, if not needed.
8. Once done, you can close the window.

4. Disabling Unwanted Start-Up Programs To

 Speed Up System Start-Up

Some programs are set to start during system start-up. These might slow down the 

start-up process. Programs that are not really needed during start-up can be disabled. 

For this, do the following:

1. Click Start. In the search box type msconfig and press Enter.
2. In the System Configuration window (refer figure), go to Startup.
3. Uncheck the box next to those processes that are not important for start-up. This will
4.  disable them.
5. Once you’ve disabled the processes, click Apply and OK.

Hard Drive Related

1. Clean Up The Hard Drive

Remove unwanted files, like temp files, downloaded program files, recycle bin, etc. You

 could use Disk Cleanup option to do this, as follows:

1. Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup
2. The system will first calculate how much space can be freed up this way. In the Disk Cleanup window (refer figure) that appears, select the files in that need to be deleted under the Files to delete list.
3. For deleting ‘System Restore‘ and ‘Shadow copy‘ files, click "Clean up system files" and then on "More Options" tab
4. Finally click OK. You’ll be prompted again before the deletion. Click Yes.

2. Enable Write Caching On Device

This is an option which allows the OS to flush changed data to the hard disk when the

 system is idle, so that performance is not affected when in use. For enabling this, do the following:

1. Press Windows key and while holding it down, press Pause/Break key.
2. In the window that appears, click on Device Manager in the left hand pane.
3. In the next window that appears, expand Disk drives.
4. The drop-down list will show the hard drive. Right-click on it and select Properties.
5. Click the Policies tab in the Device Properties window (refer figure).
6. Check the box next to "Enable write caching on the device"
7. You can as well check the box next to "Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing
8.  on the device" and then click OK.

Note: However, there is one disadvantage

 in enabling these options – if there is a 

power

 outage or a system crash, data might

 be lost or corrupted. If you have a

 secondary power

 supply, like a UPS,

 you could go ahead with checking 

these options.

3. Perform Disk Defragmentation

When there is no sufficient space to store in a hard drive, the OS splits the file into parts

 and stores it in different areas on the hard drive. Defragmenting allows all these parts to be

 stored in contiguous memory locations. For defragmenting disk do the following:

1. Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter
2. In the window (refer figure) that appears, click on the drive that you want to defragment and then clickAnalyze disk.
3. This will estimate the time required for the process. When done click on Defragment disk.
4. Once done you can either View Report or click Close.

These pretty much sum up the small

 things that you can do, to make a big 

difference to your 

Windows 7′s performance. If you have

 some personal tips you’ve done 

yourself to improve the

 performances, we’d like to hear from you.

IPhone 4  Users Should Know

The following article is a mixture of a few things – mainly tips, tricks and some guides for those of you who just bought an iPhone 4. If you are skeptical about the reception and other potential problems the iPhone 4 might have – don’t worry – you are not alone. We are also going to share some hands-on experience regarding few potential iPhone 4 problems, so read on.

Please do take note that we are not going to discuss what’s new in iOS4 (operating system) as it has been pretty much covered elsewhere. This article is basically- what you can expect with the new iPhone 4.

1. Update All Your Applications

First things first, check for application updates. If you have lot of applications installed in your previous iPhone 3G or 3GS, chances are they will need to be updated again so that they can take advantages of the new iOS4 features and iPhone 4 capabilities. So before you start trying out your existing applications on iPhone 4, take a moment to check if they need to be updated.

2. Where’s Facetime?

This is probably one of the first thing you’d like to explore on new iPhone 4, but where’s the Facetime app?Facetime is actually not an application, in fact, it’s an option available (for now) only when you make a call via WiFi to another iPhone 4 user.

Facetime is turn off by default. To turn it on, go to Settings → Phone and turn Facetime on. Carrier activation might be required. Learn more about Facetime.

3. You’ll Need A New Wallpaper

With retina display, everything on iPhone 4 looks amazingly vibrant and high quality. The screen supports up to 960×640 pixels at 326ppi, approximately 4 times higher than the resolution in a iPhone 3Gs. In another words, it makes your current wallpaper looks weak and you’ll need to look for a higher resolution wallpapers :-)

4. Try IMovie For IPhone 4

iMovie for iPhone4 is a light version of iMovie for Mac and it’s awesome. It allows you to edit and share your recorded videos on the fly. And did we mention all videos recording with iPhone 4 are in high definition (HD)?

Movie for iPhone 4 cost $4.99.

5. Tap To Focus Object – Video

Even the smartest gadget can use a some human touch. While video recording, you can tap on different objects on the screen to have iPhone focus on them.

6. View Widescreen While Recording

If you swap from camera mode to video mode, you’ll notice that the objects are actually getting closer. That is because video recording is done in wide screen mode. To display in wide screen while recording – double tab the screen.

7. Search Web, Wikipedia On The Fly

By swiping right on the home screen, you’ll activate Spotlight. Type in something and scroll all the way to the bottom and you’ll noticed two additional search options have been added, respectively the "Search web" and "Search wikipedia". Both search uses Safari browser.

8. Mirror, Self-Shot

iPhone 4 comes with an additional front camera. By clicking on the camera icon on the top right, the front camera is activated instead of the back. We thought this could be useful for those who want to use their iPhone as a mirror, or perhaps, it makes taking self-shots easier too!

9. The IPhone 4 Reception Problem

This is the question most people are most concerned about. To be fair, yes signal bars do dropped when gripped – they call it the Death Grip.

However, signal drop only happens in areas where receptions are weak, so it very much depends a lot on your service provider. The problem is mild, don’t get too worried about it.

10. Yellow Splotches On The Screen

Some users are reporting that they have been noticing yellow patches on the iPhone 4 screen. According tomacintouch, this is just a small temporarily problem as these yellow splotches are nothing but some bonding agents for the glass that will evaporate as the device is exposed to the air. You can relax now.

Akash Ubislate, India’s cheapest Android tablet launched

The much anticipated $35 tablet has been officially launched by Union Ministry for Human Resource Development. The tablet is called Akash Ubislate and will be available to students at the subsidized price of $35 (approx Rs. 1720).

Weighing 350 grams, Akash tablet features a 7 inch resistive touchscreen diaplay, has 256 MB RAM, 2 GB internal storage, 32 GB expandable memory slot, two USB ports, Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g connectivity and 3.5 mm audio jack.

Akash Ubislate is powered by Android 2.2 OS and 366 Mhz. Connexant with Graphics accelerator and HD Video processor. Premium version of this tablet will also have inbuilt cellular modem (GSM/3G) and SIM card slot.

More Information

              Blackberry Curve 9360 smartphone launched in India

Research In Motion (RIM) has officially launched the Blackberry Curve 9360 smartphone in India in alliance with Airtel. Blackberry Curve 9360 is powered by BlackBerry 7 OS and 800 Mhz processor.

BlackBerry Curve 9360 smartphone packed a 2.44 inch display, QWERTY keypad along with optical trackpad, 512MB RAM, 512MB ROM, 4 GB internal memory and up to 32GB of expandable memory. Weighing at 99 just grams, it comes with a 5 megapixel camera with flash, and supports VGA video recording.

The BlackBerry Curve 9360 is 3G enabled device, and comes with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, NFC and Wikitude World Browser.

Blackberry Curve 9360 is priced at Rs. 19,990.

More Information

Current and Upcoming Tablets ipod

The tablet market is like that kid in school who, at first, no one really noticed. Then, a year later he starts the school year a foot taller, with a new wardrobe, and suddenly everyone wants to be his friend. But, does he deserve his newfound popularity?

I really don't know. Personally, I've yet to purchase a tablet, and I've still not seen a compelling reason to do so. Still, millions feel differently and have already dived full on into the tablet sector.

Yet, every day there seems to be a new announcement of another manufacturer's plans to release a tablet. Today is no different, with the announcement of the iPad 2. It's getting confusing and a little crazy out there, and we at CNET wanted to provide you with a snapshot of not only the current tablet landscape, but a look into the near future and how it's evolving.

We've compiled a list of all the major current tablets interwoven with all the tablets yet to be released. This list will focus on non-Windows tablets only for now. Enjoy, and if there's any other information you'd like to see on this list, let us know in the comments or via e-mail.

Look for this post to be updated and evolve throughout the coming months.

Name	OS	Price	Release date	Screen size	4G support confirmed?	Wifi-only version confirmed?
Acer Iconia Tab A100	Honeycomb	$330-$350	Available now	7-inch	No	Yes
Acer Iconia Tab A500	Honeycomb	$400	Available now	10-inch	No	Yes
Amazon Tablet 10-inch	Unknown	Unknown	2011	10-inch	No	No
Amazon Tablet 7-inch	Unknown	Unknown	2011	7-inch	No	No
Apple iPad	iOS	$430-$530	Available now	9.7-inch	No	Yes
Apple iPad 2	iOS	$500-$830	Available now	9.7-inch	No	Yes
Archos 70	Android 2.2	$310	Available now	7-inch	No	Yes
Archos 101	Android 2.2	$260	Available now	10.1-inch	No	Yes
Archos G9 80	Honeycomb	$300-$370	September 2011	8-inch	No	Yes
Archos G9 101	Honeycomb	$370-$470	September 2011	10.1-inch	No	Yes
Asus Slider	Honeycomb	$500-$800	September	10.1-inch	Unannounced	Yes
Asus Transformer	Honeycomb	$400	Available now	10.1-inch	No	Yes
Asus Transformer 2	Honeycomb	n/a	Q4 2011	10.1-inch	No	No
Asus MeMO	Honeycomb	$500-$700	2012	7-inch	Unannounced	No
Coby Kyros	Android 2.2	$200	Available now	8-inch	No	Yes
Dell Streak 5	Android 2.2	$550	Available now	5-inch	No	No
Dell Streak 7	Android 2.2	$200-$450	Available now	7-inch	Yes	No
HP TouchPad	WebOS 3.0	$600	Available now	9.7-inch	Yes	Yes
HTC Evo View 4G (Sprint)	Android 2.3	$400	Available now	7-inch	No	Yes
HTC Flyer	Android 2.3	$500	Available now (at Best Buy only)	7-inch	No	Yes
HTC Jetstream	Honeycomb	$700-$800	September 4, 2011	10.1-inch	Yes	No
Lenovo IdeaPad A1	Android 2.3	$250	Unannounced	7-inch	No	Yes
Lenovo IdeaPad K1	Honeycomb	$500	Available now	10.1-inch	No	Yes
Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet	Honeycomb	$500-$670	Available now	10.1-inch	No	Yes
Maylong Universe M-150	Android 2.2	$100	Available now	7-inch	No	Yes
Motorola Xoom	Honeycomb	$600-$800	Available now	10.1-inch	Yes	Yes
RIM Blackberry Playbook	BlackBerry Tablet OS	$600	Available now	7-inch	No	Yes
Samsung Galaxy Note	Android 2.3	Unannounced	Unannounced	5.3-inch	No	No
Samsung Galaxy Tab	Android 2.2	$150-$550	Available now	7-inch	No	No
Samsung Galaxy Tab Wi-Fi	Android 2.2	$350	Available now	7-inch	No	Yes
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7	Honeycomb	Unannounced	Unannounced	7.7-inch	No	No
Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9	Honeycomb	Unannounced	August	8.9-inch	Yes	Yes
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1	Honeycomb	$500	Available now	10.1-inch	No	Yes
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G LTE (Verizon)	Honeycomb	$530-$630	Available now	10.1-inch	Yes	No
Sony S	Honeycomb	$500-$600	Fall 2011	9.4-inch	No	Yes
Sony P	Honeycomb	n/a	Fall 2011	5.5-inch (dual-screen)	Yes	No
T-Mobile G-Slate	Honeycomb	$800	Available now	8.9-inch	Yes	No
Toshiba AT200	Honeycomb	Unannounced	2011	10.1-inch	Unannounced	Yes
Toshiba Thrive	Honeycomb	$380-520	Available now	10.1-inch	Unannounced	Yes
Velocity Micro Cruz Tablet	Android 2.2	$200	Available now	7-inch	No	Yes
Viewsonic Viewpad 7	Android 2.2	$415-470	Available now	7-inch	No	Yes
Viewsonic ViewPad G Tablet	Android 2.2	$370	Available now	10.1-inch	No	Yes
ViewPad 10pro	Android 2.3 (and Windows 7)	$600-$700	August	10.1-inch	No	Yes
Vizio Tablet VTAB1008	Android 2.3	$359	Available now	8-inch	Unannounced	No

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20037960-1/cnet-looks-at-current-and-upcoming-tablets/#ixzz1YqrOFEHv

                                  16 essential Android apps for IT pros 

These apps can connect to servers, monitor systems, and scan networks, turning your Android device into an on-the-job dynamo

There are hundreds of thousands of Android apps, including many that are useful for IT professionals on the job. These apps can help connect to servers, monitor computers, access databases, analyze the airwaves, scan networks, and serve as a reference. Here are 16 of these apps, most of them free.

If you work with Unix-based servers or other network components that support SSH/Telnet connections, you can use this open source client to remotely connect. No need to get on the desktop or boot up your laptop. You can perform admin, maintenance, or troubleshooting tasks via command-line. Additionally, it supports local connections, so you can access the command-line of your Android.

ConnectBot supports generating and importing SSH keys. You can pan between multiple simultaneous connections and copy/paste between them or other applications. It keeps a history of previous sessions so you don't have to keep inputting the host address. Even better, you can create shortcuts to frequent hosts on your Android desktop.

AndFTP (Free or $5.59)

You can use this FTP/SFTP/FTPS client to download/upload files or perform administrative tasks from your Android. It features resume support and enables the basic admin tasks: renaming, deleting, updating permissions, and running custom commands. You can also send files via email, messaging, Bluetooth, and via other apps. The Pro version adds support for secure copy protocol (SCP) connections and enables remote/local folder synchronization.

Linux Monitor ($2.61)

If you work with Linux servers you can use this simple monitoring app to remotely keep an eye on the vitals: CPU load, RAM and disk usage, and network/port activity. View stats represented in numbers or via progress bars. Though you can monitor multiple Linux machines, you can't monitor or view them simultaneously. You must manually change the monitoring address to switch between them.

The remote Linux machine(s) must be running the Apache web server with PHP, and you must upload a simple PHP script. You can download a sample version to get a feel for the app.

Server Monitor (Free)

This simple monitoring app can alert you if a server or a certain component/port of it goes down. This is great if you don't already have a monitoring/alert system put into place or you'd like redundancy. It supports TCP connections as well as SSH tunnels. You add a server hostname or IP address and then you can optionally add specific components or ports to monitor, including SSH over SSH. You can define the polling frequency and toggle sound and/or vibrate alerts. You can set the service to start up automatically during boot or enable manual control.

10 best Android tablet apps for news junkies

httpmon (Free)

This is another monitoring app, but designed specifically for HTTP servers. You can customize a request URL and check with simple pings or with customizable conditions: the response code or time and header or content contains using substrings, wildcards, or regular expressions. You can also set the desired User Agent used for all the requests, the connection timeout, and the read timeout. On failures, it can notify, flash, alert, and vibrate your phone and/or send SMS messages to others.

Cellica Database for Android ($39.99 after 10-day trial)

If you work with databases on a Windows server or PC, you can use this app to access and manage them from your Android. Once you install the required software on the server or PC, you'll have encrypted access to edit fields, apply select queries, filters, sorting, or even create databases. Supported databases include: Microsoft Access, Access 2007, Microsoft Excel, Excel 2007, Oracle, SQL Server, DB2, MySQL, PostgreSQL, FoxPro, dBase, R:BASE and any ODBC Compliant Database.

Phoenix MySql Client (Free)

If you only desire a simple connection to MySQL databases, you can use this free app to directly connect. You can then view tables, views, and stored procedures. You can perform SQL queries and execute statements: select, create, insert, etc.

Wyse PocketCloud (Free or $14.99)

This remote desktop client supports Microsoft RDP, platform-independent VNC (virtual network computing), and virtual VMware View connections to Windows, Mac or Linux machines via Wi-Fi and cellular connections. It supports both Android smartphones and tablets. You might use it to provide remote tech support or access a PC for its programs or files.

If you download and install their companion software to the Windows or Mac computer, it can auto configure the connection via your Google account so you don't have to mess with router settings or IP addresses. But you can always manually configure the connection as well.

The Pro version removes the advertisements and adds more features: multiple connections, encryption to secure the connections, sound support for RDP, and VMware View support to access virtual machines.

Android-VNC-Viewer (Free)

If you prefer VNC for remote desktop connections and don't mind configuring the router and have static IPs or a dynamic DNS host name, you might consider using this simple open source VNC client. It supports VNC connections to most VNC servers on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X via Wi-Fi and Cellular connections.

Unlike the Wyse PocketCloud client, this app doesn't display advertisements and gives you pinch zooming for free. On the other hand, it can't automatically secure your connections. You'd have to use a separate app, such as ConnectBot, to encrypt your connection to the computer/server you're trying to remotely access.

Spiceworks Mobile (Free)

If your organization uses the Spiceworks IT management solution, you can use this client app to view your network and PC inventory, manage trouble tickets, and access and manage users with support of Active Directory. You can also communicate with other IT pros in the Spiceworks community to get feedback, help, or research.

ActiveDir Manager (Free or $1.99)

This is a must-have app if you work with the Active Directory in your organization. It lets you view and manage users, groups, and computers right from your Android. You can reset user passwords, disable or edit user accounts, adjust group memberships, and perform other basic admin tasks. It supports Windows Server 2000 and later with StartTLS, SSL, or no encryption. It can directly connect to the Active Directory server via Wi-Fi or VPN.

The only difference between the free and paid version is that the paid version enables saving of the LDAP connection settings and options.

Wi-Fi Analyzer (Free)

If you work with the Wi-Fi network at your organization you may want to use this Wi-Fi stumbler and analyzer app when setting up access points, checking channel usage, troubleshooting Wi-Fi issues, or doing Wi-Fi security auditing.

You can view and export the details of access points: SSID, MAC address, encryption, channel, and signal in negative dBm levels via a graphical bar and text readout. You can view channel graphs showing each access point's channel and signal in real-time or a recent history. Then a channel rating page gives you recommendations on which channels to use. You can use the signal meter view to find the access points.

SharesFinder (Free)

This scans for Windows (SMB), FTP and HTTP shares/servers on the network you're connected to via Wi-Fi. It's useful if you're trying to access files on the network or when doing security auditing. For each share/server you'll see the IP and media access control address, SMB name, and vendor name.

This app also supports basic file transfers and management of the remote SMB files, such as creating and deleting files and folders. You can login as anonymous or input a username and password. For HTTP resources, it launches the web browser. For FTP resources, you can connect via a third-party FTP client, such as AndFTP.

Overlook Fing (Free)

If you do any networking work, this is a must-have app. It can do TCP port scanning, pinging, traceroute, and DNS lookups on a network via Wi-Fi. It also shows the network details (SSID, IP details, and speed) of your current Wi-Fi connection.

You can see and export the details (MAC address, IP and vendor) for each computer or device detected on the network, which are customizable with a name, icon or notes. You can also perform a port scan or ping a particular computer or device. It can also launch third-party client apps for SSH, Telnet, FTP, FTPS, SFTP, SCP, HTTP, secure-HTTP and SMB.

RouterPasswords (Free)

This is a must-have for anyone that works with networking gear. It's a simple database of the default login methods and credentials for over a thousand routers, gateways, modems and other network components. Though you can find the same info online, this gives you quick off-line access. Just start typing the model or brand and it will begin list matching entries.

Linux Commands (Free)

If you use Linux but aren't an expert at the command-line, this is a great app to have for reference. It lists more than 500 Linux commands that you can browse through. Select a command and you'll see the syntax, description, and any command options. You can even star your favorite commands and have them shown at startup and/or manually access your list of favorites. Though you can find the same info online, this gives you quick off-line access.

Geier is the founder of NoWiresSecurity, which helps businesses protect their Wi-Fi networks with a hosted RADIUS/802.1X service. He is also a freelance tech writer — become a Twitter follower or use the RSS Feed to keep up with his writings.

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