WordPress Vs Joomla (Best CMS For you)

Content management system today is the best source to give information to the website and for that, a member of team is required. If you want to set up good amount of content on your website then you need to find the genuine information about the website content management. Today one of the question is often referred that is Wordpress or Joomla, for that you should know the basic information of these two sources of the content management system. They both are written in PHP, which offer amazing features to the content management system. Further, you will come to know about WordPress vs Joomla.
If, you really think that these are two best source of the content management system then you must also know that there is third source that is Drupal. Wordpress vs Joomla has many key features, which is why it is important to know the basic knowledge of content management. Every source has different weakness and strengths that is they are used by different specialist in the field of the content management.

WordPress

• Today Wordpress is considered as the primary blogging platform, which provides various varieties of plugins.
• They are flexible, which offer excellent opportunities to the people working on this platform of the content management system.
• Today wordpress is considered as shining source of the website developing as they contain a mixture of static and episodic content.
• WordPress provides many benefits to those who use the non-blog websites.
• It also includes many key features such as web magazines, blog, art gallery website and product review websites.
• Today there are ecommerce plugins that offer great elements in the field of ecommerce sites and community interaction.
• It has some of the major capabilities, which give great feature that is why it is recommended by most of the web content managements.
• There is not much of a need for me to share the best WordPress Hosting services in the world, most of your will answer it as DreamHost or HostGator.

Joomla

•  
• Joomla use MySQL as database, which are used to prepare modules such as calendars, polls, etc. there are different plugins and many features that is why it is best for making some personal small business website and no-community sites.
• Joomla lacks in some blogging elements, but still there are things, which are used by many web developers because it holds some major features.
• It is used in magazine website where there is limited interaction.
• Joomla is easy to install and is foolproof to deploy.
• Once joomla is deployed, it can be used by the wide array of extensions.
• Joomla functions are limited and it takes experimentation and learning, so this way it becomes difficult to use joomla for normal content management.
• If, you are looking to host your website on best Joomla Hosting solutions, then HostGator, Godaddy are the best options for you to host your site.

For WordPress you certainly get good community help, while that sort of help will be missing in case of Joomla.
Therefore, if you want to get some good information about the content management then you must know the basic information of each source. It is very difficult to choose the best source today, because every source has some unique features and points that can offer amazing features to the website. In general the best option is the WordPress as it is the most simple and easy source to work.

Pros and Cons of Rooting Your Android Phone

So you just finished exploring your new Android phone, checking out all its features and understanding every thing that the device has to offer. But suddenly you realize that there are some manufacturer-imposed limitations which impede you from having full control of your phone. You stumbled upon the  term “rooting.”

You got curious and wanted to know more about it and ask yourself , “Should I root my Android phone or not?”

Just like you, a number of Android users are curious about rooting and often wonder whether or not they should root their phone. This is especially true for users who are new to the world of Android and are scared that they will damage their smartphone in some way. Keep reading to know what rooting is, what are the risks that you are taking and how rooting unlocks the full potential of your Android device.

What is Rooting? 

In simple terms, Rooting is a process of unlocking your Android phone which lets you conquer the limitations that the carrier or the manufacturer of your phone has imposed upon it.

These limitations are placed to prevent you from making changes to the system – which can accidentally render it unusable. Rooting allows you more control over your device and vastly extends the functionality, even giving you the option of using a custom version of Android.

A rooted Android phone is similar to a jailbroken iPhone. Rooting voids your phone’s warranty. So, don’t ever join the dark side of Android rooting unless you’re worried of losing your phone’s warranty. To be succinct about it – rooting is only for Android phone user with a brave heart.

Difference Between Rooting and Flashing a Custom ROM

Now, there’s a lot of confusion between rooting your Android phone and flashing a custom ROM. Rooting and installing a custom ROM are totally different from each other.

To put it simply, rooting is modifying your phone’s operating systems to gain full control over it. On other hand, flashing a custom ROMs is simply installing a modified operating system to your phone. It’s still Android but a modified one courtesy of  some tech geeks who managed to tweak the Android SDK.

There are several ROMs available for your Android phone and most, if not all of them, are cooler and  more fun to use than the stock Android OS that comes pre-loaded with your phone.

 

Warning: Rooting Can Be Dangerous to Your Android Phone, But It’s Fun!

The first time I tried to root an Android phone, I was really so cautious about it, fearing that it might brick my unit. I had the very first Google Phone then, the so-called Nexus One which I bought directly from the Google Store. So, you can just imagine how devastated I would have become, if I accidentally rendered my phone useless due to misunderstanding of the intricate process of rooting. Luckily, I did not brick my Nexus One and successfully rooted it.

 

Why Root Your Android Phone?

Simple – full control.

The first time you purchase a smartphone, you’ll realize that after exploring its many features that in the end, you still don’t have total control over it. Why? Well because you can’t accidentally brick it. That’s basically what rooting does – to give you access to your phone’s functions allowing you to become what is known as a superuser.

 

Do the Pros Outweigh the Cons or the Other Way Around?

Prior to rooting my Android phone, I researched and read several articles on what I would gain from it as well as the dangers of doing this deed. Fortunately for me, the pros outweigh the cons – so I went ahead and rooted my phone.

Allow me then to enumerate the pros of rooting an Android phone, some of which we have mentioned already. Why would you want to root your Android phone and why would you not?

 

The pros of rooting your Android phone:

• Rooting frees your Android phone from the clutches of the mobile carrier where you got your phone from, unless you got it unlocked. If that’s the case, rooting frees your phone from the restrictions of the Android OS.
• Rooting allows you to install “unofficial” and advanced versions of the Android OS. Generally, Android OS are carried over-the-air by Google and selected carriers to their Android-released devices. And this usually takes awhile to happen. Luckily, there are developers who make this updates available and the only way you can install them is to root your phone.
• Rooting allows you to uninstall stock apps which are most of the time useless and were pre-installed by the manufacturer or your carrier
• Rooting allows you take screenshots of your phone. It is so easy to take screenshots on the iPhone, but it will take rooting for Android phone users to do this.
• Rooting allows you to back up your phone’s system to an SD card so that you can try out custom ROMs and revert back to your old system
• Rooting allows you to move apps to an SD card instead of cramping your phone’s internal storage.
• Rooting allows you to use custom operating systems that will render your Android phones more useful.
• Rooting lets you overclock your phone’s kernel, making it performs faster than it was intended to perform by the manufacturer.
• Rooting lets you fully personalize and customize your phone’s interface with cool themes, wallpapers, widgets and more.

 

The cons of rooting your Android Phone:

• Rooting might void your phone’s warranty.
• Rooting can cause your phone to act abnormally, especially if not done properly.
• Rooting renders your phone unqualified to receive OS updates through OTA. So you will be on your own to look out for valid sources. The good news is that, your phone is probably running the latest OS after you have rooted it.
• You’ll be spending more time with your phone since rooting entails constant updates and all.
• Rooting may make your phone perform faster but there are downsides to it specifically running too hot to the point of overheating your device.

Please do note that rooting your phone voids your warranty and the process is risky even in a streamlined form. There is still a chance that you can brick your phone, so be sure about which “rooting” guide you select to follow.

How a trio of hackers brought Google's reCAPTCHA to its knees

The background noise added to the audio version of Google's reCAPTCHA didn't include high frequencies, making it easy for spectograms like this one to pinpoint the six distinct words included in each challenge.

C-P, Adam, Jeffball

Google revamped its reCAPTCHA system, used to block automated scripts from abusing its online services, just hours before a trio of hackers unveiled a free system that defeats the widely used challenge-response tests with more than 99 percent accuracy.
Stiltwalker, as the trio dubbed its proof-of-concept attack, exploits weaknesses in the audio version of reCAPTCHA, which is used by Google, Facebook, Craigslist and some 200,000 other websites to confirm that humans and not scam-bots are creating online accounts. While previous hacks have also used computers to crack the Google-owned CAPTCHA (short for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) system, none have achieved Stiltwalker's impressive success rate.
"The primary thing which makes Stiltwalker stand apart is the accuracy," wrote Adam, one of the three hackers who devised the attack, in an e-mail. "According to the lead researcher from the Carnegie Mellon study, the system we attacked was believed to be 'secure against automatic attack,'" he added, referring to this resume from a Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist credited with designing the audio CAPTCHA.
Stiltwalker's success exploits some oversights made by the designers of reCAPTCHA's audio version, combined with some clever engineering by the hackers who set out to capitalize on those mistakes. The audio test, which is aimed at visually impaired people who have trouble recognizing obfuscated text, broadcasts six words over a user's computer speaker. To thwart word-recognition systems, reCAPTCHA masks the words with recordings of static-laden radio broadcasts, played backwards, so the background noise would distract computers but not humans.
What the hackers—identified only as C-P, Adam, and Jeffball—learned from analyzing the sound prints of each test was that the background noise, in sharp contrast to the six words, didn't include sounds that registered at higher frequencies. By plotting the frequencies of each audio test on a spectrogram, the hackers could easily isolate each word by locating the regions where high pitches were mapped. reCAPTCHA was also undermined by its use of just 58 unique words. Although the inflections, pronunciations, and sequences of spoken words varied significantly from test to test, the small corpus of words greatly reduced the work it took a computer to recognize each utterance.

Enter the neural network

With the sounds isolated, the hackers then funneled each word into a battery of mathematical solvers to translate the characteristics of each isolated word into text that would solve the CAPTCHA puzzle. An early version of the attack worked by using the open-source pHash software library to generate a "perceptual hash" of each sound. Unlike cryptographic hashes, which typically produce vastly different ciphertext when even tiny changes are made to the plaintext input, pHash outputs vary minimally when generated by similar-sounding words. By comparing the perceptual hashes of the collected sounds to a table of hashes, the team could make educated guesses about which words were being included in the audio tests. But they ultimately scrapped the technique because its level of accuracy didn't break 30 percent.
The hackers eventually devised a machine-learning algorithm that produced significantly better results. Their neural network was seeded with data from 50,000 reCAPTCHA utterances along with human-generated input for each corresponding word. They then combined the tool with a separate attack that exploited another weakness they discovered in the audio version—namely its habit of repeating the same challenges verbatim in pseudo-random fashion. By using cryptographic hashes to fingerprint 15 million of the estimated 25 million challenges in reCAPTCHA's repertoire, their attack was able to crack most of the tests.
"The majority of the time, we can look at the challenge and not do any computation at all," Adam said. "It takes less than a second to get an answer with the MD5 solver."
Their attack became all the more effective after discovering that Google's audio CAPTCHA accepted multiple spellings for many of the challenges based on the approximate phonetic sounds of each word. As a result, an audio test that included the word "boat" could be solved by entering "boat," but it could also be solved by entering "poate." Similarly, a test that included the word "plate" could be solved by entering "plate," but it too could also be solved by entering "poate." Tests for words that included "Friday," "fairy," or "four" were also solved by entering "Friay." By fashioning the same alternate spelling for a variety of different sounding words, the hackers could pare back the number of guesses required to solve a specific puzzle, a technique crackers call "reducing the keyspace."
In the end, the hackers said their computer-generated attack solved 17,338 out of 17,495 challenges they attempted, a success rate of 99.1 percent. At one point, the attack was able to deduce answers to 847 tests in a row before being tripped up. More details of the hack are here.

The Googleplex strikes back

About two hours before the hackers were scheduled to present the attack on Saturday at the Layer One security conference, Google engineers revamped reCAPTCHA. Suddenly, Stiltwalker, which the hackers had carefully kept under wraps, no longer worked. Adam told me that he has no proof anyone tipped off Google employees—but he doubts the timing was coincidence.
The updated reCAPTCHA system uses a human voice uttering unintelligible sounds as background noise, making it impossible for Stiltwalker to isolate the distinct words included in each audio challenge. The puzzles have also been expanded from six words to ten words and each challenge lasts 30 seconds, compared with only eight seconds under the previous reCAPTCHA.

A spectrogram of a reCAPTCHA audio challenge after Google engineers hardened it to attack.

C-P, Adam, Jeffball

A Google spokesman declined to offer specifics of the reCAPTCHA upgrade beyond issuing a statement.
"We took swift action to fix a vulnerability that affected reCAPTCHA," it said, "and we aren’t aware of any abuse that used the techniques discovered. We're continuing to study the vulnerability to prevent similar issues in the future. We've found reCAPTCHA to be far more resilient than other options while also striking a good balance with human usability. Even so, it's good to bear in mind that while CAPTCHAs remain a powerful and effective tool for fighting abuse, they are best used in combination with other security technologies."
While the changes stymied the Stiltwalker attack, Adam said his own experience using the new audio tests leaves him unconvinced that they are a true improvement over the old system.
"I could only get about one of three right," he said. "Their Turing test isn't all that effective if it thinks I'm a robot."

High Orbits and Slowlorises: understanding the Anonymous attack tools

Anonymous' HOIC denial-of-service attack tool

Most members of Anonymous would prefer to stay, well, anonymous. But as the group has engaged in increasingly high-profile attacks on government and corporate websites, doing so effectively and staying out of harm's way have become an ever-growing challenge. To protect itself, the group has altered its tactics over the past year to both increase the firepower of its attacks and shield members from the prying eyes of law enforcement.
In late 2011, members of Anonymous began to step away from their most well-known weapon for distributed denial of service attacks. While some in the group continued to try to get enthusiastic followers (or unwary webpage visitors) to use a Web browser version of the Low Orbit Ion Cannon attack tool, use of LOIC had led to the arrests of members of Anonymous and LulzSec last summer. More cautious and technically skilled Anons started to use a collection of other tools and security practices to both step up attacks and hide themselves from being tracked. A message spread through Anonymous’ IRC channels spells it out: “Do NOT use LOIC.”

How Denial of Service attacks work Denial-of-service (DoS) attacks are aimed at blocking access by outside users to a website or other Internet service. They usually do this by either overwhelming one or more of the resources of the server that hosts the website or application with traffic, or by disrupting a network service that the server depends on. The most common of these are "flood" brute-force attacks that aim to overwhelm a server's network connections with a huge volume of requests, consuming the network bandwidth of the server's connection, or filling up the memory associated with the server application's network connections, rendering them unreachable. Other types of attacks are crafted to go after the applications themselves, and use specially formed network requests to a server to exploit a function of its software to crash it or make it stop responding. A distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack spreads the malicious requests to the server across many source computers—often by using a "botnet" controlling hundreds of infected computers, or in the case of Anonymous, by coordinating the efforts of tens or hundreds of volunteer "activists" to launch attacks.

The attacks on the websites of the Justice Department and others in the wake of the takedown of Megaupload.com were the first demonstration of the power of LOIC’s successor—a DDoS tool called the High Orbit Ion Cannon.
HOIC isn't exactly rocket science. At its core, it is essentially a simple script for launching HTTP POST and GET requests at a targeted server, wrapped in a "lulz" friendly graphical interface. According to the documentation, it can be used to open up 256 attack sessions simultaneously—either targeting a single server, or going after multiple targets. The user can control the number of threads used per attack.

 

This rocket needs boosters

The code itself isn't that sophisticated. HOIC is written in Basic—or, to be more accurate, Real Software's Real Basic, the cross-platform version of the language originally developed for the Mac. The main power of HOIC is that it can be customized for each attack target relatively easily without having to know how to code, using "boosters," modules with additional bits of Basic code that are interpreted at runtime.
HOIC’s boosters are used to tailor the HTTP requests sent by HOIC to the target for a specific type of attack. ”HOIC is pretty useless,” the documentation file that comes with the code says, “unless it is used in combination with ‘Boosters.’” And that's putting it mildly—the attack code is generated based completely on what's in the booster file. When an attack is launched, HOIC compiles the booster to create the HTTP headers to be sent, and sets the mode of the attack.
One approach commonly used in boosters is to create randomized requests in an attempt to defeat any content delivery network (CDN) or caching used to shield the server from traffic spikes. Some boosters use lists of URLs within a target site, appending them to a table in memory to be used by the attack thread:

// populate rotating urls
randURLs.Append "http://www.om.nl/"
randURLs.Append "http://www.om.nl/onderwerpen/cybercrime/"

The script also can include a randomized list of user agents, referring sites and random headers that are fed into HTTP requests to make the requests look more legitimate:

useragents.Append " Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.6) Gecko/20070725 Firefox/2.0.0.6"
useragents.Append " Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1)"
referers.Append " http://www.google.com/?q=" +URL

The booster script can also include parameters to set the volume of the attack, and to switch between GET and POST requests. For example, here’s the booster set up to attack a dynamic part of Visa’s webpage, using POST, complete with a form submission to the target page:

UsePost = true
Headers.Append(" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.2.12) Gecko/20101027 Firefox/3.6.12" )
Headers.Append(" Keep-Alive: 115")
Headers.Append("Proxy-Connection: keep-alive")

Headers.Append(" Referer: http://visa.via.infonow.net/locator/global/AdvancedSearchAction.do")

Headers.Append(" Cookie: JSESSIONID=5D2E604F487FB5AC9DBF9A1FDEA7D86A.fta-web3" )

URL = "http://visa.via.infonow.net/locator/global/AdvancedSearchAction.do"

PostBuffer = "newSearch=true&airport=&pageid=adv&filteredNameSubmit=false&LOC=en_US&country=CHE&street1=2353464756867867876886786777777777777777777777777777786&building=&city=aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa&initialSearchName=&mapAndList=mapAndList&x=27&y=9"

While the scripts themselves can get fairly sophisticated in how they’re configured, a generic booster file distributed with HOIC makes it fairly simple for would-be DDoSers to build a custom booster for their target of ire of the moment and distribute it via a shared document site like PasteBin, Google Documents, or an Etherpad site. For example, when a hungry Anon got upset about a late pizza delivery on Valentine’s Day, he quickly shared a clip of Web addresses to start an impromptu DDoS on Pizza Hut.
The actual code that runs the attacks is executed as threads by a set of timers. ObjTarget.SendAttack is pretty straightforward:

'Creating the socket request
  Dim httpObj as HTTPSocket
  Dim i as integer
  Dim reqSize as integer = 0
  httpObj = New HTTPSocket

  ' Adding the headers generated by the booster
  for i = 0 to Headers.Ubound
    reqSize = reqSize + Headers(i).Len
    httpObj.SetRequestHeader(Headers(i).Left(Headers(i).InStr(":")-1), Headers(i).Mid(Headers(i).InStr(":")+1, Headers(i).Len - Headers(i).InStr(":")))
  Next

'For attacks wher POST has been chosen as the type of HTTP request
  if(UsePost) then
    reqSize = reqSize + PostBuffer.Len + 4 ' POST
    httpObj.SetPostContent(PostBuffer, "application/x-www-form-urlencoded")
    httpobj.Post URL
'For GET based attacks
  else
    reqSize = reqSize + 3 ' GET
    httpobj.Get URL
  end if

 'Tracking how much data has been sent to the target
  TotalBytesSent = TotalBytesSent + reqSize

But HOIC isn’t the only tool that Anons are promoting.

The old(er) bag of tricks

Despite its improved attacks, HOIC still points an arrow straight back at the source of the DDoS. And some of the targets Anonymous’ various #Ops are going after aren’t suitable for straight-up HTTP attacks. So there are two other tools that have been tossed into Anon’s #Setup recommendations that aren’t exactly new to the security world: Hping and Slowloris, a pair of network security testing tools that also have the potential to be used for evil.
Hping is a TCP/IP "packet assembler and analyzer" initially developed and now maintained by Salvatore Sanfillipo, a Sicilian programmer. It uses a command-line interface similar to that of the ping network utility, but it can do a lot more than make ICMP echo requests. It can be used to throw high volumes of TCP requests at a target, while masking the source of the attack through spoofing, as Anonymous’ tutorial shows:

 ### Normal hping DoS attack:
hping3 -S -i u100 riaa.org
### Spoofed random source address attack:
hping3 -S -i u100 riaa.org --rand-source
### Reflected attack(it looks like mpaa.org is DoS'ing riaa.org)
hping3 -S -i u100 riaa.org -a mpaa.org

Slowloris is a different sort of attack entirely—a slow HTTP attack that uses partial HTTP requests to a server, making it wait for more chunks of the request and slowly spooning them out to keep the IP socket on the server open. This type of attack works best against low-traffic sites on Apache and a variety of other Web servers by eating up available network ports on the server. It’s ideal for attacks on servers in places where there’s a concern about there being enough bandwidth for a brute-force DDoS to succeed, or where there’s concern about the collateral damage to other users on the same network. That’s why Slowloris was used against Iranian servers during the protests around the Iranian elections in 2009.
But Slowloris is not a tool for the masses. It requires Perl, and runs best on Linux. The author of Slowloris, known as RSnake, said that Windows users “will not be able to successfully execute a Slowloris denial of service from Windows…because Slowloris requires more than a few hundred sockets to work (sometimes a thousand or more), and Windows limits sockets to around 130, from what I've seen.”
However, a Python-based version of the exploit, PyLoris, gets around those limitations. It has a graphical interface, and can be used effectively from Windows; Christopher Gilbert, the developer of PyLoris, claims he’s tested PyLoris on Windows with "over 6000 connections, and [doesn’t] see why it couldn’t use more than that."
PyLoris also includes a feature called TOR Switcher, which allows attacks to be carried out over the anonymized Tor Network and switch between Tor "identities," changing the apparent location the attack is coming from at user-defined intervals.

A screenshot of PyLoris in action

Christopher Gilbert

Used individually, these tools can be somewhat effective in slowing down many of the sites that Anonymous targets. But as Curt Wilson, a researcher with Arbor Networks’ Security Engineering and Response Team, said to Ars in an interview, "If you use volumetric floods on top of specific application attacks [like Slowloris], it’s a pretty powerful combination."
And just by the sheer number of attacking systems that Anonymous can bring aboard to launch these attacks when its members and friends are highly motivated—as in the wake of the Megaupload shutdown—even the most basic of tools can cause problems for large websites.

Covering the trail

There is still the matter of being able to pull off these large attacks with volunteered computers and keeping those volunteers anonymous. While Hping can provide some obscuring of the source of an attack, the other tools point straight back at their source. So Anons have been eager to find ways to keep their IP addresses concealed.
The problem is that freely available anonymizing networks generally aren’t up to the task of handling the bandwidth of DOS attacks. Attempting to launch HOIC or other DDoS tools over Tor would amount to an attack on that network itself—and on the Anonymous members who use it to protect themselves. So with the exception of Slowloris and PyLoris attacks, which demand relatively little bandwidth, the Anonymous edict is “DO NOT DOS THROUGH TOR.”
Some Anons have turned to a variety of proxy tools—including a fairly suspicious commercial software package called AutoHideIP, which claims to anonymize users by connecting them through proxies for a one-time fee, even selecting the country from which their IP address appears to be located. Efforts by Ars to contact the creators of AutoHideIP, Coolware Max, were unsuccessful.
But there’s reason to be suspicious of the security of proxy services, and of other anonymizing services such as VPNs, because they could be compelled by law enforcement to turn over traffic logs. That was the case in the arrest of one alleged LulzSec member, who was apprehended after VPN provider HideMyAss.com turned over log data that helped trace him to Arizona.
For that reason, Anonymous’ best-practice advice for members is to stick to Anonine and VPNTunnel, two paid VPN-based anonymizing services based in Sweden—where privacy laws don’t require providers to keep access logs (and in some cases prohibit it).
Both of the services are based on OpenVPN, a GPL-based open source virtual private network technology available on Windows, MacOS and Linux. However, as Anonine has expanded service beyond Sweden, with servers available worldwide, some of its servers have started to keep logs in accordance with local laws—so Anonymous’ members are warned to specifically configure their clients for Swedish servers.
It's doubtful that everyone in Anonymous plays by these rules. And that's probably a good thing for Anonymous, because it would pose a strategic problem—all that authorities would need to do to deflect Anonymous' attacks is to refuse connections from the blocks of IP addresses assigned to these two Swedish providers. And with the European Union considering new EU-wide regulations that would standardize privacy rules across the continent, it's not certain how much longer Sweden will be a safe haven.

Should I buy the Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman?

If you're old enough to recall the days before MP3s and portable media players, then you'll no doubt have a certain degree of affection for Sony's famous Walkman brand. Back in the days when Dolby was cutting edge and your playlists were confined to 90 minutes per tape, Sony ruled the roost.

However, it's best to cast aside any of these nostalgic feelings when considering the Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman. Although it is marked with the distinctive logo, it's not actually that strong a music playback device -- at least when compared with the competition.

Aside from a special Walkman shortcut button, there's nothing here that hasn't already been seen on Sony Ericsson's Xperia phones. The Live with Walkman even uses the exact same music player app.

The fact that it only comes with a 2GB microSD card is an even clearer indication that this handset isn't going to usurp the iPhone as the public's portable music player of choice; 2GB just isn't enough space for serious music fans.

With a SIM-free price tag of roughly Rs 13000, the Live with Walkman isn't meant to compete with Apple's expensive phone. But its spec sheet manages to out-shine many similarly-priced Android devices.

It may not live up to that illustrious Walkman name, but this cheap and cheerful device is compact, relatively powerful and even offers exotic features such as 720p video recording and external stereo speakers. For Android rookies, it's the perfect introduction to the operating system.

 

 

Timescape 4.0

Sony Ercisson's Timescape user interface came in for some stick when it launched on the Xperia X10 a while back, but the company has wisely taken the criticism on board. Version 4 -- which is installed on the Live with Walkman -- is attractive, feature-packed and surprisingly quick.

Just like the Sony Ercisson Xperia Active, the Live with Walkman uses smart corners to make the most of its small 3.2-inch screen. These are areas in each corner of the screen where you can stow away application shortcuts.

You can dock four apps to each corner. They remain in place no matter which of the five home screens you're currently looking at.

This system is a real time saver. It's important to note that these shortcuts are in addition to the ones you can place on the home screens themselves.

Pinching with your fingers results in this widget overview (left); like HTC Sense, Timescape has its own weather widget (right).

The widget from which Timescape takes its name is still here, although we struggle to find a reason to actually use it. Timescape collates information from your texts, social networking updates and Twitter feed. This data is then presented in a stack of scrolling cards, which look nice but serve very little purpose otherwise.

Timescape 4.0 also introduces xLOUD audio enhancement, which boosts the volume of your music and notifications. As we've seen on several Xperia handsets, this feature is a little overbearing. Sounds end up being distorted, and we preferred to switch it off.

Another cool addition is the ability to snap screenshots using the phone's power button. A long-press brings up the standard shutdown menu, but with an extra box for taking a screen grab. Seeing as this functionality isn't currently available in stock Android, it's great to see that manufacturers are taking it upon themselves to add it in.

Timescape 4.0 features Sony Ericsson's challenger to the popular Swype keyboard.

Like HTC has done with its Sense 3.0 user interface, Sony Ericsson has imbued Timescape 4.0 with robust media sharing power. Using the Connected Devices application, you can stream music, photos and video to any compatible DLNA devices in the area. Some TVs and stereos support this feature, but you can also use your Sony PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360.

Timescape 4.0 does drop a few balls though. Android veterans will miss the stock Power Widget, which has been removed in favour of Sony Ericsson's own variant. Dubbed Status Switch, this exclusive widget adds in the ability to toggle Airplane mode and disable your mobile network, but it omits the data sync switch. This means you have to dig deep into the settings to turn off synchronisation of your email.

Android 2.3.4

Sony recently updated many of its phones to Android 2.3.4, and that's the exact same variant of Google's OS that ships on the Live with Walkman.

One of the most recent iterations of Gingerbread, 2.3.4 adds in video calling on apps such as Google Talk and Skype, allowing you to talk face-to-face with your friends. However, video calls across your mobile network aren't supported.

Despite the fact that Android 4.0 is soon to be upon us, 2.3 remains a solid operating system. It boasts multi-tasking, live widgets and an app marketplace that's bursting with new downloads.

 

Walkman

No matter how hard it tries, Sony Ericsson just can't seem to let go of the past. It's been years since the Walkman brand carried any kind of cachet, yet the manufacturer still insists on plastering the logo across a select few phones each year.

The bundled headphones are terrible -- music buffs will want to invest in a replacement set.

Alluding to former glories doesn't get the Live with Walkman very far. Despite its music focus, the phone is curiously lacking when it comes to aural entertainment.

The most obvious shortcoming is the fact that it's sold with a 2GB microSD card, which is woefully insufficient for even the most casual of music fans.

The Walkman music app is decent enough but it's not exclusive to this phone and is available on other Xperia devices.

We also have to take issue with the bundled headphones. While they possess a solid construction and offer a relatively decent level of sound quality, we noticed a crackling noise in the background, even when music isn't actually playing.

We assumed this was a problem with the phone, but when we tried our own set of earphones the crackling sound vanished. It's possible that the pair of headphones supplied with our review handset were defective, but even so, serious music lovers are unlikely to find them acceptable.

You can tinker with pre-set sound options and find out more about artists via web links.

It's also lamentable that the in-line remote control doesn't have proper music buttons such as volume control. As it stands, you have to press the single button once to pause a track, twice to advance and three times to go to the previous song. To alter the volume you have to extract the phone from your pocket and use the dedicated button.

The actual Walkman software is decent, offering a wide range of options and even the ability to link to relevant YouTube and Wikipedia entries. There's a quick-access button on the top of the phone, which launches the app automatically, allowing you to get to your tracks with the minimum of fuss.

The problem is, this is the same software that has already shipped on Sony Ericsson's other non-Walkman smart phones. At least a couple of additional extras to boost the Walkman branding would have been welcome.

The stereo speakers provide a surprisingly punchy sound.

It's not all bad. We like the stereo speakers on the back of the phone. Not only do they deliver impressively punchy sound, they also ensure that you're unlikely to miss a call, even in a noisy environment.

 

Processing power and internal storage

As a mid-range device, it's almost a given that the Live Walkman comes with a 1GHz processor.

With only 320MB of app storage to play with, you'll need to be careful with what you install.

With 512MB RAM to back it up, this CPU may sound a little anaemic when you consider that quad-core phones like the HTC Edge are looming menacingly on the horizon. However, the low resolution of the Live with Walkman's screen means there's less legwork for it to do. Moving around the phone's user interface is a lag-free affair.

Live with Walkman's AnTuTu Benchmark results in all their lurid glory.

There's 320MB of internal storage available and a microSD card slot. A 2GB card is supplied with the phone, but you'll almost certainly want to ditch this in favour of something a little roomier, especially if you're serious about this being your main portable music player.

 

Design

The Live Walkman's dumpy design calls to mind fellow Sony Ericsson small-fry the Xperia Mini and Xperia Active. At just 106mm tall and 56mm wide, it's a truly pocket-sized proposition. Those dainty dimensions come at a cost: the phone is 14mm at its thickest point.

At 14mm thick, the Live with Walkman feels quite dumpy.

The glossy front and curved edges call to the mind the Xperia Play, and the clip-on battery cover is borrowed almost directly from the Xperia Mini. The end result is that the Live with Walkman feels like an amalgamation of previous Sony Ericsson devices, rather than a distinct entity in its own right.

While originality and innovation may be lacking, the Live with Walkman is blessed with a pleasing build quality. It feels solid, and the battery cover exhibits no traces of creaking when gripped. On the flipside, it's also quite difficult to prise off, and those of you with long nails should anticipate a few breakages.

Rather than using the usual four-strong row of Android controls, the Live with Walkman has just three controls on the front of the device. The Home button is the only physical key out of this trio, with the Back and Menu commands being touch-sensitive buttons. Once again, the Search key is omitted to free up space, which means you'll have to locate that particular function using the phone's touchscreen.

On the left-hand side of the phone you'll find the volume rocker and camera button. The latter is a very welcome addition, as it allows you to quickly fire up the camera application from anywhere in the phone's user interface.

Finally, there's the top of the handset, which is possibly the most interesting element. A 3.5mm audio socket is flanked by two buttons. On the left is the aforementioned Walkman command, which opens up the Walkman music player app. On the right is the power and lock button.

Running around the headphone socket is a transparent section of plastic, which lights up during calls. You can also toggle an option which causes this area to pulsate in time to the music you're listening to -- but unless you fancy being a walking light show, it feels like an over-indulgence.

 

Screen

This is the one area where the Live with Walkman truly struggles. The TFT LCD screen has a resolution of 320x480 pixels, which is quite low, even by budget Android standards.

The actual size of the screen is 3.2 inches, which makes the humble resolution less noticeable. It adds up to 180 pixels per inch. Compare that with the Xperia Ray, which manages to pack 297ppi into its 3.3-inch screen. That means browsing text-rich websites or viewing detailed images really shows up the limitations of the handset's screen.

The Live with Walkman's screen is quite small, masking the rather poor resolution.

The TFT panel also struggles when used in direct sunlight, making it a hard device to use properly when you're out and about. Indoors, things are a little more positive. Despite lacking the Mobile Bravia tech showcased by some of its Xperia siblings, the Live with Walkman's screen is bright and bold.

Thankfully, the display uses capacitive touch technology for higher responsiveness and accuracy. Multi-touch gestures are also supported, so you can pinch to zoom in applications such as Google Maps and your web browser.

 

Applications

As much as we love Timescape 4.0, it's something of a serial offender when it comes to pre-loaded bloatware. There's a staggering number of uninstallable apps present, many of which you'll never use, yet they sit in the background chomping up your precious RAM.

Sony Ericsson's dedicated App and Game stores don't feature anything that isn't already on Android Market.

Thankfully, some of the apps introduced in 4.0 can be removed, including McAfee Security, Music Unlimited, UEFA.com and Xperia Hot Shots. This frees up valuable app storage space, allowing you to download stuff more worthy of your attention.

Interestingly, the Live with Walkman features trial versions of several pre-installed Popcap games, including Plants vs Zombies and Peggle. Again, these can be deleted if you find yourself running low on space, but they serve as neat introductions to some of the Android platform's finest games.

 

Internet

When you've only got 320x480 pixels to play with, it doesn't take a genius to realise that viewing high-detail web pages isn't going to be easy.

The Live with Walkman's low resolution screen isn't ideal for browsing the web, but it does support Adobe Flash.

Surfing the web on the Live with Walkman is occasionally quite a painful experience. You have to zoom out quite a bit to get a good overview of a site. When you do the text and images are barely legible.

On the plus side, the browser supports Adobe Flash, so you benefit from a more interactive view of the web than those using iPhones or iPads.

The stock Android browser has been refined and improved over the past few years and it's hard to fault. It supports multiple windows, bookmarks and has its own pop-up blocker. There are alternatives available on Android Market that boast more options and settings. But for the casual user, this is more than adequate.

Android battery life: how to improve it

Let's be honest - many mobile phone batteries simply aren't fit for purpose. Even Google's Larry Page says you should be grateful if your Android battery lasts a day.
In fact, in order to keep your smartphone alive for a full "working" day you're often forced to deactivate the very features that make the phone "smart" to begin with, as you switch off option after option to nurse your rapidly-dying new mobile through a day of worthwhile use.
So what can be done, practically speaking, to make your Android phone's battery last longer? And can any of the power-management apps actually help?
Here we'll look at the more obvious Android battery-saving solutions, as well as the more obscure tips and tricks that could make a genuine difference - and add hours to your potential operational 'up time'.

1. Use Android Power Control widget

Put simply, you've got to take control. The best way of maintaining battery life is indeed to dumb-down your all-powerful new phone by switching off features - but do it in a stylish way. Don't just leave everything turned off all the time, or you may as well still be using a Nokia 6610.
Home screen widgets that flip Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and other power-hungry options on and off with a single press take the pain out of switching features off, while Android 1.6 added Google's own power icon strip - set it up by long-pressing and installing the Android Power Control widget on your Home screen.

2. Calm down on the status updates

No one's saying you can't use your Android phone's features, but do you really need to be pinged every two minutes about a new Tweet or email? Lower the notification frequency in any apps that constantly update you on the minutiae of everything everyone does, ever, and you'll maybe still have a bit of battery left by bed time. So you can tweet that it's your bed time. Then tweet 'night night'.

3. Switch off auto-sync

If you're not a power-user of the Google life-management apps, turn them off. If you can live without Google Calendar and Gmail, it's possible to do away with auto-sync altogether - just remember to manually sync your Contacts every once in a while, in case you drop your phone in a toilet.
The app MySettings will give you numerous little toggle switches and let you turn auto-sync on and off easily, if you like the idea of having a whole screen full of power-saving icons.

MYSETTINGS:Empower yourself. Take back several minutes of battery life

4. Disable 3G connectivity

Good old 2G is perfect for calls and texts, so kill 3G unless you're planning a bit of emergency web browsing on your phone. You'll also benefit from the general feeling of increased calmness that follows naturally once you've stopped staring at the 3G icon every two minutes and fretting about what your mobile network connection state is.

5. Lower the screen brightness

As impressive as it might be to have your stunning OLED screen blazing out so much light that the current inhabitants of the International Space Station have to squint and lower the sun visors when you wake it up, it's completely unnecessary. If you're inside, Android's default 0% brightness setting ought to do. Again, install a brightness widget on your desktop, for easy access when you do need a visibility boost.

DIM IT: Squint more, save battery. This handy widget's called Brightness Level

6. Turn off GPS

GPS is a monster power-drainer, and it's barely of any use most of the time. Is it? Really? Even famed mobile-sensitive app Foursquare can do a good enough job of tracking you down via approximations based on which mobile masts you're connected to, so unless you're actually doing a bit of serious satnav action, switch it off. You'll be able to hear your battery sigh with relief. Seriously. Try holding your phone to your ear as you uncheck the box.

7. Monitor everything

Android 1.6 introduced a menu that lets users see precisely where their battery life is going, with the OS giving you a percentage breakdown of what sucked away all your phone's power in the final few minutes before you actually wanted to use it. Like a mobile black box recorder.
The 'Battery Use' tab under Settings/About Phone will give you a detailed breakdown of what's absorbing the most power, letting you take manual control - and delete any power-hungry apps. Try replacing them with alternatives and see if there's a difference. One rogue app that sucks power on your particular phone could be the problem.

8. Set a Wi-Fi timeout

There's a semi-hidden 'Advanced' Wi-Fi management screen in Android, accessed by navigating to your phone's 'Wi-fi Settings' tab and then pressing the Menu button. From here, you're able to manually select a timeout option for the Wi-Fi connection - one of the biggest power drains on idle phones.
It may make your phone take longer to connect to Wi-Fi when you wake it up, and therefore feel a little less 'smart', but at least it'll still be significantly smarter than a lump of useless plastic with a dead battery.

WI-FI TIMEOUT: Hidden advanced menu screens - another reason Android is BEST

9. Go Gothic

Modern popular thinking has it that phone screens, particularly OLED versions, use more energy when displaying brighter, whiter colours. So go Gothic. Ditch that vibrant wallpaper and select a nice, dark Home screen background, then enjoy not having to reach for the charger for at least an extra minute every day.

10. Install a time-sensitive power manager

There are plenty of time and location sensitive apps on the Android Market which automatically handle your phone's power and communications settings. For example, there's no point leaving your phone connected to the mobile network while you're asleep - so a simple app like Airplane Autoswitch, which kills all radio communications, will save loads of power and also help you sleep uninterrupted by notification pings.
Set it to activate Airplane mode at your usual bedtime, then get it to fire itself up again when you wake up. Simple, and your battery will make it through the night with only a minuscule drain.

AIRPLANE AUTOSWITCH:The unglamorous, plain text world of hardcore power management

11. Put your phone somewhere there's a good reception

Your phone uses more power when it's seeking a mobile mast connection, so, believe it or not, your battery will last much longer if you leave your phone in a place where it gets a good reception. Put it on the other side of your desk, or on the windowsill. It will make a difference.
An app like Antennas will give you a ridiculously detailed summary of your phone's current network connectivity state and all the masts in the area, if you fancy locating the optimum low-power placement within a three-mile radius of your home.

ANTENNAS: Only for the Category-A obsessed power-saver

12. Don't drain the battery

The old advice to completely drain your battery to ensure proper operation doesn't stand any more, thanks to modern lithium-ion batteries. They don't have the charge memory issues that affected previous generation cells, and in fact perform better if you regularly charge them and keep them topped up.

13. Buy an in-car charger

And leave it in the car. Buy a spare one and leave it in a friend's car. Also leave USB cables everywhere. And get a spare battery. And a spare spare battery. There's no guaranteed way to beat the system. It will be flat the one time you fall down a cliff and need help.

Top 10 android setup tasks

Kickstart your shiny new android phone including the Droid family, Evo 4G, Galaxy S or other Motorola, Samsung and HTC android phones.
For the best experience, scan this on your android phone, so you install the below apps just by clicking on them.
Bookmark/Follow Android Tips via Email/Twitter to receive infrequent, but only the best tips.

Top 10 Android setup tasks:

1. Import contacts:
   • Export contacts to CSV, import to Gmail contacts.
   • Sign in to your phone with your Google account, if you haven’t done that yet.
   • Browse to Contacts>Settings>Display options>Select “Only contacts with phones”, and also Google>Manually select all groups. Then sync.
   • While you are at it, use the Email app to setup your school/office email too. Use IMAP or Exchange settings to ensure that email read status is synced to your phone.
   • Install Gtasks and sync your todo lists with Google tasks.

1. Facebook and Twitter:
   • Install the Facebook and Twitter apps.
   • Select to import data on your existing contacts. Pictures and other address data are the automagically added to your contacts.
   • Set Facebook and Twitter to update once every 4 hrs to prevent your friends from draining your battery. The Facebook sync setting could be in Contacts>Settings>Accounts or in the app itself

1. Home screen:
   • Install ADW launcher to get a better home screen.
   • Select ADW launcher to open by default when the Home button is pressed.
   • Set the number of screens to 3 and apps to scroll vertically. Thats feels a lot better on the Galaxy S phones.
   • Set desktop rows to 5. Theres a lot more screenspace on large screen phones.
   • Select fade app labels for some nice animation.
   • If you want to reset the launcher for any reason, browse to Settings>Manage apps>ADW launcher> Reset defaults.

1. Home screen widgets:
   • Install Beautiful widgets, one of the best Time and Weather widgets.
   • Try out some clock skins and pick the one you like.
   • Tap on Time to open alarm, Date to open calendar and Weather to open a nice animated weather widget.
   • Galaxy S phones have the WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, 4G, enable/disable buttons in the notification area, but you might want to place Power Control, an android standard widget, on your home screen and have better control over your battery.
   • While disabling the GPS, enable Geo location using WiFi to retrieve current location without sacrificing battery power.

1. Get your phone back if you loose it:
   • Install Contact Owner.
   • Enable the security pattern in settings,
   • Setup Google Voice if needed
   • Add your email and the Google Voice number to your contact. You can use a friends number instead too.
   • Get Contact Owner to show your email and the phone number on the password screen, so the finder can reach you to give back the phone.
   • Also, enable Latitude in maps to track the location of your phone.

1. Find your background:
   • Download a backgrounds app
   • Stylems Backgrounds shows a list of nice backgrounds, one of the oldest in the market.
   • Floating Image lets you set your background in style, while images float away.
   • Look at Flickr Interesting photos too.

1. Change phone settings automatically:
   • Install Timerrific
   • There are apps that use GPS or phone battery levels to change settings automatically, like Tasker and Power Manager
   • Timerrific is better though. It changes settings based on time/day and is nice to the battery.
   • Now you can set the phone to vibrate at office/school and turn off WiFi when not at home.
   • While you are at it, install No Signal Alert, so you don’t miss important calls. Your phone will let you know if it looses signal.

1. Don’t type, scan (or write):
   • Install the Barcode Scanner app
   • Scan any barcodes you see on the web or elsewhere using Barcode Scanner.
   • The app works on Google Product Search too, all you have to do is browse to it on you phone and click on the “Scan Barcode” button. Now you can compare prices on the go.
   • If you have Android 2.2, the Chrome to Phone extension is very nice too.
   • If scanning or extensions are too hard, just try Graffiti for Android. It lets you write instead of typing.

1. Other must have Apps:
   • Music, News and TV apps are always a must.
   • Pandora, Slacker radio or Last.FM: Free personalized radio
   • NYtimes: Award-winning journalism of The New York Times
   • NPR: Listen to NPR shows
   • TV.com: TV shows from CBS, The CW, CNET, ET, Showtime, CBS News, CBS Sports and much more!

1. Last but not the least change your ringtone:
   • Android comes with some nice ones, you can create your own too.
   • Install Ringdroid. Copy any MP3 to your SD card to edit and set it as your Ringtone.
   • You can assign a specific ringtone to a contact too.

How to Tell if a QR Code is Safe or Not?

Is that QR code pointing to a safe website?

Quick Response (QR) Codes make it easier for you to open web pages on a mobile phone without having to type the long URLs. Retailers put QR codes in print ads that customers can scan to learn more about the advertised product. Museums use QR Codes to offer more detailed information about exhibits.
Sometimes you may encounter QR codes at random locations – may be on a street pole – that you are often tempted to scan. It could hold a discount coupon for some retail store, maybe its part of some scavenger hunt or, in the worst case, it could be trick to direct you to a malicious website. How do you know if a QR code is safe or not?

Protect yourself from Bad QR Codes

Unfurlr, an online tool that helps you unmask the long URLs hiding behind short URLs, now offers a QR scanner app for both iPhone and Android mobile phones. Unlike other QR scanners, Unfurl won’t just reveal the URL hidden inside a QR code but it also offers a security report suggesting if the underlying web site is safe or not.
You can use Unfurls on your mobile to scan links found in email messages and chat messages for bad ware as well. Just copy the link to the clipboard, launch Unfurlr app and it will automatically offer you an option to scan the link available in the clipboard.
The app uses Web of Trust, an online database that offers reputation ratings for domain names, to determine problematic URLs. I wish it also supported StopBadware.org, the same database that is used by Google and Mozilla to block harmful pages in your browser.
Here are some screenshots of the Unfurlr app in action.
 

Remote Control your Android Phone using SMS

Using simple SMS commands, you can turn on the ringer of your mobile phone from another phone, retrieve the call logs, read the incoming text messages and more.

How do you locate your mobile phone if the ringer is off? Maybe you switched the phone to vibrate mode while you were in a meeting and the device is nowhere to be found.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could borrow your colleague’s phone and use it to turn on the ringer of your missing phone?
Meet Agastya, a new Android app that lets you “remotely” perform various tasks on your phone from any other phone via simple SMS commands. The other phone, that is sending the commands, need not be running Android – even the basic Nokia 1100 would do just fine – and either phones don’t require GPS or data plans (Internet).
The workflow is easy. You send an SMS command from a friend’s phone to your own phone in a given format and the app reacts accordingly. For instance, a command like “ringer” would turn on the ringer while “silent” would put the phone to silent mode.
The app can also help you retrieve your missed calls list or your incoming text messages via, you got it right, SMS. This feature should be handy for people who own multiple phones – you can easily check the call and SMS logs of your secondary phone from the one that’s in your pocket.
Here’s a complete list of SMS commands that you can try on your Android phone:

• SILENT – Turn off the phone’s ringer
• RINGER – Turn on the ringer
• IMEI – Get the IMEI number* of your phone
• LAST MESSAGES – Retrieve the last 5 text messages received on your phone
• LAST CALLS – Know the last 5 missed/received/dialed numbers
• <CONTACT> – Fetch the contact number of a person from the address book.

[*] The IMEI number can help you block a misplaced (or stolen) phone from accessing mobile networks (type *#06# to know the IMEI of your existing phone).Agastay isn’t the first app that offers such features. The more popular Where’s My Droid app can not only turn on the ringer of your phone remotely but will also send you the phone’s current GPS location by SMS. There’s overlap but these apps are more inclined towards locating your lost phone while Agastay is like a command console – you can toggle between phone states or even fetch details of a contact remotely from the phone’s address book. The IMEI feature is also handy for blacklisting your misplaced phone.
In my tests, Agastya did work as advertised and the SMS based commands executed almost instantly though the app did crash in one instance. The company says that Agastay works on Android 2.2 and above.
On a related note, if you aren’t allowed to carry cell phones in your office, you should grab the SMS to Gmail app as it will auto-forward all your incoming text messages and missed calls list to your work email address.

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Things to Know Before you Download Windows 8

Microsoft today unveiled the “release preview” version of Windows 8 which mostly indicates that the new Windows operating system is feature-complete. Windows 8 Release Preview is available as a free download and it is very likely that your existing system specs are good enough to run Windows 8.

The System Requirements for Windows 8
According to this Windows 8 FAQ, any machine equipped with 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of hard disk space and 1 GHz processor should be able to handle Windows 8. The minimum RAM requirements are 2 GB in case you would like to install the 64-bit version of Windows 8.
Should you download Windows 8 Setup or the ISO Image?
As you may have noticed on the Windows 8 download page, the installation of Windows 8 can be done in two ways.

1. You can either take the easiest route and download the Windows 8 Setup program – that’s also the default option.
2. Alternatively, you can download ISO Images of Windows 8.

If you are planning to install Windows 8 on your existing computer, either on a different partition (dual-boot) or just want to upgrade from an older version of Windows to Windows 8, the default Setup program is a good choice.
Please note that that your installed software programs will only be preserved if you are upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 8. If your planning to install Windows 8 on top of Windows XP or Vista, only the files will be preserved but not the various software programs that you may have on the disk.
The Windows 8 ISO image may be more handy in other situations like:

1. Your computer has an x64 processor but is currently running the 32-bit version of Windows. If you want to install the 64-bit version of Windows 8, download the 64-bit ISO.
2. You want to install Windows 8 on your Mac (iMac or Macbook) using Boot Camp software.
3. You want to install Windows 8 on multiple computers. In that case, you can download the ISO once, create a bootable DVD and boot the other systems using this newly created Windows 8 disk.
4. You plan to run Windows 8 as a Virtual Machine inside your existing copy of Windows.
5. You are running Windows XP.

The universal product key for Windows 8 is TK8TP-9JN6P-7X7WW-RFFTV-B7QPF.

Will my software programs run inside Windows 8?
Before grabbing the ISO image of Windows 8, quickly run this setup utility and it will show a list of all software programs and hardware drivers on your system that are compatible with Windows 8. Alternatively, you can visit this page to see a list of all known software and hardware devices that are found to be working with Windows 8.

How should I go about installing Windows 8?
You can have Windows 8 on your computer in three ways – you can install Windows 8 side-by-side (also known as dual-boot), as a virtual machine (so that it runs inside your existing Windows just like any other software) or you can have Windows 8 as your primary OS (there’s no going back from here).
If you just want to try out Windows 8  but without modifying any of your existing set-up, the safest bet is to use a Virtual Machine. If you have a vacant disk partition or don’t mind creating one (it’s easy), go for the dual-boot option. Else, if you have a spare computer, you can consider upgrading to Windows 8 overwriting the previous installation of Windows.
Also note that if you are upgrading from Windows 8 Consumer Preview to the new Windows 8 Release Preview, none of your installed programs, files and account settings will be preserved though everything would be moved to the windows.old folder.

Enable Video Thumbnails in your Windows Explorer

Windows Explorer does not display thumbnail images for unsupported video file formats and  thus it is difficult to determine what’s inside a video unless you play the clip in an associated media player.

For instance, here’s a screenshot of my movies folder – Windows Explorer uses the default video icon for all media files that solve no purpose.

There’s however a free utility called Media Preview that will replace these generic icons with image thumbnails generated using the first few frames of the video file.
All you have to do is launch the configuration wizard once and enable video thumbnails.
Windows Explorer can natively handle Windows Media and Quicktime formats only but the Media Preview utility can display video thumbnails for virtually all popular video formats that are out there including 3GP, Flash video, Real Media formats, DVD file and more.
Here’s a second screenshot of the same movies folder in Windows Explorer but with video thumbnails enabled. Much better.

Windows Explorer with Video Thumbnails

Media Preview is available for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. The specs say that the utility is also compatible with Windows 8.
If the utility has trouble generating thumbnails for your video files, just launch the Media Preview utility from the Start Menu, switch to the Testing tab and click Clear Thumbnail Cache. [via Snapfiles.com]

How to Secure Your Wireless (Wi-Fi) Home Network

his article describes how you can secure your Wireless Network from hackers and you’ll also learn about free tools that people generally use to intercept your Wi-Fi signals.
Wireless Networking (Wi-Fi) has made it so easy for you to use the computer, portable media player, mobile phones, video game consoles, and other wireless devices anywhere in the house without the clutter of cables.
With traditional wired networks, it is extremely difficult for someone to steal your bandwidth but the big problem with wireless signals is that others can access the Internet using your broadband connection even while they are in a neighboring building or sitting in a car that’s parked outside your apartment.
This practice, also known as piggybacking, is bad for three reasons:

• It will increase your monthly Internet bill especially when you have to pay per byte of data transfer.
• It will decrease your Internet access speed since you are now sharing the same internet connection with other users.
• It can create a security hazard* as others may hack your computers and access your personal files through your own wireless network.

[*] What do the bad guys use - There have been quite a few instances where innocent Internet users have been arrested for sending hate emails when in reality, their email accounts where hacked though the unsecured Wi-Fi networks that they had at home. Wireshark is a free packet sniffing tool for Linux, Mac and Windows that can scan traffic flowing though a wireless network including cookies, forms and other HTTP requests.

How to Secure Your Wireless Network

The good news is that it is not very hard to make your wireless network secure, which will both prevent others from stealing your internet and will also prevent hackers from taking control of your computers through your own wireless network.
Here a few simple things that you should to secure your wireless network:

Step 1. Open your router settings page

First, you need to know how to access your wireless router’s settings. Usually you can do this by typing in “192.168.1.1” into your web browser, and then enter the correct user name and password for the router. This is different for each router, so first check your router’s user manual.
You can also use Google to find the manuals for most routers online in case you lost the printed manual that came with your router purchase. For your reference, here are direct links to the manufacturer’s site of some popular router brands – Linksys, Cisco, Netgear, Apple AirPort, SMC, D-Link, Buffalo, TP-LINK, 3Com, Belkin.

 

Step 2. Create a unique password on your router

Once you have logged into your router, the first thing you should do to secure your network is to change the default password* of the router to something more secure.
This will prevent others from accessing the router and you can easily maintain the security settings that you want. You can change the password from the Administration settings on your router’s settings page. The default values are generally admin / password.
[*] What do the bad guys use - This is a public database of default usernames and passwords of wireless routers, modems, switches and other networking equipment. For instance, anyone can easily make out from the database that the factory-default settings for Linksys equipment can be accessed by using admin for both username and password fields.

 

Step 3. Change your Network’s SSID name

The SSID (or Wireless Network Name) of your Wireless Router is usually pre-defined as “default” or is set as the brand name of the router (e.g., linksys). Although this will not make your network inherently* more secure, changing the SSID name of your network is a good idea as it will make it more obvious for others to know which network they are connecting to.
This setting is usually under the basic wireless settings in your router’s settings page. Once this is set, you will always be sure that you are connecting to the correct Wireless network even if there are multiple wireless networks in your area. Don’t use your name, home address or other personal information in the SSID name.
Also see: Change Network Name to Prevent Wi-Fi Theft
[*] What do the bad guys use - Wi-Fi scanning tools like inSSIDer (Windows) and Kismet (Mac, Linux) are free and they will allow anyone to find all the available Wireless Networks in an area even if the routers are not broadcasting their SSID name.

 

Step 4. Enable Network Encryption

In order to prevent other computers in the area from using your internet connection, you need to encrypt your wireless signals.
There are several encryption methods for wireless settings, including WEP, WPA (WPA-Personal), and WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access version 2). WEP is basic encryption and therefore least secure (i.e., it can be easily cracked*, but is compatible with a wide range of devices including older hardware, whereas WPA2 is the most secure but is only compatible with hardware manufactured since 2006.
To enable encryption on your Wireless network, open the wireless security settings on your router’s configuration page. This will usually let you select which security method you wish to choose; if you have older devices, choose WEP, otherwise go with WPA2. Enter a passphrase to access the network; make sure to set this to something that would be difficult for others to guess, and consider using a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters in the passphrase.
[*] What do the bad guys use - AirCrack and coWPAtty are some free tools that allow even non-hackers to crack the WEP / WPA (PSK) keys using dictionary or brute force techniques. A video on YouTube suggests that AirCrack may be easily used to break WiFi encryption using a jail-broken iPhone or an iPod Touch.

 

Step 5. Filter MAC addresses

Whether you have a laptop or a Wi-Fi enabled mobile phone, all your wireless devices have a unique MAC address (this has nothing to do with an Apple Mac) just like every computer connected to the Internet has a unique IP address. For an added layer of protection, you can add the MAC addresses of all your devices to your wireless router’s settings so that only the specified devices can connect to your Wi-Fi network.
MAC addresses are hard-coded into your networking equipment, so one address will only let that one device on the network. It is, unfortunately, possible to spoof a MAC address*, but an attacker must first know one of the MAC addresses of the computers that are connected to your Wireless network before he can attempt spoofing.
To enable MAC address filtering, first make a list of all your hardware devices that you want to connect to your wireless network**. Find their MAC addresses, and then add them to the MAC address filtering in your router’s administrative settings. You can find the MAC address for your computers by opening Command Prompt and typing in “ipconfig /all”, which will show your MAC address beside the name “Physical Address”. You can find the MAC addresses of Wireless mobile phones and other portable devices under their network settings, though this will vary for each device.
[*] What do the bad guys use - Someone can change the MAC address of his or her own computer and can easily connect to your network since your network allows connection from devices that have that particular MAC address. Anyone can determine the MAC address of your device wireless using a sniffing tool like Nmap and he can then change the MAC address of his own computer using another free tool like MAC Shift.

 

Step 6. Reduce the Range of the Wireless Signal

If your wireless router has a high range but you are staying in a small studio apartment, you can consider decreasing the signal range by either changing the mode of your router to 802.11g (instead of 802.11n or 802.11b) or use a different wireless channel.
You can also try placing the router under the bed, inside a shoe box or wrap a foil around the router antennas so that you can somewhat restrict the direction of signals.
Apply the Anti-Wi-Fi Paint – Researchers have developed a special Wi-Fi blocking paint that can help you stop neighbors from accessing your home network without you having to set up encryption at the router level. The paint contains chemicals that blocks radio signals by absorbing them. “By coating an entire room, Wi-Fi signals can’t get in and, crucially, can’t get out.”

 

Step 7. Upgrade your Router’s firmware

You should check the manufacturer’s site occasionally to make sure that your router is running the latest firmware. You can find the existing firmware version of your router using from the router’s dashboard at 192.168.*.

Connect to your Secure Wireless Network

To conclude, MAC Address filtering with WPA2 (AES) encryption (and a really complex passphrase) is probably the best way to secure your wireless network.
Once you have enabled the various security settings in your wireless router, you need to add the new settings to your computers and other wireless devices so that they all can connect to the Wi-Fi network. You can select to have your computer automatically connect to this network, so you won’t have to enter the SSID, passphrase and  other information every time you connect to the Internet.
Your wireless network will now be a lot more secure and intruders may have a tough time intercepting your Wi-Fi signals.

Who is Connected to your Wireless Network

If you are worried that an outsider may be connecting to the Internet using your Wireless network, try AirSnare – it’s a free utility that will look for unexpected MAC addresses on your Wireless network as well as to DHCP requests. Another option is that you open your router’s administration page (using the 192.168.* address) and look for the DHCP Clients Table (it’s under Status > Local Network on Linksys routers). Here you will see a list of all computers and wireless devices that are connected to your home network.
*It is also a good idea to turn off the router completely when you are not planning to use the computer for a longer period (like when you are out shopping). You save on electricity and the door remains 100% shut for wireless piggybackers.
**If you ever want to let a new device connect to your network, you will have to find its MAC address and add it to your router. If you simple want to let a friend connect to your wireless network one time, you can remove his MAC address from the router settings when he or she leaves your place.

Hope Now u can make a secure  Network.