Windows 8 UI: Here’s Your First Look

Windows on the rise and you might be eager to know what Microsoft has in store for you.

If you were making a list of the features you want most in Windows Explorer, what would be at the top? Here’s a look at what Windows 8 has to offer for your file management tasks.

You’ll see that it’s completely redesigned, using the Ribbon UI, and it even has the “Up Button” again! Click the link for all the details.

Improvements in Windows Explorer [MSDN]

Plus, you get a exclusive new feature in Windows 8. This new version of Windows provides you with a option to directly mount .iso files to virtual drives. Bye bye to image mounting software.  ;p

Microsoft has announced that it will be a native ability in Windows 8.

View, read and and extract files from .NBU (Nokia Backup Files)

If you have a Nokia mobile phone and have ever tried backing up data from your phone to PC, you’d have noticed the Nokia PC Suite creating a file called .NBU that contains a backup of your data. These .NBU files can be restored to your phone later using the PC Suite itself but the bottom-line is that you can’t extract pieces of data from that file.
What i mean is you can create an .NBU backup and restore it completely to your phone afterward. But you just can’t read an individual SMS message, contacts list data, graphic or theme from that backup. That means it’s pretty useless from one point of view. You could even face problems if you try to restore the backup to a phone of a different model.

Is there a way to make these files readable, you ask?
The answer is YES. I myself encountered an error in my Nokia phone and my phone won't start. But luckily I had a backup file saved by the format of .NBU , but yes I couldn't use it till I recovered the data back to my phone.

This problem can be solved. Well thanks to the third party software called 'Noki' . By installing that software it's possible to view individual graphics, messages, drafts, contacts and other data from your backed up .NBU file. What’s more, you could even extract this data into a simple format. For instance, you could convert your contacts into a simple .csv/text/html file. Cool, isn’t it?

You can download the setup for NOKI here.

An ode to steve jobs

As we all know the famous STEVE JOB has retired as the CEO of APPLE on 25th August 2011.
Of course we will remember him for his blue denims, with a black jumper and sport shoes attire. I present you an ode for all the major contributions he made to the world.

Update facebook status via twitter

Did you know that it is possible to have Twitter automatically update your Facebook page? It’s actually very simple. In fact, I haven’t manually updated my Facebook status in months.

To get this process working, follow these six simple steps. It wouldn’t take more than five minutes. These instructions assume that you already have both Facebook and Twitter account.

Make sure you are logged onto Facebook. Now go to the Facebook’s Twitter application page. Now click on the Go to Application button. It looks like this:

1. The application will now ask you to confirm that Twitter can access your Facebook information. Click on the Allow button.
   
2. Now log into your Twitter account by entering your Twitter username and password. The screen looks similar to this:
   Click on the Login button.
3. You can now actually use Twitter from within Facebook. The screen looks like this:
   Personally, I never use this. I want the reverse of this. I want to update my Facebook status from Twitter. Therefore, click on the Allow Twitter to Update Your Facebook Status button in the upper-right of the screen.
4. You should get a confirmation screen that looks similar to this:
   Now confirm that you are willing to let Twitter update your Facebook status by clicking the Allow Status Updates button.
5. After you click this button, you will go to the Twitter application. Don’t Twitter anything from here. Instead, go to your Facebook Home page, by clicking the Home link on the Facebook menu. Now you can test the connection by going to your favorite Twitter application or the Twitter web page and entering a tweet. Wait a minute or two and go back to your Facebook home page and refreshing it. Your most recent tweet should be displayed as your Facebook status. This is how my status looked:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   That’s all there is to it. Now every time you Twitter something, your Facebook status will be automatically updated.
   
   IMPORTANT: If you don’t want to send every one of your tweets to Facebook, then check out Selective Twitter Status. It allows you to designate the tweets you want to appear on Facebook by end a tweet with the #fb “hashtag” in your post. Only those tweets with the hash tag at the end will be posted on Facebook.

Compress your .jpg files

After compressing .mp3 files I came across this splendid software to reduce the size of .jpg files without compromising with quality. Yea, that means you can save GB's of free space on your hard disk simply by reducing the size of your old pics. Take my word, you wont regret it and there will be no loss in quality.
So, lets begin...


Firstly, you need to download a free software 'Fotosizer'. I uploaded the software so you can download it for free here. :)

Its a pretty simple interface after installing the software and you will see options to add images or add a complete folder at once.
The view looks somewhat like this once you import your photos.

Once you are done importing the images take a look at the right column that gives you various options to change or re-size your photos.

Select the presets this way:-

This will ensure that the size (dimensions or pixels of your picture do not change).







Now to set the quality of the image. In my opinion a 60% quality will greatly reduce the size. However if you want more free space try changing the quality to 50%. i would personally not recommend a quality less than 35%.
Set your quality under the 'misc' tab.

Keep these settings. A 60% quality would suffice. And once again, don't worry you wont even realize the quality change.




To set the destination folder, you may choose the same destination folder or some external media if you want to save your photos for a backup or something like that.

I used the same destination folder since i wanted to save up space on my hard disk.







Once these options are configured hit the 'Start' button and the software will automatically replace the selected images with a reduced file size version. That's it, you are done.


P.S. - I personally saved 8 GB of space by reducing the size of photos on my computer.