Blogger Gets Makeover With Dynamic Views

If you own a blogger account, then you might have already seen an invitation to use the dynamic views on blogger. The new template gets you infinite scrolling (loads as you scroll down), images that load as you browse, sorting by date, label and author options, lightbox-style posts (boxes that pop in), and support for keyboard shortcuts. The template supports seven styles, Classic (plane and simple), Flipcard (suited more for photo blogs), Magazine(an editorial style layout), Mosaic(photo blogs or one that has plenty of pics), Sidebar(another clean, no frills layout), Snapshot (has a pinboard style. again suited for blogs with plenty of pics) and Timeslide ( 'Timeline' for blogger ??).

Checkout how your blog will look with the new template applied (it won't affect your blog)..blogspot.com

Although bloggers who have heavily customized their blog should give this a miss, everyone else should get their hands on this pretty boy. It uses HTML5,AJAX and CSS3 in case if you want to know. Also bloggers might have noticed that the 'lightbox' for images have suddenly disappeared as Google rolled back this recent update to solve some issues and hopefully it'll be back soon. Also don't forget to check out this video about dynamic views, from Google:

3D Modeling Made Easy and Free: Pixologic Sculptris

I'm not much of an artist but every now and then I need something to be done in 3D (and I get them from stock collections). If I can't find what I'm looking for anywhere, the only option is to make one myself, but lot of the 3D modeling applications out there are insanely complex or expensive. Sculptris unlike others is a free and ridiculously easy to use application that gets the job done. If you are looking for something for modeling/sculpting then give it a shot, after all it is absolutely free and there is a good community base to help you with the issues, if anything arises. Download it from here.

Requirements ( It even runs on Intel on board cards, but can be painfully slow once you start painting)

Windows

• Operating System: Windows XP SP2/Vista/Seven.
• Processor: 1Ghz Pentium 4 and above (or compatible).
• Memory: 1 GB of RAM.
• Graphic Card: ATI or NVidia card with openGL 2.0 support.
• Screen Resolution: 1024x768
• Recommended: Wacom or compatible graphics tablet

Home App For Andriod : Go Launcher EX

GO Launcher EX is the extended version of GO Launcher, one of the most popular home apps in Android Market. It’s a highly customizable home replacement application, which will run when you press your android phone’s HOME key.

If you are bored of the default home screen and apps launcher, then try this one. It works fine on most devices and has lot of plugins (very useful and pretty awesome too) and themes to choose from. I have tried it on a Dell XCD35 (ZTE Blade) and Motorola Defy and it works just fine, no lags or hiccups so far. It kind of resembles HTC sense (the climate widget) and has some pretty neat features like switch (plugin, enables turning on and off of WiFi,bluetooth,silent mode etc), iOS like 'trembling' app management, configurable animations, support for several home screens and a notifier which show a count of unread mails, sms, missed calls etc. Get it from the android market place.

Here are some screen shots of go launcher Ex:

MSI CR620: More For Less

If you are in high school or just entering college, then this might be the best low end laptop out there which offers Windows 7 as the pre-installed OS at a very reasonable price. MSI is relatively 'unheard of' brand, for most people; but anyone who has ever made a tailor made PC (read assembled) should know this brand (at least read the bill, guys). MSI is one of the top manufacturer for motherboards and graphic cards. (but they have terrible marketing strategy in India :( ). Enough with the brand and let's check out the specs of this one, shall we:

• Processor: Core i3 2.5Ghz (370M, not 2nd gen)
• Chipset: Intel HM55
• Memory : 2 GB DDR3
• Storage: 320 GB, 5200rpm.
• Disk Drive: DVD
• OS: Windows 7 Home Basic 32 bit
• Display: 15.6" 1366x768 LED
• Others: 1.3 Mega Pixel webcam, WiFi, bluetooth, 3 X USB, HDMI, 6Cell Battery.
• Warrenty: 2 year (1st year international,  2nd year domestic).
• The price ? Less than INR 24,000/-

If you like this head over to your nearest dealer or you can buy this online from flipkart or letsbuy.

Letsbuy offer: AVG Anti Virus 2010 Version 9.0 (1-Year) + Sandisk Cruzer Blade USB 8GB Pen Drive and Belkin kit (cooling pad, mouse and surge protector worth Rs 4315).

Letsbuy.com usually ships with in a week or so. I suggest you buy from there. (use icicilb or rcom coupon code, which ever is applicable and get further discounts before 30th september,2011)

Goggle It !

When in doubt, google it. But what will you do, when you don't know what to google for ?
Well google already has an answer, you goggle it. If you own an android or Iphone then head over to the market place and search for goggles. It is an image search app (yes, the same feature from google, that lets you search for similar images) and more. It lets you take an image and after a brief 007 scanning animation, it'll give you results based on the image you captured. For eg. if you took the picture of your puppy dog, it'll say what breed it is; or find out what is being served to you in that fancy Chinese restaurant (死狗浸在酱油 anyone ??). Sounds cool ? there is more; It can translate text (imagine your relief, when you finally understand the menu in 'alien' restaurants), find out your location (you need a landmark; unless you are the president your home won't work), find books (it is integrated with google books as well), scan business cards (and save it as text), identify products (or logos), art works and more. It is a work in progress so if it didn't work, well it didn't; so don't brag about finding something weird when using it. (try scanning yourself for a change :B )

A video from google, about this app:

Windows Phone Mango Arrives

  Microsoft has released the most anticipated Mango update to the Windows Phone. It brings 500+ new features to Windows Phone 7. Reviews from the major tech sites and initial user opinions have been overwhelmingly positive.

  Windows Phone 7 was released almost an year ago. It brought with it the Metro UI which is now poised to become the unified UI across the whole Windows ecosystem. At the time of launch, Windows Phone lacked several key features like multitasking and copy-paste as the OS was prepared from scratch after they abandoned Windows Mobile. Most of those drawbacks have been taken care of in Mango.

  As per Andy Lees, President of Windows Phone division, what made Windows Phone different from Android and iOS was that it took a totally different approach. Phones were becoming more of application launchers and they clearly wanted a clear departure from that style. Major tech and gadget sites reinforce it by saying that Windows Phone 7.5 is the second best smartphone OS in the market after iOS in terms of design and usability.

 Despite all that, Windows Phone needs to play serious catchup with Android and iOS in terms of market share and quality of apps. MS is betting on Nokia to gain volumes as they have decided to replace Symbian with WP. They are expected to unveil the first Nokia WP on October 26, 2011.  Also the future of apps for WP also looks bright with the new improvements introduced in Mango.

  On the other hand, iOS5 is coming and so is Android Ice Cream Sandwich. Competition is about to heat up. After all, a healthy competition between the big three tech titans is nonetheless going to be beneficial for the end users.

 
Windows Phone Mango