Samsung Galaxy S4 features

 

 

 

 Hits

S Translator

This was the feature that excited us the most during Samsung’s launch event, even though the really lame presenters tried their very best to pour water on the proceedings. Ever since the concept of the Babel Fish was introduced by Douglas Adams, we’ve been waiting for such a tool that can translate everything on the fly. With the S Translator, Samsung may have actually achieved that. The S Translator offers speech-to-text and text-to-speech translations in 10 languages including French, English and Chinese and Samsung hopes to increase that number soon.

 

Smart Pause

Smart Pause is one half of the Smart Pause/Smart Scroll duo and while the latter sounds like pure gimmick, Smart Pause sounds like a simple intuitive feature that does one thing well. For the uninitiated, Smart Pause tracks your eyes using the front camera on the Galaxy S4 and pauses a running video when you look away from the screen.

 

S Voice Drive

Samsung has extended the functionality of its S Voice tool on the Galaxy S4. With S Voice Drive, the icons and commands to be used within the GPS navigation app become simpler so that its safer to use while driving. Icons on the screen are larger and you can also use your voice to command the navigation app. We think it’s a good feature especially for people who rely a lot on GPS navigation in their vehicles.

S Health

Samsung has tried to make mobile fitness apps redundant by packing in a hell of a lot of functionality into the S Health suite. With S Health, you can track things like distance walked/run, calorie intake and even sleeping patterns. We have a feeling that even the laziest among us may be tempted to try out some of these features on the Galaxy S4, just to see how well they work.

Eraser (camera feature)

A very useful feature that Samsung has added to the Galaxy S4 camera’s repertoire is the Eraser feature. This feature lets you analyze a photo you’ve taken and cleanly remove objects that you don’t want in the image. This means that you can cleanly erase unwanted objects, photo-bombers from your photos without much effort.

Misses

Air Gesture

This is another feature that is getting a big marketing push from Samsung. We just don’t understand the use-case scenario for Air Gesture which lets you navigate the phone without touching the display (but still requires your fingers to hover inches above the display). The only time when the feature could be useful is if your fingers are dirty and you still want to use the phone. However, like Smart Scroll, the feature is quite buggy and has inconsistent performance.

Dual Shot

Dual Shot is one of the silliest features on offer from the Galaxy S4. It lets you take pictures with both the front and primary cameras on the phone at the same time. Samsung says this is good because it lets you add yourself to photos that you’re taking but the execution is awkward. First, you are added to the photo within a frame that makes it clear that you weren’t in the shot. Secondly, when was the last time you were conscious about what you looked like when you were taking a photo?

To Speed Up Windows 7

The Microsoft Windows 7 operating system has been designed for delivering better speeds than its predecessors. However, as time passes by, the laptop/PC might tend to get slower. This is not exactly the fault of the OS. As the matter of fact, it is a common problem faced by many operating systems.

The major reasons for this are accumulation of junk in the system or a highly stuffed hard drive or running of too many unnecessary services and programs. Here we shared a few essential tips that can help speed up Windows 7 performance on laptops or computers. Hope it helps!

Visual and Sound Related

1. Using minimal Visual Effects

Disabling certain (or all) visual effects can definitely enhance performance. To disable visual effects, do the following:

1. Press Windows key and while holding it down, press Pause/Break key.
2. In the window that appears, click on Advanced system settings in the left side pane.
3. In the Advanced tab, under Performance Section, click on Settings
4. In the Performance Options window (refer figure) that appears, under Visual Effects tab, disable the options that you do not need. Or simply selecting ‘Adjust for best performance‘ will disable all options.
5. After disabling the option, click Apply and then OK.

Doing the above might make the screen less attractive. But, the performance will surely get a boost.

2. Using minimal Sound Effects

For disabling sound effects, do the following:

1. Click Start. In the search box type mmsys.cpl and press Enter
2. In the Sound window (refer figure) that appears click on Sounds tab
3. Set the Sounds scheme to ‘No Sounds‘
4. You could set only the essential sounds if needed in the Program Events, by selecting the specific event and then choosing the sound from the Sounds drop-down menu below.
5. You can as well disable the "Play Windows Startup sound" option.
6. After the settings are done, click Apply and OK.

Software and Services related

1. Run a trusted Anti-Virus program

Ensure that you have a good anti-virus software loaded on your laptop/computer. This will ensure that no malware or spyware gets planted in your system. Without such protection software, there are chances of third party malware and virus being installed or stored on your system, causing harmful effects and also eating up precious space.

2. Install only essential software

Ensure that you install only that software which you need. If you install any trial software and find out that you don’t really need it, uninstall and delete it immediately. Else, they might hog precious disk space, RAM and processor cycles. If you’ve installed a software, which you are unable to get rid of, and which is hampering the normal functioning of your laptop, then you might have to format your hard drive. Be aware that formatting your hard drive might wipe out all your data. Therefore it is best you take a back-up before going ahead with formatting.

3. Disable or make unneeded services Manual

Some processes and services, which might not really be necessary, are by default made to start automatically once the system starts up. They will consume RAM as well as the processor’s attention, slowing down other important tasks. It is best to disable them. For this, do the following:

1. Click Start. In the search box type services.msc and press Enter
2. Go to Services & Applications > Services. You’ll see the Services window (refer figure).
3. Right-click on a service that you wish to set to manual or disable. If the service is already started, Stop it first.
4. Once the service is stopped, again right-click on it and select Properties.
5. In the Startup type, you can either set the service to Manual, if you would be using it later, or Disable it, if not needed.
6. Once done, you can close the window.

4. Disabling Unwanted Start-up programs to speed up System Start-up

Some programs are set to start during system start-up. These might slow down the start-up process. Programs that are not really needed during start-up can be disabled. For this, do the following:

1. Click Start. In the search box type msconfig and press Enter.
2. In the System Configuration window (refer figure), go to Startup.
3. Uncheck the box next to those processes that are not important for start-up. This will disable them.
4. Once you’ve disabled the processes, click Apply and OK.

Hard Drive related

1. Clean up the hard drive

Remove unwanted files, like temp files, downloaded program files, recycle bin, etc. You could use Disk Cleanup option to do this, as follows:

1. Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup
2. The system will first calculate how much space can be freed up this way. In the Disk Cleanup window (refer figure) that appears, select the files in that need to be deleted under the Files to delete list.
3. For deleting ‘System Restore‘ and ‘Shadow copy‘ files, click "Clean up system files" and then on "More Options" tab
4. Finally click OK. You’ll be prompted again before the deletion. Click Yes.

2. Enable Write caching on device

This is an option which allows the OS to flush changed data to the hard disk when the system is idle, so that performance is not affected when in use. For enabling this, do the following:

1. Press Windows key and while holding it down, press Pause/Break key.
2. In the window that appears, click on Device Manager in the left hand pane.
3. In the next window that appears, expand Disk drives.
4. The drop-down list will show the hard drive. Right-click on it and select Properties.
5. Click the Policies tab in the Device Properties window (refer figure).
6. Check the box next to "Enable write caching on the device"
7. You can as well check the box next to "Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing on the device" and then click OK.

Note: However, there is one disadvantage in enabling these options – if there is a power outage or a system crash, data might be lost or corrupted. If you have a secondary power supply, like a UPS, you could go ahead with checking these options.

3. Perform Disk Defragmentation

When there is no sufficient space to store in a hard drive, the OS splits the file into parts and stores it in different areas on the hard drive. Defragmenting allows all these parts to be stored in contiguous memory locations. For defragmenting disk do the following:

1. Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter
2. In the window (refer figure) that appears, click on the drive that you want to defragment and then click Analyze disk.
3. This will estimate the time required for the process. When done click on Defragment disk.
4. Once done you can either View Report or click Close.

These pretty much sum up the small things that you can do, to make a big difference to your Windows 7′s performance. If you have some personal tips you’ve done yourself to improve the performances, we’d like to hear from you.

Animal with the most extreme hearing

Posted On Thursday, May 09, 2013 at 02:08:43 AM

Researchers at the University of Strathclyde have discovered that the greater wax moth is capable of sensing sound frequencies of up to 300kHz – the highest recorded frequency sensitivity of any animal in the natural world. Humans are only capable of hearing sounds of 20kHz maximum, dropping to around 12- 15kHz as we age, and even dolphins, known exponents of ultrasound, can’t compete as their limitations are around 160kHz. The research, conducted at the University, has identified the extraordinary sensory characteristics of the moth, paving the way for developments in air-couple ultrasound. “We are extremely surprised to find that the moth is capable of hearing sound frequencies at this level and we hope to use the findings to better understand air-coupled ultrasound,” said James Windmill, who led the research. “The use of ultrasound in air is extremely difficult as such high frequency signals are quickly weakened in air.

New device extracts DNA ten times faster

Take a swab of saliva from your mouth and within minutes your DNA could be ready for analysis and genome sequencing with the help of a new device. University of Washington engineers and NanoFacture, have created a device that can extract human DNA from fluid samples in a simpler, more efficient and environmentally friendly way than conventional methods. The device will give hospitals and research labs a much easier way to separate DNA from human fluid samples, which will help with genome sequencing, disease diagnosis and forensic investigations. “It's very complex to extract DNA,” said Jae-Hyun Chung, a professor at the University of Washington. “When you think of the current procedure, the equivalent is like collecting human hairs using a construction crane.” This technology aims to clear those hurdles. The small, box-shaped kit now is ready for manufacturing, then eventual distribution to hospitals and clinics. The team led by Chung, spearheaded the research and invention of the technology, and still manages the intellectual property. Separating DNA from bodily fluids is a cumbersome process that's become a bottleneck as scientists make advances in genome sequencing, particularly for disease prevention and treatm

 

 

Sunshine could benefit health and prolong life

Exposing skin to sunlight may help to reduce blood pressure, cut the risk of heart attack and stroke – and even prolong life, a study suggests. Researchers have shown that when our skin is exposed to the sun’s rays, a compound is released in our blood vessels that helps lower blood pressure. The findings suggest that exposure to sunlight improves health overall and the benefits of reducing blood pressure outweigh the risk of skin cancer. Heart disease and stroke linked to high blood pressure are estimated to lead to around 80 times more deaths than those from skin cancer, in the UK. Production of this pressure-reducing compound – called nitric oxide – is separate from the body’s manufacture of vitamin D, which rises after exposure to sunshine.

7 Most Useful Google Chrome Tips & Tricks

7 Most Useful Google Chrome Tips & Tricks

World’s Most Popular Browser

Do you know that Google Chrome is now the world’s most popular browser? According to WikiMedia statistics, 37% of internet users on computers use Chrome, defeating Internet Explorer at 26% and Firefox at 23%. Chrome was first publicly released for Microsoft Windows OS on December 11, 2008 and became world’s most widely used browser in 4 years.

Chrome’s logo which was updated on March 2011. Credits: Google

Interestingly, Google’s co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page had hired several Mozilla Firefox developers and built a demonstration of Chrome! Chrome is also released for other platforms like Apple’s iOS, OS X, Linux and Android.

Fast, Modern and Secure

Comparing with other browsers, Chrome’s interface is minimalistic, which makes it a truly modern web browser.  Application performance and speed in JavaScript processing is one of its strengths.
Chrome also aims to be secure. It periodically retrieves updates of two blacklists for Phishing and Malware, so it warns you when you try to visit a harmful site.
If you are using Chrome, I would like to share some useful Google Chrome tips & tricks.

1. Omnibox Tricks

Why do they call Chrome’s address bar as Omnibox? Omnibox is intelligent! You normally use Omnibox for typing website URL, but you can also use it for many other purposes like below. Many of them will seem like Google search.

a) Calculator:

Just type in a formula like 383 + 4813)/ 3^3 * 312, and it will show you the result. For square root, try usingsqrt().
You can also get sin(), cos(), tan(), log() etc. values immediately. Type 5! = to get factorial value of 5.

b) Unit conversion:

Type “1 miles in meters” and it will give you the answer. You can also use numbers of conversions like distance, currency, time, temprature, and so on.

c) Paste and Go/Paste and Search:

Right clicking on the Omnibar will allow you to directly go to the website or search after pasting the text, depending what (website URL or search keyword) you have in the clipboard.

Omnibar’s “paste” feature

2. Pin Websites

Use this feature if you use several websites frequently. To pin a web address, right click on the tab title bar and click ‘Pin’. Now, second time when you open the Chrome, all the the pinned websites will open automatically.

3. Search for Settings

Trying to find a setting but could not find? Click on Options button on top right corner and open “Settings”. Type in any setting you are looking from in the search textbox on the top right corner.

Search feature in Chrome settings.

4. Chrome Commands

Just type in any of the following commands in the Omnibox and hit Enter key:

chrome://plugins	See list of all the plugins installed on Chrome
chrome://bookmarks	List all your bookmarks
chrome://downloads	List all downloads
chrome://settings	Open chrome settings
chrome://version	Know about currently installed version of Chrome on your PC
chrome://history	See browsing history
chrome://chrome-urls	Get a list of all the Chrome commands like above

For quick access, you can also bookmark (add to favorite) any of above commands like any other URL.

5. Chrome Task Manager

Access Chrome’s task manager by clicking options button (top right corner) -> Tools -> Task Manager. Alternative you can press Shift+ESC key.
Using Task Manager, you can know about running tasks, websites and extensions on Chrome. It will also list how much memory (RAM of your computer) each one is using. You can also quickly close any task using it.

6. Icognito Mode

This is a useful feature for your privacy and security of your data. Press Control+Shift+N key to open Chrome in Icognito mode. Websites you view in Icognito mode will not appear in your browser history or search history, and they will not leave other traces, like cookies, on your computer after you close all open incognito windows.

7. Most Useful Short-cut Keys:

Ctrl + K	Move the cursor to the Omnibox (address bar)
Ctrl + [Click on a link]	Open the link in a new tab
Ctrl + T	Open a new tab
Ctrl + Shift + T	Re-open the last tab you closed
Ctrl + N	Open new Chrome window
Ctrl + Shift + N	Open Icognito mode
Ctrl + F4	Close current tab
Ctrl + Tab	Navigate to next tab
Ctrl + Shift + Tab	Navigate to previous tab
Ctrl + 1-8	Pressing Ctrl and any number 1 through 8 will move to the corresponding tab in your tab bar.
Ctrl + 9	Switch to the last tab
Spacebar	Scroll down the page
Home	Go to top of the page
End	Go to end of the page
Ctrl + H	Show history
Ctrl + Shift + Delete	Clear browsing history
Ctrl + J	Open Downloads window
F11	Switch full screen mode on and off
Ctrl + F	Find in current page
Ctrl + G	Find next match in the page
Ctrl + +	Zoom on the page
Ctrl + -	Zoom out the page
Ctrl + 0	Reset zoom to normal
Ctrl + D	Bookmark page
Ctrl + S	Save the page to your computer
Ctrl + F5	F5 refreshes the page, but pressing Ctrl + F5 will reload the page overriding the cache
Ctrl + U	View source of the current page
Ctrl + Shift + I	Open developer’s tools interface

Posted by Nisarg Soni at 10:57 PM No comments: