How to downlaod videos for free? (Video Download Helper)

What is two most frequent thing we do on net??
Watch videos and download watched videos ;)
I already wrote about how to download anything in previous blog post.
Just imagine you are watching a mind blowing video at home and you want to show it your friends. Each time you will have to go to YouTube and search for that song, buffer it and then show it :(
What if I tell you that download to your local machine and then show it without buffering or searching - Video Download Helper

As usual this is Firefox addon.
Normally I use this with DownThemAll to do all my downloading.
I have been using this for more than 2 years and its really good.

Some features which grabbed me towards itself are :
1) FREE - no piracy

2) When video is not found, it is disabled. As soon as video is found, animation starts.

 
3) You might have different options to download video. For example by going to some link and download it. But why you need to leave your current page to download? This addon gives you option to download while you are on your page enjoying it.
You can download it either from toolbar or before its title.
As you can see in previous image. When you click on animation playing besides title, it gives various options. These options will be discussed shortly.



4) Download any video available from YouTube. It also works with MySpace, Google videos, DailyMotion, Porkolt, iFilm, DreamHost and others.

 5) Downloads in HD(1080 and 720p), 480p, 360p, 240p,medium and mobile also. These options are shown when you click animation given in toolbar.

6) Convert into .mp4,.flv,.mpeg,.m4v,.3gp and our most favourite .mp3 (mp3 - for registered user only) and many more.








Little advice, I always suggest my friends to download a video rather than watching it. If you like you will go back and download it so wasting you data usage plan and time. If you don't like it then just click Shift + Delete from your keyboard ;)

Hope you enjoy this experience.

DownThemAll - One solution for all downloads

Some of my friend asks me which browser do I use mostly. I will say for surfing net, I use chrome and downloading i use firefox.
I tell them to use DownThemAll.

Its better to use free software than to use paid software with crack and do piracy ;)
This is best downloading addon for firefox. (Better than chrome inbuilt downloading system)
There are so many features which DownThemAll provide.
I will discuss some of them.

Download 4 times faster
It splits file into numerous chuncks and downloads them simultaneously.
And you can manage number of parts in which you want to download by going to preferences.

Integrates itself with other addons
When I want to download some video from YouTube, it integrates itself with it.

Auto renaming
When you download a file, it gives option to name it in many different ways.
Most of the time it will give meaningful name which is there on web site.
I have used other downloading softwares which give name as "videoplayback1","videoplayback2"... and so on.
That is very difficult to manage.

dTa one click
This option is best thing I liked for saving my precious time :)
Whenever you have numerous options to save. Download using dTa is one click away.




You can customize it to a large extent. So make it suitable for your own use.

Have fun downloading softwares, YouTube videos, music, presentations and many more :)

If you have some more idea about downloading leave your comment below.

Download audio(mp3) of YouTube video

One of my friend sent me a YouTube link and asked to send .mp3 of that video.
I thought its easy task only two steps required.
First, download video.
Second, convert video to audio using format factory. Download here.

Wait. What if video was too long to download and to convert it will take even longer time?

I found this addon for firefox called Easy YouTube Video Downloader 6.4

(I was not able to find such awesome addon for Chrome)
Really cool addon. And yes guys its free  :)

If you search for a song on YouTube and you want it to have it on your iPod.
Don't worry this will make your life very simple.
First and best part which i liked was it was able to download mp3 file.
I have been using other downloading software also but they do not convert to mp3 file.
You need not go to other link and download it from there like some of us do.
Just click on that button which comes in YouTube page itself.
Tada!!
It will give you options to download in different formats.
(Time to give options depends on file size)

Click on mp3 format or any other format which you require.

So now we will see how it is better than previous one?
Conversion is done on server which is much faster than you converting on your own PC using any media convertors.
Now that you were not interested in downloading video file, you can download mp3 file directly.
As mp3 file size is less it takes less time to download which good for slow internet connection.

Easy and simple way to use it.

If someone has good idea about any Chrome plugin, please let us know.

Synergy & Mouse Without Borders - 2computer using 1 mouse 1 keyboard

Hey guys I am back.
Joined Adobe last month.
We were given one laptop and a desktop.
While working one thing came to my mind how about if i can use only one mouse and keyboard for both my computers.

One of my friend Joy D'Souza told me about these two software which makes it possible
Both of them have there advantages and disadvantages

SYNERGY
I am using 1.3.8 version.
[For 1.4.10 -->> see updated part]

Download latest version from here.

What is FOSS? :)
 
In the picture shown, you can see all three types of operating systems.
This is greatest advantage of all.
This is true meaning of platform independent ;)
I have been using this for long time so I will give you detailed description about it.

A prequiste for using these kind of softwares. You must be in same network.
There are two parts when you use Synergy.

First - Server
(hindi - jiske paas keyboard aur mouse hai)
Whenever you are server you need to configure many things.
Click on Configure button as shown.

This is the part where you need to take care.

Step - 1
Add all computer name which you are going to use.
No specific sequence required.

Step - 2
Based on screen names added by you, you have tell Synergy where are your screens placed
There are 3 drop down box.
To understand it easily we will take an example.
Two screen names are - kpfaldu-W7 and kpfaldu-W7-1
kpfaldu-W7 screen is left side of kpfaldu-W71-1
This is configuration
-> Right, kpfaldu-W7, kpfaldu-W7-1
-> Left, kpfaldu-W7-1, kpfaldu-W7

Do not forget to click '+' button after each step.
So now you have configured your server.

Second - Client
(hindi - dusre ka keyboard aur mouse use karega)

This is more simple part of whole process.
Just select first radio button.

After both of them have been configured, you can first test if you have done it correctly then you can start using buttons given.

For more updates about product and if you want to know it better, you can go to their official blog.

Disadvantage is that you cannot drag and drop files from one screen to another screen which is sometimes useful.

While writing this blog I am using Synergy :)


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[updated]

Recently started using iMac and installed Synergy.
I downloaded Synergy 1.4.10 (Can't use Mouse w/o Border)
They have improved it so much that I had to write about it.
Here is screen shot for new UI.

 At the top, it shows you IP addresses for server.
So when you are configuring on client side, you can just look at address and type it in text field.


Best update is for configuration for Server.
This is its screen shot.

3 important things I want to tell you guys.

Now its easy to configure clients, just drag and drop computer seen on top right corner.
After dropping it, click on it and you can change it's screen name.

If you want to delete a screen just drag and drop it in recyle bin seen on top left corner.

Last thing, I didn't know that we can add two screen on left and right side of server.
But you can do it :)
In screen shot shown here you can see my server has two screens left of it.

Enjoy using Synergy 1.4.10 :)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



MOUSE WITHOUT BORDERS
It is an Microsoft Garage project developed by Truong Do.

Big advantage of using this is you can drag and drop files from one screen to another.
And disadvantage is that it cannot be used across different OS, only Windows are supported.
I have not used it at all.
So I will ask Joy to write something below in comments.

Have fun with these two sofwares :)

Net Llimiter - Internet Speed Blocker

Did you ever wonder what if you could control downloading and uploading speed for a particular application?
Yes we have Netlimiter!!!!!!!!
It may be any application such as Torrent downloader to simple Web Browser such as Chrome or Firefox (will not mention IE because it is not used at all by professionals ;))
If you are using shared Wi-Fi then this is one of the application which you should use.
Let us say that you and your friend both want to download some movie or applications and you don't want to disturb other's downloading then you can limit your downloading speed for specific application.
Netlimiter blocks the speed on software level rather then on hardware level so it is easier to manage individual applications.

It has numerous features which you can explore.
I normally use three main parts which is sufficient to control downloading and uploading speed.

Node View

This part contains all the applications which can use internet.
GUI is very easy to use. We have all the applications listed and speed which they are downloading and uploading.
Just by clicking on checkbox beside a particular application, you can limit its downloading/uploading speed.
If you want to view only online / offline applications, we can do that too. Top right corner in Node View has that links to filter applications.
In above image you can see that I have put restriction on uploading limit for utorrent.
The number you see is in Bytes. You can even change to kB/MB/GB.
It will also show total downloading and uploading speed used by your computer.
In above image you can see 59142(down) 28602(up) as computer's speed.
(Btw. ADIPADI is my friend's computer name :))

Info View

Most important is the rule list.
You can Add, Edit and Delete rules.
Basic rule is for the speed and in which unit it is mentioned.
If you want to schedule timings for blocking the speed you can do it by adding new scheduler rule.
This is used specially when you don't want to block when you are out but you want to block while you come back from work.

Chart

It is always better if you see a graphical represenation of the speeds.
You can select which speed you want to view.
Option is available in top right corner of the chart window.

If you want more information then you can click on this wiki link.

There is a youTube video about it for step by step installation.

Opera Mini

Using GPRS?
Is your data plan exhausted too soon?
Use Opera Mini.

It saves upto 80% of the data usage
(As they say ;)).

This is a one of the browser which is support on all major phone platorms.
Android,iOS,Blackberry,Symbian 60 and Windows as well.
I am using on my Android phone and some of my friends are using on Nokia - Symbian 60. We both are satisfied with our performance.

If you are using Android phone then you can download it from here.

Opera uses its own Opera Services to compress and load pages. This is the main reason why pages loads so fast.
Its GUI is the best one I have come across.

Some of the striking features can be found by clicking on Opera button(bottom right corner) are :

1)Tabs : You have multiple tabs same as our PC browsers have. To switch between those is very simple and fast. One of the interesting thing is if you click on a link for 2 secs, you will get option to open that link in new tab.

2)Speed dial : If you are using mozilla then you might have come across speed dial addon. This is the home page when opera starts so when you are in hurry you can quickly go to your favourite site and check updates.











3)Bookmarks, History are also available with save page option.












4)Settings : This feature makes it customized to a large extent from text wrapping to image quality you get everything.

5)Opera link : You can sync your PC opera to Opera Mini. I dont think this option is much useful to us because most of us use either Mozilla or Chrome on our PC.








6)Save image option : Let us say you are visiting some website where you dont want to download whole page but just a image. You need to click on image for 2 secs and you will get an option to download it.


7)Find text : This is option which is mainly used in pdf files to find a specific word. If the page you are visiting has lot of content and you want to go to specific word in one shot. You can use this option to find that word.



8)Data usage : We discussed earlier that it saves upto 80%. You can now verify it. This option is available in Help -> Data usage. You can reset it every month if you like. This also saves us from extra usage which we might have used without our knowledge.












Here is a small video about Opera. Thought you would like it.

Follow my blog if you like technical stuff and want to know more :)

VLC Direct Pro - Remote Control for PC

Ever thought a remote for your PC?
If you have an Android phone and PC installed with VLC then its possible :)

You can download "VLC Direct Pro" app from Android market :
This app is a paid app. Free version is also available but some of the features are disabled.


After you download the app, you have to connect your Android phone with a WiFi. Note that your PC for which you will use your phone as remote should also be connected to same WiFi.

When you start the app you will see a GUI which will have all the list of videos which are there on your phone.

web interface

You need to select menu, in settings you need to select "Automatic Connection Wizard"
Open VLC on your PC.
Click on "View" -> "Add Interface" -> "Web Interface"
Click on Start on your phone.












 Now the app will scan for your device.
After scan is completed, it will show that "VLC found".

ipconfig

 
If you are not able to find VLC then you can do manually.

On your PC "Start" -> "Run" -> type "cmd" -> type "ipconfig" in command prompt.
Find your wireless ip address. Here we have 192.168.1.3
In VLC Direct, go to "Menu" -> "Settings" -> Manual Configuration -> Enter above ip address in VLC Host.
Now you are connected to your PC.




Using this application you can stream videos both ways. From phone to PC and PC to phone. You can select the option on top left corner of the app. You can toggle between them by just clicking on it.

Green Droid

Green Droid logo -> stream from PC to phone.
(Buffering of video will be there)


VLC logo -> stream from phone to PC.

VLC logo

Buffering

To use this feature. First you need to select the target and then play the file.
It does not work if you are playing a file and you change target.

You have four options which can be selected using appropriate tab.

 <----------------------------------
First Tab (Video files on your phone)
Folder which contains some media will be combined in one and you can select which file to stream or play.













------------------------------------------------------>
Second Tab (Audio file on your phone)
It will contain list of all audio files on your phone. You can even search for the file you want to play.

<--------------------------------
Third Tab (All files on your PC)
As you are connected to your PC you can view all the files in different drives.
You can bookmark the folder, hide non-media files and many more things.









-------------------------------------------------------->
Fourth Tab
It will show which file is being played.
(To tell you the truth I dont know much about this tab)








 It also supports subtitles.
This can be done by keeping the subtitle's file name same as video name and extending with .srt.

In menu you can select "Tips" for more options which you can use.


You can watch a video for better understanding.

Offline Gmail

No internet connectivity or low connectivity??
Tired of writing the same mail or viewing the inbox numerous times?
Now comes the "Offline Gmail"
Its cool gmail lab designed by the gmail team.
I got most of the information about this from the gmail blog.
It has been around for a long time but i did not use it for a long time.
Now i use it most of the times, the GUI is like viewing from a mobile device.
When you are online, the google server stores all the inbox to your computer.
So when you are offline, it will fetch the mail which is stored on your computer itself.
Now you will ask what if I want to send a mail?
Its very interesting how google does that,
it will store your mail in outbox.
Constantly the gmail is looking for internet connection.
When it gets one, all the outbox mails are sent and new inbox mail are sent in.
Its just awesome to have this facility because now you need not learn how to use applications like Outlook Express ;)
This is how you can install the offline gmail
1)Click the gear icon in the upper-right -->> select Mail settings.
2)Select the 'Offline' tab -->> select the 'Enable Offline Mail for this computer' radio button. Click save changes.
If you have some downloading problem then you can see this help.

If you are using google chrome then you have nice extension for it.

Here is a nice video about offline gmail that you can look into
Enjoy offline mailing :)

URL Shortener

Is you link too long to remember or write it down while you are on a call?
Many times we want to share some link with our friends and everyone,
but its too long so we just send it via mail or any other alternative.
You get sick and tired of sending to everyone or telling everyone.
What you can do is that change the long url to a short one.
I have came across two websites which does that.
First one is Google url shortener and other is tiny url.

Google url shortener

Its very easy to learn and use it.
Just type in your url and press button shorten.
You can convert a url by logging in to your account also.
It will store all urls in your account.
The only problem is that you cannot give a your customized url.
Google will provide you with a small url which is again difficult to remember.




Tiny URL

It will give you all the option as above.
And a new option to customize your url also.
This is the best thing i liked about it.
Now you can remember this new url also.
One more thing is that you can add this into your toolbar.

Enjoy shortening ;)

What Do You Love

Its an interesting website powered by Google.
It is all you want about anything you love.
Like if you are searching for a phone, let us say HTC wildfire.
Search that thing in the search bar.
You will get all the exciting results from there.
It will give you all the information about it.
You need not go to different websites to find the place where you can find the phone.
You will get the stores, the reviews, the results from YouTube.
You will also get the latest news from there.
It has a nice look, you have a small rectangular section in left hand side.
If you slide that rectangle then you will get another results related to the search.
You can see numerous graphs which will show you the comparison with other phones.
One of the features i like was that if you search some word,
you can actually translate it into numerous languages.
One more thing is that you can view 3D pictures also using SketchUp.
Here is the link for it -> www.wdyl.com

Happy Dussehra to all :)

Google background

Hey sorry friends, I was not able to post anything interesting.
But I am back.

How many times in a day you use google???
10 times atleast?
Person like me goes on google every half hour for some or the other reason.
If you are bored of seeing the same white background in google then there is a solution for this.
You can change your google background with just few simple steps.

Steps
1)Sign in you google account
2)Go to google.com
3)Bottom right corner there is an option saying "change background image"
4)Select any photo of your choice. It may be from public library, picasa or your own computer.
5)You will see the change

Try it out if you like.

Dropbox (Synchronize and backup your files)

My OS crashed!!!! :(

Many of us will have that problem. What is the solution??

Do you have online backup??  

If not then you might have external hdd which comes to rescue.

If you have some files which changes constantly then why to keep backup in hdd?

One of the solution you will find is Dropbox.

I have been using it for more then 6 months now. It is very useful.

The main purpose of Dropbox is for sync between all your devices.

It is based on cloud computing. The data is stored on cloud.

You can install in any OS.

Dropbox creates a folder on your local machine. Plus all the data is already present on the Dropbox website.

So its easy to manage any file under a folder. You can even share the folder with anyone.

The advantage of sharing is that if you are working on a project then you need not use usb/mail to transfer the data.

Just copy that file in Dropbox and it will sync with other people with whom you have shared the folder.

If other users make some changes in the file, then it will be seen in your file also.

If you are the owner of the folder then you can check all the activites that have been done by others.

This can be seen on Dropbox website.

Initially you get 2GB of free storage. You can even use paid storage.

Most of us will use free storage. So if you want to increase the storage then there are ways.

First is to complete the steps given in getting started option. You will get 250 MB from there.

Secondly for every person completes the dropbox installation you get 250 MB free upto 8 GB!!!

If you want to change the default path of your Dropbox folder then also you can do it. Click here.

The steps are also given for other OS.

Make an account now!!!

Download Dropbox.

To understand more about Dropbox in simple way, just have a look at this video.

Personal Note : I have been watching this Sitcom named "The Big Bang Theory".

If you are interested then click here. Its a blog post written by one of my friend.

Top 10 Gmail Labs

Nowadays all of us are shifting to gmail from other mail services so I thought I might help some of you to have better experiences with the gmail labs.

You can go to mail settings and you will be able to see "labs" tab, you can search your desired lab in the search option.

List is made alphabetically :)

1)Authentication icon for verified senders

Displays a key icon next to authenticated messages from certain senders that spammers attempt to fake. Currently works for mail from PayPal and eBay only.

This is very useful because some of my friends keep getting emails which are spams so this will help them to a large extent.

2)Auto-advance

Automatically shows the next conversation instead of your inbox after you delete, archive, or mute a conversation. You can select whether to advance to the next or previous conversation in the "General" Settings page.

3)Background Send

Let Gmail send your mail while you move on to more important things. Just be sure to stay logged in until it's all sent!

Its very useful because nowadays we send so many large mails and it takes time to send. I get annoyed by waiting for it. You can do any other work like creating a new mail, reading inbox, etc.

4)Google Docs gadget

Adds a box in the left column which displays your Google Docs. Shows recent docs, starred docs, and has fast search.

If you use google docs often then it is must.

5)Green Robot!

Chat buddies show up as robot icons if they are currently using Android. Helpful to determine if you are chatting with someone on a computer or someone on an Android device.

Most of the time if someone is using their android device, you better wait for their reply to come.. :)

6)Inbox preview

Show a simple, static preview of the inbox while loading.

It is very useful whenver you have a slow internet connection. Plus you can sign out after just looking through the list of mails.

One of my favorite gmail lab ever. Try this one atleast.

7)Message Sneak Peek

Peek into a conversation without opening it by right-clicking on a message in your inbox.

If you have numerous mail to just see then its fast and effective. You can even use a button "mark as read"!!

8)Move Icon Column

Move the column containing the attachment and other icons over to the left hand side to make it more noticeable.

9)Pictures in chat

See your friends' profile pictures when you chat with them.

Somewhat useful lab but i like it. It reminds you of person to whom you are talking ;)

10)Send & Archive

Adds a button to the compose form that lets you send a reply message and archive the email conversation in a single action.

10+1)Undo Send

Oops, hit "Send" too soon? Stop messages from being sent for a few seconds after hitting the send button.

10+2)Unread message icon

See how many unread messages are in your inbox with a quick glance at the tab's icon. This lab only works with Chrome (version 6 and above), Firefox (version 2 and above), and Opera.

*)Desktop notifications

This is not a gmail lab, but its very useful because whenever you are another tab or doing some work on your pc while your gmail is on in some browser.

To enable this, go to gear button (top right corner )-> mail settings -> general tab -> desktop notification

Enjoy gmailing ;)