Do More with your Browser’s Search Box

The search box is located in the upper right corner of IE and Firefox while Chrome has this thing integrated in the address bar itself. The function is however the same – it offers you a convenient way to search using your favorite search engine.

Other than search, there are some more interesting uses of the search bar as well.

1. Avoid Spelling Mistakes

 
If you writing an email inside the browser and are unsure about the spelling of some word, you can simply type that misspelled word in the search box. Google will immediately offer you the correct spelling as a query suggestion that you can copy-paste into your email message.

2. Clean-up Formatting from Copied Text

When copying content from a web page into an email message, you can first paste that text into your browser’s search box and then copy it to the clipboard.

This will automatically convert the rich text into plain text removing all the hyperlinks and other formatting that you don’t want to add to your email message.

3. Correct Grammar Errors

The search box can also help you fix grammatical errors in your sentences.

Say you sometimes get confused between words like ‘affect’ and ‘effect’ or between ‘advise’ and ‘advice.’ In that case, just type the whole sentence in the search box and it should save you from making that silly grammatical error again.

4. Search Box as a Notepad

The search bar can be used like a notepad as it automatically stores all your search queries until you clear them manually. This is so useful because you can easily save pieces of text in the search bar that you may repeatedly need inside your browser later.

For instance, I have an airway bill number of a package that I can store in the search box by performing a search only once. Later, when I am on the shipping company’s website to track the package status, I can easily retrieve that number by simply typing the first few characters in the search box -- there’s no need for me to hunt for the email that has that tracking number.

5. As your Password Manager

Ever since my Gmail account got hacked, I have switched to a very long and complex password. Now it may be hard for someone to guess that password but it is equally hard for me to type that lengthy string correctly especially when everything in a password field is represented as asterisk characters.

Top Rated Android Apps

This article will tell you about some of the top rated Android apps that are available in the Android market today. You can spend many hours each day browsing through the various categories, and you will soon find some wonderful apps that you will love.

If you are the proud owner of one of the top 10 Android phones that are available in the market today, then these top rated Android apps are going to prove very useful to you. Android is a mobile phone operating system released by Google and it is growing at a supremely rapid pace. In the last quarter that went by, Android based smartphones constituted 44% of sales, and this number is only going to grow further.

As more and more people are turning to smartphones on a worldwide basis, a distinct divide is surfacing between users of Android and iOS (Apple Inc's mobile operating system), and more and more people are beginning to take sides now. Android is a Linux based OS that is completely open sourced, and this is what endears it to so many people all around the globe.

What this means is that the manufacturers of the hardware of mobile phones are free to tweak the User Interface (UI) of their Android running phones in any way they want. This has culminated in the fact that no two Android phones are the same. Apple says that this problem of fragmentation will be Android's biggest weakness, but the truth is that this is in fact, its biggest strength. Samsung mobile phones come with their Touchwiz 3.0 UI, HTC phones come with HTC Sense UI, Motorola phones come with the MotoBlur UI and Sony Ericsson phones come with the Rachael UI.

Applications and Games

The nature of top rated Android apps available is what separates it from other operating systems around. Though Apple has many more apps available (300,000), the number of apps on Android are only growing. On October 25, 2010 the Market crossed the 100,000 mark and in November 2010 this number stands at 160,000. This is a phenomenal growth rate, and it is only a matter of time before the Apple App Store is surpassed.

Operating systems for cell phones are defined by the nature and number of apps and games that are available on them, and this is the primary reason behind Androids success. Out of all the mobile platforms that are available today, only Android and iOS come close to offering the user some excellent apps with a number of features to choose from.

Top Rated Android Apps 2010

With that being said, here are some of the best Android apps that are available for download in the market today. Any list of top 10 Android apps would be incomplete without the mention of any of the apps mentioned here. Some of them are paid and some of them are free, but they all offer unbelievable utility and productivity.

• Layar - An Augmented Reality technology app that gives you real time information about any object or place that you point your phone at.
• Google Sky Map - Another AR app that is one of the best Android apps 2010. It gives you real time information about the constellations that you see in the night sky, as you point your phone at the sky.
• AnyCut - A great app that gets any setting toggle on your phone to the homescreen so that you can access it with one single touch.
• Advanced Task Killer - One of the top rated Android apps that lets you close any unwanted apps that are running in the background, and eating the battery and the RAM.
• Weather Channel - Provides you with constant updates about the weather conditions for any specified location.
• Opera Mini - A great mobile version of the much loved web browser, Opera.
• FXCamera - A very useful camera app that lets you take pictures in 5 different settings.
• DoodleDroid - A great app that does for your phone what MS Paint does for your PC. You can draw some great colored doodles and share them with your friends or set them as your wallpaper.
• Angry Birds - The best selling mobile phone game ever made, period.
• Pandora Radio - One of the top rated free Android apps that emulates Pandora Internet radio on your smartphone.
• Amazon Kindle - Access the world's biggest collection of Ebooks that you can read on your Android phone.
• Seesmic - The best Twitter client app that can be used on Android.
• Bump - This app is a great way to share files with another Android phone that has the same app functioning. All you need to do is bump the two devices together.
• Barcode Scanner - Lets you scan the barcodes on any product that you see, and relays the information to you.
• RingDroid - One of the most useful Android apps that lets you cut out a snippet of any song and makes it into your ringtone.
• GoChat - An interesting app that lets you access your Facebook Chat account.

These were just a few of the many top rated Android apps that you can make use of. You can find tons of apps in various different categories and you can even search for the most popular apps once you are in the Android Market. There is something for everyone here, and one can spend hours browsing through the many great apps that are available.

How to Copy and Paste in the Windows Command Prompt

Sometimes it is convenient to copy something from a document or file and paste it into the Windows command line. Long commands are easily mistyped and a copy-and-paste operation is often the best way to proceed, The usual keyboard shortcutCtrl+V doesn’t work but there is an easy way to enable copying and pasting into the command line. Here is the procedure:

• Open a command prompt.
• Click the little icon in the upper left corner of the command prompt window (outlined in white in example figure on right)
• In the menu that opens, choose “Properties” (Example shown in figure on right)
• In the dialog box that opens, make sure the "Options" tab is selected and then place a check by “QuickEdit Mode” (Shown in figure below)
• Click the “OK” button (not shown in figure)

Now whenever you want to paste some text into the command prompt, copy it to the clipboard the usual way and then right-click on the desired location in the command line. The copied text will be pasted.

This tip applies to Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8. And there you have it - no more struggling with trying to type long complicated commands.

7 Wi-Fi Tweaks to Increase Your Speed

Chances are if you have a wireless internet connection at your home, you have had some trouble with the speed of the connection at least once before. That being said, a slow wireless connection can be frustrating to deal with. You are probably paying good money to your internet service provider, so slow speed is something you should not have to deal with, right? Well, the truth is wireless speed can be affected by a number of things. Luckily there are some Wi-Fi tweaks you can try that should help boost your speed and get you rolling in no time.

1. Reposition Your Router

The position of your wireless router plays a major role in the speed and strength of your wireless connection. If you are having trouble, you should try to reposition your router in a centrally located area, where the signal can equally reach each wireless device in your house. If your router is near an outside wall, try to move it closer to the middle of your house. Routers that are placed near outside walls can send some of the signal outside, which can risk your wireless connection’s strength and speed.

2. Purchase a Wireless Signal Repeater

Adding a wireless signal repeater to your home network can greatly increase the speed of your connection. A repeater works by extending your signal without having to add any additional wires. All you have to do is simply place the wireless repeater in a location that is between your router and your wireless device(s). It will instantly boost the wireless signal that is sent from the router to your devices, meaning faster speeds for you.

3. Install a New Antenna

Most wireless routers come standard with an omnidirectional antenna, meaning it broadcasts the wireless signal in a circular radius to reach various places in your home. If your router is in a perfectly centered location between all of your wireless devices, this is probably fine. But if your router isn’t perfectly centered among devices, you should think about replacing the existing antenna with a stronger one, known as a high-gain antenna. You can usually remove your old antenna and replace it with one of these stronger antennas to boost your signal strength, therefore increasing the speed of your connection. Another perk of a high-gain antenna is its ability to focus the wireless signal in any direction you prefer.

4. Use One Brand of Equipment

You may not think that using different brands of equipment can reduce the speed of your wireless connection, but in reality it can. If you use different brands of equipment, your components may not work as efficiently. This is because many manufacturers of wireless networking equipment pre-install enhancements in all of their products. These enhancements can boost speed, but will only work if products from the same manufacturer are used simultaneously. If you are using various brands of equipment and your speed is suffering, this is definitely worth a try.

5. Reduce Frequency Interference

Many household electronics, such as cordless telephones and baby monitors, run at the same frequency as wireless routers. This means that these electronic devices can interfere with the wireless signal that is being broadcast from your router, which can affect the speed and performance of your connection. Check the box of your router to see what frequency it runs at, and try to avoid using other electronic devices that operate at the same frequency. You can also try to change the channel on your router to avoid frequency interference.

6. Check for Firmware or Driver Updates Regularly

The manufacturers of wireless routers and network adapters often release firmware or driver updates that can improve the function of your wireless connection. You can find and download these updates at the manufacturers’ websites. Updates are usually done to fix issues, add features, and strengthen your equipment’s performance. Check for these updates on a regular basis to make sure your firmware and drivers are always kept up to date.

7. Secure Your Wireless Network

If your network is not properly secured, neighbors could be using your signal. This can reduce the speed of your connection because you are in a sort, sharing the wireless signal. Set up secure passwords and some sort of wireless encryption that will prevent anyone else from accessing your wireless network. All of these Wi-Fi tweaks can greatly boost the speed of your wireless connection. If one of them does not seem to do the trick, try another or even a multitude of options. It may take a little time and patience, but once you figure out what works to speed up your connection, you will be happy you put forth the effort.