Google SMS Channels: Send SMS Text Messages to your Group for Free

ogle India has just introduced a free SMS service called Google SMS Channels that lets you subscribe to news alerts, blog updates and other kinds of information like horoscopes, jokes, stocks or even cricket scores via SMS text messages.

If you are based in India and like to subscribe to this site on your mobile phone via SMS, please join the Digital Inspiration SMS channel on Google. You don’t pay anything to send or receive SMS messages using Google SMS Channels.

Google SMS Channels, which seems to have lot in common with SMS Gupshup, is free both for content publishers as well as mobile phone users who subscribe to text updates via SMS.

Families or friends can create private SMS groups on Google SMS channels and stay in touch via SMS without paying any fees to their mobile carrier.

Other than receiving blog RSS feeds via SMS, you may also use the Google SMS service to get news alerts and weather information on your phone.

Another interesting part – you don’t really need a mobile phone to send an SMS to your group as there’s an option in Google SMS channels that lets you can compose and send SMS messages via the web itself. It supports English, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada.

Google SMS channels currently works only with with phone numbers of India but they are “working towards making this service available to international numbers.” Thanks Amit Somani.

To search for an SMS channel from the mobile phone, just SMS ‘SEARCH ‘ to 9870807070.

To unsubscribe to an SMS channel from the phone, SMS ‘OFF ‘, to 9870807070 where is the name of the channel.

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Send SMS Text Messages from Computer to Mobile Phone via Outlook

With Microsoft Outlook 2007, you can easily send (or receive) SMS text messages from computer to any mobile phone – just write a new SMS text message (like the way you compose emails in Outlook) and hit Send.

Similarly, you can also forward emails, pending tasks and calendar items from Outlook to your mobile phone via SMS.

How to send SMS text messages from computer using Outlook 2007 ?

To SMS enable your copy of Microsoft Outlook 2007, first register your mobile phone number at SMSOfficer. This new service from Microsoft supports almost all cellular operators in US and other international countries including India.

You will soon get an SMS verification code on your mobile phone, confirm and the SMS feature is activated in your Outlook without you having to download any additional software – you will need to click on a configuration link which sets the entire configuration for you.  

Forward Emails as SMS Text Messages

To compose an SMS message in Outlook, select New -> Text Message.   Outlook is automatically set up to use the standard text message limit of 160 characters. If your message exceeds the 160 character limit, the extra characters are truncated and delivered as a separate text message.

There are no registration charges and you also get 10 SMS credits for free at the time of joining SMS Officer. Once you exhaust the free limit, you need to pay for using the Outlook SMS service – payment can be made via PayPal.

When the other person replies to your SMS message, it will arrive in your mobile phone. Am not sure if you can use Outlook 2007 to send bulk SMS messages – i.e., one SMS message addressed to multiple recipeints. Visit SMS Officer.

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The 101 Most Useful Websites

HEre are some of the most useful websites on the internet that you may not know about. These web sites, well most of them, solve at least one problem really well and they all have simple web addresses (URLs) that you can memorize thus saving you a trip to Google.

And if you find this list useful, also check out the expanded version – The Most Useful Websites – which now offers a collection of 150+ undiscovered and incredibly useful websites to enhance your productivity.

The Most Useful Websites and Web Apps

1. ctrlq.org/screenshots – for capturing screenshots of web pages on mobile and desktops.
2. dictation.io – online voice recognition in the browser itself.
3. zerodollarmovies.com – find full-length movies on YouTube.
4. screenr.com – record movies of your desktop and send them straight to YouTube.
5. goo.gl – shorten long URLs and convert URLs intoQR codes.
6. unfurlr.come – find the original URL that’s hiding behind a short URL.
7. qClock – find the local time of a city using Google Maps.
8. copypastecharacter.com – copy special characters that aren’t on your keyboard.
9. codeacademy.com – the best place to learn coding online.
10. lovelycharts.com – create flowcharts, network diagrams, sitemaps, etc.
11. iconfinder.com – find icons of all sizes.
12. office.com – download templates, clipart and images for your Office documents.
13. followupthen.com – the easiest way to setup email reminders.
14. jotti.org – scan any suspicious file or email attachment for viruses.
15. wolframalpha.com – gets answers directly without searching   – see morewolfram tips.
16. printwhatyoulike.com – print web pages without the clutter.
17. ctrlq.save – save online files to Dropbox or Google Drive directly.
18. ctrql.rss – a search engine for RSS feeds.
19. e.ggtimer.com – a simple online timer for your daily needs.
20. coralcdn.org – if a site is down due to heavy traffic, try accessing it through coral CDN.
21. random.org – pick random numbers, flip coins, and more.
22. pdfescape.com – lets you can quickly edit PDFs in the browser itself.
23. tubemogul.com – simultaneously upload videos to YouTube and other video sites.
24. scr.im – share you email address online without worrying about spam.
25. spypig.com – now get read receipts for your email.
26. myfonts.com/WhatTheFont – quickly determine the font name from an image.
27. google.com/webfonts – a good collection of open source fonts.
28. regex.info – find data hidden in your photographs – see more EXIF tools.
29. livestream.com – broadcast events live over the web, including your desktop screen.
30. iwantmyname.com – helps you search domains across all TLDs.
31. homestyler.com – design from scratch or re-model your home in 3d.
32. join.me – share you screen with anyone over the web.
33. onlineocr.net – recognize text from scanned PDFs – see other OCR tools.
34. flightstats.com – Track flight status at airports worldwide.
35. wetransfer.com – for sharing really big files online.
36. hundredzeros.com – the site lets you download free Kindle books.
37. polishmywriting.com – check your writing for spelling or grammatical errors.
38. marker.to – easily highlight the important parts of a web page for sharing.
39. typewith.me – work on the same document with multiple people.
40. whichdateworks.com – planning an event? find a date that works for all.
41. everytimezone.com – a less confusing view of the world time zones.
42. gtmetrix.com – the perfect tool for measuring your site performance online.
43. noteflight.com – print music sheets, write your own music online (review).
44. imo.im – chat with your buddies on Skype, Facebook, Google Talk, etc. from one place.
45. translate.google.com – translate web pages, PDFs and Office documents.
46. kleki.com – create paintings and sketches with a wide variety of brushes.
47. similarsites.com – discover new sites that are similar to what you like already.
48. wordle.net – quick summarize long pieces of text with tag clouds.
49. bubbl.us – create mind-maps, brainstorm ideas in the browser.
50. kuler.adobe.com – get color ideas, also extract colors from photographs.
51. liveshare.com – share your photos in an album instantly.
52. lmgtfy.com – when your friends are too lazy to use Google on their own.
53. midomi.com – when you need to find the name of a song.
54. google.com/history – see your past searches, also among most important Google URLs
55. bing.com/images – automatically find perfectly-sized wallpapers for mobiles.
56. faxzero.com – send an online fax for free – see more fax services.
57. feedmyinbox.com – get RSS feeds as an email newsletter.
58. ge.tt – qiuckly send a file to someone, they can even preview it before downloading.
59. pipebytes.com – transfer files of any size without uploading to a third-party server.
60. tinychat.com – setup a private chat room in micro-seconds.
61. privnote.com – create text notes that will self-destruct after being read.
62. boxoh.com – track the status of any shipment on Google Maps – alternative.
63. mondrian.io – create vector drawings in the browser
64. draw.io – create diagrams and flowcharts in the browser, export your drawings to Google Drive and Dropbox.
65. downforeveryoneorjustme.com – find if your favorite website is offline or not?
66. ewhois.com – find the other websites of a person with reverse Analytics lookup.
67. whoishostingthis.com – find the web host of any website.
68. labnol.org – software tutorials and how-to guides.
69. disposablewebpage.com – create a temporary web page that self-destruct.
70. urbandictionary.com – find definitions of slangs and informal words.
71. seatguru.com – consult this site before choosing a seat for your next flight.
72. unsplash.com – download images absolutely free.
73. zoom.it – view very high-resolution images in your browser without scrolling.
74. scribblemaps.com – create custom Google Maps easily.
75. alertful.com – quickly setup email reminders for important events.
76. picmonkey.com – Picnik is offline but PicMonkey is an even better image editor.
77. formspring.me – you can ask or answer personal questions here.
78. sumopaint.com – an excellent layer-based online image editor.
79. snopes.com – find if that email offer you received is real or just another scam.
80. typingweb.com – master touch-typing with these practice sessions.
81. mailvu.com – send video emails to anyone using your web cam.
82. timerime.com – create timelines with audio, video and images.
83. stupeflix.com – make a movie out of your images, audio and video clips.
84. safeweb.norton.com – check the trust level of any website.
85. teuxdeux.com – a beautiful to-do app that looks like your paper dairy.
86. deadurl.com – you’ll need this when your bookmarked web pages are deleted.
87. minutes.io – quickly capture effective notes during meetings.
88. youtube.com/leanback – Watch YouTube channels in TV mode.
89. youtube.com/disco – quickly create a video playlist of your favorite artist.
90. talltweets.com – Send tweets longer than 140 characters.
91. pancake.io – create a free and simple website using your Dropbox account.
92. builtwith.com – find the technology stack to know everything about a website.
93. woorank.com – research a website from the SEO perspective.
94. mixlr.com – broadcast live audio over the web.
95. radbox.me – bookmark online videos and watch them later (review).
96. tagmydoc.com – add QR codes to your documents and presentations (review).
97. notes.io – the easiest way to write short text notes in the browser.
98. ctrlq.org/html-mail – send rich-text mails to anyone, anonymously.
99. fiverr.com – hire people to do little things for $5.
100. otixo.com – easily manage your online files on Dropbox, Google Docs, etc.
101. ifttt.com – create a connection between all your online accounts.

Changelog and Updates

The following websites were part of the original list but they are either no longer available or have been replaced with better alternatives.

1. virustotal.com – scan any suspicious file or email attachment for viruses.
2. isnsfw.com – when you wish to share a NSFW page but with a warning.
3. truveo.com – the best place for searching web videos.
4. tabbloid.com – your favorite blogs delivered as PDFs.
5. warrick.cs.odu.edu – you’ll need this when your bookmarked web pages are deleted.
6. tempalias.com – generate temporary email aliases, better than disposable email.
7. whisperbot.com – send an email without using your own account.
8. errorlevelanalysis.com – find whether a photo is real or a photoshopped one.
9. google.com/dictionary – get word meanings, pronunciations and usage examples.
10. wobzip.org – unzip your compressed files online.
11. namemytune.com – when you need to find the name of a song.
12. snapask.com – use email on your phone to find sports scores, read Wikipedia, etc.
13. pastebin.com – the site has been blocked in India.
14. encrypted.google.com – Google now redirects all logged-in users to the https version of google.com by default so this is no longer necessary.
15. bounceapp.com – replace this with a version that works on mobile.
16. dabbleboard.com – a online virtual whiteboard that will shut down in August 2012.
17. chipin.com – helps you raise funds online for an event or a cause (closed).

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How to Reduce the File Size of Google Fonts for your Website

GOogle Fonts is a collection of open fonts that you can use in your websites, documents and other design projects without any restrictions around licensing.

It takes a single line of code to embed any of the Google Font families into your website design. Just substitute the font family in the following code (line #2) with the name of Google Font and copy-paste it inside the <head> tag of your HTML template.

Page Speed and Google Web Fonts

While Google Fonts can make your website look good, there’s one related problem – they increase the page load time of your website because the font files have to downloaded on the visitor’s computer and some of them, like the Cabin Sketch font, can exceed 100 KB in size.

There is however an easy workaround to help you reduce the file size of the Google Fonts so that they do not reduce the load time of a web page. Instead of using the entire Google font family, you can specify a limited set of letters or digits that are used in your text and Google will dynamically generate a new font file containing only the requested characters.

How to Reduce the Size of Google Font Files

All you have to do is add a new text parameter to the Google font request URL and value of this parameter will have all the letters that you need.

For instance, if I need to render the text Digital Inspiration in Cabin Sketch font, the modified CSS requesting the Google font file will look something like this:

The original Google font file was around 101 kb but with this limited text, the font file is reduced to 7.6 KB.

Google Fonts are commonly used to render the text of logos and and headings (h1, h2, h3, etc.) on a web page so you can modify the CSS accordingly. Alternatively, if you wish to request all alphabets and numerals in the Google Font but none of the extra glyphs, your font CSS will looking something like this:

The font file in this case is 37 KB in size and that’s still 64% lower than the original Google font file. Also, if you are wondering why I have included %20 in the text list, it represents the encoded space character. Similarly, you can add %27 and %22 to the list for single quote (‘) and double quote (“) respectively.

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How to Embed Facebook Videos in your Web Pages

FAcebook, like YouTube, now allows to you easily embed videos on web pages outside Facebook. That means if you come across an interesting video on Facebook, you can easily put it on your blog without having to direct your audience to the Facebook website.

There are two important points to consider though. One, you should only embed videos that are public. Facebook does provide the embed code for private videos that are shared with you or your network but your audience won’t be able to play these videos on your website.

The other issue is that Facebook still uses the Adobe Flash player to embed videos when your website is viewed on a desktop. It automatically switches to the HTML5 format on mobile devices but if someone is viewing your website from a desktop or laptop, they would need the Shockwave Flash plugin enabled to view your embedded videos.

Add Facebook Videos to your Website

First, let’s find a video on Facebook using Graph Search. Go to the search box and type a search query like videos of cats liked by my friends or videos uploaded by me or videos uploaded by my friends of friends.

Next click the video thumbnail to open the video play in a lightbox window. Hover your mouse over Options and choose Embed Video from the drop-down. Facebook will provide a snippet of code that you can directly copy and paste in your website template or your blog post.

Please note that you need to be logged in to your Facebook account for generating the embed code.

The embedded videos are responsive and occupy the full width of the parent div. If you would like to constraint the video width or need to wrap text around the video, you’ll need to modify the .fb-video class as show in the snippet below:

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See Location of Facebook Friends on Google Maps

How to Fake your Location in Google Chrome

Some websites may request access to your location so that they can serve more relevant information. For instance, if you are looking for a gas station, a maps website may use your current geographic location to display stations that are near your place without you having to type your co-ordinates.

Google Chrome will only share your location if you click Allow.

How Browsers Determine your Location

Earlier, websites would use the IP address to determine your approximate location but with the HTML5 Geolocation API, web browsers can more accurately detect your location using data from GPS, Wi-Fi networks, cell towers, Bluetooth and the computer’s IP address. If you agree to share your location with the browser, it will send these details to Google Location Services for estimating your location which is then shared with the requesting website.

To give you an example, open the Where am I app in your browser, allow it to use your location information and the app should be able to display your latitude and longitude coordinates (it is more accurate on mobile browsers as those devices have built-in GPS).

How to Fake your Geolocation Coordinates

When you happen to visit a location-aware website, the browser will always ask for a confirmation before sharing your location. If you aren’t keen to share your geographic coordinates, you can always deny that request or, if you are using Google Chrome, you can even send a fake location to the website.

Here’s how. While in Google Chrome, press Ctrl+Shift+I on Windows, or Cmd+Opt+I on Mac, to open the Chrome Developer Tools. Now press the Esc (escape) key to open the Console window. Switch to the Emulation tab and choose the Sensors option in the left sidebar.

Here check the setting that says “Emulate Geolocation coordinates” and specify the exact latitude and longitude coordinates* that you want to share with that website. You can use the Postal Address finder to know the latitude and location of a place.

Now refresh the current web page and it will take your fake location. Make sure that the developer tools panel is visible always else Chrome will not override your geolocation.

Related tip: Geotag your Tweets with any Location

The option to fake your geolocation is not available in the DevTools of Mozilla Firefox but you can use the Geolocator addon to send any preferred location to the HTML5 Location API.

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Create an Apple ID without using a Credit Card

Some apps, Google Earth for example, are available as free downloads in the iTunes Apps store but you need a UK or US based Apple ID to install them on to your iPad or Phone. Similarly, some iBooks and podcasts have geo restrictions and may only be available to iTunes users who are logged in with an Apple ID for one of the available countries.

The workaround is simple. You can create multiple Apple IDs – like one for UK and another one for US Apps Store – and easily switch between them inside iTunes. So if you are signed-in from India, you can switch to the US store, login with your US based Apple ID and download the app that is otherwise not available in the Indian Apps Store.

There’s however a problem. When you create a new Apple ID, iTunes will require you to enter your credit card and the billing address of your card should be in that country. In other words, you need a US based credit card or PayPal account to create a Apple ID for the US iTunes Store. Apple will not let you create an Apple ID without entering valid payment information (see screenshot above).

That said, you can take an alternate not-so-obvious route in iTunes to create an Apple ID for any country without requiring a credit card. Here’s how:

Create Apple ID in iTunes without your Credit Card

1. Launch the iTunes software on your computer and sign-out of your existing Apple ID. Choose Store in the menu and select Sign-out.
2. Next scroll to the bottom of the iTunes page, click Change Country and select one from the list for which you need an Apple ID. Alternatively, you may click the country’s flag to switch to the iTunes store of another region.
3. Now open the Apps Store inside iTunes, select any app that is free and click theGet button to download that App.
4. iTunes will now prompt you to enter your Apple ID and password. Do not enter your existing Apple ID. Instead, click the Create Apple ID button, agree to the terms & conditions, enter your email address &amp password and minimum age.
5. Proceed to the Payments screen and here you’ll see a new option that says NONE (see screenshot below). Select the None option, enter a dummy postal addressand submit to create your new Apple ID that will be valid in the iTunes store of that country.

If you have kids at home, you can use this trick to create a separate Apple ID for the iPads, one that is not associated with your credit card and so they’ll never be able to make any accidental purchases.

An Easier Way to Create a New Apple ID

If you need another Apple ID but do not intend to use it with the iTunes store for download apps, there’s an easier way. Go to icloud.com, click the Create Apple ID link and choose a different country from the dropdown. Your Apple ID will be created instantly but if you decide to use it for downloading iTunes content later, you’d still need to supply the credit card.

You Cannot Create An Apple ID Because You Do Not Meet The Minimum Age Requirement

You need to be at least 13+ years old to create an Apple ID inside iTunes. However, if you enter an incorrect date, iTunes will refuse to create your Apple ID and no matter how many times you try the process, you will keep getting an error saying “you cannot create an Apple ID because you do not meet the minimum age requirements.”

This is most like a caching related bug in the iTune software but can be easily. Open Preferences inside iTunes, switch to the Advanced tab and choose Reset Cache. Quit iTunes and launch the Safari browser. Go to Preferences and under Privacy, choose the option “Remove all Website date” to clear the cache.

Open iTunes again, try downloading an app and it should not allow you to create an Apple ID without issues. Thanks Mahendra for the tip.

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