Archives: Application and Software
Blackberry Messenger 6 – Lets be ‘Social’
Research In Motion (RIM) has recently launched Blackberry Messenger (BBM 6). RIM, the Canadian Company which invented the revolutionary Blackberry Smartphone, has added many new features to the 6th Messenger and has concentrated more on the visual aspects of the software. However the most amazing feature of BBM 6 is the social app layer. The following are the features of this social app:-
- It enables you to update your status, scores and achievements
- You can recommend other apps to your friends which they can then download
- You can display the applications that you are yourself using
Other than the social app BBM 6 has some new features and customizable looks. The color of the contacts and the chat boxes can be changed so that you can easily distinguish between different chats. Also new flashy 6.1 icons are supported in this messenger. RIM has said that Foursquare, The Huffington Post and Wikitude are the companies that will provide BBM apps and later more companies are for sure to be added.
BBM has over 45 million users, mostly teens, and about 70 % of these users use BBM on a daily basis. No doubt the new BBM 6 will be a hit amongst these users, especially with the launch of the social app.
VirusBarrier- First ever Malware Scanner for iOS Devices
The world of Apple has been quite free of malware and safer, except a few threats that have often popped up. Incidences of malware have been low with both Mac and iOS. Intego, Mac OSX anti-malware maker has come up with a new scanner for malware in iOS devices. This new tool is called VirusBarrier. VirusBarrier will scan places like user’s dropbox folder, mail attachments and other locations which are directly exposed to the user. Thus, all the locations that are most likely to be affected by malware are scanned by this tool. This tool is an on-demand malware scanner. This means that it will not run automatically on the background, therefore, users have to run it manually when needed. The user has to hold the link to the file and select “Open in VirusBarrier”.
A question that comes to many minds is that what the need of such a tool is when malware does not affect iOS devices. The main motive of this tool is to prevent infected files from entering other vulnerable devices. The company explained the aim of the tool at a press release. The malware may pass on to any device at home or office, although it does not affect iOS devices. As malware can take any path to get into vulnerable devices so such a tool will prevent this from happening. The VirusBarrier can be purchased by downloading from the iOS App store. It is available for $2.99. This will grant you free updates of detection for a year. From then on every year you just have to purchase a license for an additional amount of $1.99 every year. Whether this tool is worth spending a few dollars is up to you. Though, common sense and little care are enough to keep away malware but another layer of protection is perfectly harmless.
Buffer app will make Twitter more Fun
Now you can share all that juicy content without flooding your followers. All this has been made easy with the introduction of buffer app. This handy little application is a must have if you have ever been known to a dozen tweets of blog shares back to back. The buffer app lets you simply copy-paste the tweet into its interface. And the rest should be left for the application. It handles all the timing nonsense so that you can head on for your parties without worrying about the tweets.
I usually read quite a lot of wonderful content and wanted to share it on twitter. But then the thought of flooding my followers with tweets always bothered me. Buffer app has come to my rescue and it is one of the best possible applications twitter has ever introduced.
Basically, what buffer app does is; it spreads out your tweets over the day ensuring your followers that they are not flooded with your tweets while browsing. The best thing about this application is that you can add on tweets to your buffer right from the page you are reading. This can be easily done using a Chrome extension. If this didn’t satisfy you, then we have something more in store. The Buffer also tells you the number of times you click a link, the number of times messages were re-tweeted and all such information is offered to you absolutely free of cost. You should keep a check and should ensure that your Buffer is topped up so that your followers keep getting your tweets one at a time and they stay in touch with you.
So now, the next time you sign up, the first thing you must do is set your times to tweet. These timings will remain as it is unless changed by you. And, at the respective times the tweets you add will go out everyday, one at a time.
Twitter Profile Page with a @-reply box soon
Now twittering will be more fun. Twitter one of the popular social networks of the world appears to roll out a new change to the profile pages of its users which seem quite a pretty move made by the company to help more smooth chat between the tweeters. What Twitter is planning is to add a new @-reply box to the profile pages, currently only on a few for testing. With this new interface generator launched globally, one can send a tweet with a click on any profile he or she visits.
This “Facebook-like message wall” is currently under test on some bases and is soon to live across the world after the testing is complete. There is a lot more what we think this new Twitter feature could be and soon it will make the company rule the world. In the social network business, whatever is appealing to the masses is one that stays for long and that is what Twitter has been struggling for ever since its beginning. Initially Twitter began as a retreat for the bloggers and tech bores but later its popularity saw a new high when the whole team of celebrities including famous movie stars, pop singers and everybody whom you dream of being with, took of this social network. Even President Obama!
Great Screensaver to Give you iOS Style Screen Locking
Are you bored with those old screensavers with bubbles and 3D text? iPhoneLS is a new and awesome screensaver which enables you to use iOS style screen locking system. Once you have this screensaver running on your screen you will see a slider with “slide to unlock” written on it. You have to slide it towards the right and you will be back on your desktop. iPhoneLS has a few system specification requirements, it needs a .NET 3.5 version in your system or even higher. This .NET framework has to be built in your Windows 7 operating system. If you are using any other prior version of Windows then you need to download .NET 4.0 from the Microsoft website. Once you have your system ready with .NET framework, installing iPhoneLS will be an easy job. You just need to follow the following simple steps to install iPhoneLS on your system:
Step #1 You need to download iPhoneLS from the internet. Make sure that you download from a safe link.
Step #2 Then you have to extract the .RAR file. For doing the same you need a tool like 7Zip. You will have three files: one executable file, a screen saver file, a text file. Make sure you save them in a directory which will not be deleted in future. If the file is deleted your screensaver will stop working.
Step #3 Then you need to make a right click on the screensaver file and click on install. From this point ensure that the file is not moved or removed.
Step #4 Check your windows screensaver settings. In the dialogue box iPhoneLS should be selected. Just click on OK button on the window.
There are few flaws with this application. All the enthusiasts who like to customize their screensavers, it might not satisfy them because there is no option for customization. But it can be expected to be there in a future version. However iPhoneLS is a great concept and the shortcomings are not very serious ones. And this application will prove to be a lot of fun once it is installed.
$70 Million Funding for Gen-Next Robots
In a startling revelation, President Barack Obama recently announced a $70 million budget exclusively for funding the research and development of next generation robots. These robots would work alongside humans in all fields from factories, hospitals to the battlefield. Addressing the crowd at Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Centre, he congratulated them on their achievement in developing peaceful robots and showed concern for new and hi-tech achievements in this field. His remarks were aimed at uniting government, academy and industry for nourishing this new idea in the form of a $500 million Advanced Manufacturing Partnership effort.
It is expected that the National Robotics Initiative will group NASA, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Agriculture and many other such organisations for achieving the goal of developing “co-robots” that would work alongside humans in a peaceful way. The programme will be aimed at carrying out the fundamental research in this field for the development of robots and will include every aspect including manufacturing and deployment. Studies for the long term implications of inducting robots in man’s everyday life will also be a part of this initiative. With such a huge amount being invested for the purpose, it would be interesting to see if it’s actually worth it and not just another effort for developing military bots.
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