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Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Facebook buys Lightbox, an Android photo sharing app

Lightbox could have been considered the Instagram of Android, that is, before Instagram came to Android. The app allowed Android users to take pictures, add filters, share them with their friends as well as geolocate their photos, providing, in essence, a similar service that Instagram offers. Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion almost immediately after Instagram launched an app for the Android platform. The aim behind the acquisition seemed to be to improve Facebook's mobile presence. Furthermore, Facebook recently updated its mobile apps to contain larger photos and its Every Phone app to add filters to the photo uploader. Now, Lightbox has announced in a blog post that the social networking giant has bought the Android photo sharing application.

Lightbox gets the thumbs up from Facebook

Lightbox made it clear that Facebook only bought the development team behind the app, not the company and the photos. They said, "In the coming weeks, we will be open sourcing portions of the code we’ve written for Lightbox and posting them to our Github repository." Lightbox has also provided a download link for users who want to move their photos if they want to. Lightbox.com will only be in function till the 15th of June and the service is not accepting any new signups. Lightbox only runs in Android and in HTML5 so Facebook might utilize the new acquired development team to work on their Android app.

We recently spoke to Director of Outreach at Lightbox, Stephen Morse on a trip he made to Mumbai; check out the interview here. Lightbox seemed to have been doing well enough for itself and Facebook lapped up their talent before they even came out with an iOS app. There are some Lightbox users, however, who are not too happy with the Facebook acquisition. One user,razorsharpe said, "I love FACEBOOK. It’s fun. Still, I like to keep a lot of things off of FB. One of my favorite non-FB apps was LIGHTBOX. In my opinion, many of its filters (esp. “Ansel”) were way better than Instagram’s. Here’s to hoping that someone at FB is listening or that someone will use the open source code to bring Lightbox back." Do you use Lightbox? Are you upset with the acquisition? Let it out in the comments below.

News from - http://tech2.in.com/news/social-networking/facebook-buys-lightbox-an-android-photo-sharing-app/307172

10 of the Most Inspiring Travel Books

Has a book ever inspired you to hop on a bus to the next town, book a plane ticket or plan the expedition of a lifetime?

Sometimes it’s an epic recounting of a classic trip. In other cases, it’s simply a book with such a strong sense of place that you can’t wait to see that land, taste that food and hear that language for yourself.

I’ve lost count of the number of books that have spurred me to travel, but here are some of my favourites. Many are books I read as an impressionable kid that have resonated for decades—literary merit (or lack thereof) notwithstanding.

The list is utterly unscientific and personal—among other things, it reflects interests as diverse as Buddhism, chick lit and the Second World War—so please chime in with suggestions of your own in the comments section. In particular, thrillers and horror novels scare the heck out of me, so I’m woefully uninformed about the charms of Stieg Larsson’s Stockholm or Stephen King’s Maine. And I’m eager to expand my knowledge of foreign authors in translation. I’d love it if you’d fill me in.

1 - The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger

What teenager growing up in the Toronto suburbs in the early 1980s wouldn’t be captivated by Holden Caulfield’s sophisticated travels in late-1940s Manhattan?

2 - The Last House of Ulster, A Family in Belfast, by Charles Foran

An utterly engrossing non-fiction account of one family and their struggles to maintain some sort of normal life amid “The Troubles” in Ireland.

3 - The Watch That Ends the Night, by Hugh MacLennan

A quiet schoolmaster, a fiery radical and the ill woman they both adore. Against the odds, it makes Montreal seem even more romantic than normal.

4 - Heidi, by Johanna Spyri

This sentimental tale about a Swiss orphan and her crusty grandfather has been lodged in my brain since I was very, very young. It would be over three decades before I finally saw the Swiss Alps for myself.

5 - Gone to Soldiers, by Marge Piercy

Okay, it’s Paris during the Nazi occupation, so the joie de vivre is seriously dimmed. But it’s still Paris, and Piercy brings it to vivid life.

6 - The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga

An ambitious New Delhi servant becomes a successful Bangalore entrepreneur through violent means in this Man Booker Prize-winning novel.

7 - The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCullough

Say what you like about the literary merits of this 1977 potboiler, it made a sheep station in the Australian outback sound like paradise when I devoured it in high school.

8 - Radio Shangri-La, by Lisa Napoli

An utterly absorbing story of an American journalist’s journey to Bhutan to help start the country’s first private radio station. In the process, she witnesses the country’s eagerness to enter the 21st century.

9 - Tales of a Female Nomad, by Rita Golden Gelman

Forget Eat, Pray, Love. This memoir of a fearless solo world traveller—she thinks nothing of breezing into an isolated Mexican village and asking a stranger to rent her a room—is candid and charming.

10 - Among the Cities, by Jan Morris

I could have picked any Jan Morris book. Honestly, I’d read her grocery list and probably enjoy it—her writing is that crisp, evocative and delightful. I chose this collection because it covers dozens of the world’s most intriguing cities.

News from - http://www.always10list.com/2012/05/10-of-most-inspiring-travel-books.html

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Top 3 Best and Easiest Ways to Download YouTube Videos

When it comes to watch tons of interesting user generated videos, YouTube is perhaps the biggest and the best online video streaming site present today. YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view (flash) videos. And the fact that it is owned and run by Google guarantees that the videos that you are watching are pretty fast and stream reliably because they are actually hosted on one of those fast servers (data centers) owned and maintained by Google.

Why to download YouTube videos when you can watch them online? Well, you can’t be online all the time, and despite the majority of YouTube videos being nut-shots and Lady Gaga parodies, there is a lot of great content that you might want to download and watch offline. Whether you want to watch YouTube video on your iPod while working out, insert it into a PowerPoint presentation to add some spice, or simply download a video before it’s removed, it’s quite essential to know how to download, convert, and play YouTube videos. Here are top 3 great ways/methods to download and convert YouTube videos for entertainment, fun and work.

Top 3 Quick (Best) Ways To Download YouTube Videos and MP3

There are some programs and browser extensions to do this, but we’ve found that the easiest and quickest methods in this post today. These tools and methods will let you download standard quality and high-definition YouTube movies as MP4 video and MP3 audio files.

1. (‘Kiss‘) ‘Save’ Your YouTube Video URL

Earlier called kissyoutube.com, saveyoutube.com is perhaps the most popular and easiest way to save any YouTube video to your local computer. To download a YouTube video just go to saveyoutube.com, enter the youtube video URL to the textbox, hit enter, select your download option (from various file formats like flv, mp4, mp3 etc) and that’s it.

Alternately, you just need to add the word ‘save’ to the YouTube video URL and then when you press enter in your browser’s address bar it directs you to their website where you can download it as a .flv video or convert it other formats as well.

Apart from this, they have also the options to search and loop YouTube videos just by entering the YouTube URL. One thing worth keeping in mind is that this online converter requires your browser to be java enabled. So you may want to try in a java-friendly browser like Google Chrome or Safari.

2. Download Youtube Video as MP3 Audio

Would you rather want to just download the Audio in MP3 format from a YouTube videos? Though there are tons of online as well as desktop applications to do this, Listen to YouTube is a great free online tool that lets you to convert YouTube videos to mp3 format. This is an easy process and only requires you to paste a link into a field. You can choose standard or high quality output.

If you are feeling lazy then simply pick any Youtube video URL and add After a few minutes, the process will finish and you will be able to download your new mp3 file. There is no limit to how many downloads you can make with this wonderful free service.

You just put in the Youtube URL and listentoyoutube.com spits out an mp3 for you to download. How cool is that?

3. For Ubuntu (Linux) Users

If you use Ubuntu (Linux), it is pretty simple. Even though you might not realize, in Linux a copy of every Youtube video automatically gets saved in the /tmp folder. So just copy it from your temp folder. To make it even easier, you can create a one-click bookmark to my .temp folder, in Ubuntu.

Disclaimer

We are not encouraging anybody to use Youtube only for downloading videos and songs that could be purchased on Amazon, iTunes, Beatport, or any other digital outlet. These tools are only for video clips and songs that were nowhere to be found.

Moreover, according to the YouTube Terms of Service, downloading videos is not allowed. Hence, please use these tools cautiously and support your favorite artists by purchasing genuine copies of videos and music online. Online streaming services such as YouTube are one of the most popular ways to view videos. But, if you are someone looking to join a movie streaming service to watch all your favorite movies and TV series, then why not check out LOVEFiLM vs Netflix!

News from - http://techchunks.com/technology/top-quick-best-easiest-ways-to-download-youtube-videos/

Guidelines for Designing a Professional Web Design

When you want a website that is attractive, accessible and functional, one road to take is to hire a professional web designer. Web designers are experts in their field and offer professional websites that leave a positive impact on visitors. In order to do that, you must know how to select the best web designer to hire. Plenty of businesses and organizations rely on professional web designers to build their sites. It is because they know what are the benefits of a professional web design. However, there are some guidelines to creating a professional-looking website that you can follow in order to build one on your own. Let’s take a close look at those guidelines to see if we can turn you into a web designer.

This post was written by Akesh Gupta, president of Light Speed Solutions. Light Speed Solutions is a custom software development company specializing in mobile application development and web design services.

Start with Navigation

Rule number one for professional web design is to create an easy navigation. Your navigation needs to be both logical and intuitive so that visitors can freely explore the pages of the site without any confusion or misdirection. Your goal is for visitors to view as many pages as possible. This means that it is your first priority to show them exactly how to do so. The key to a great navigation is meticulous planning. If you are having a hard time when it comes to designing or planning the navigation element in your website, be sure to check our article first about tips for designing the best website navigation bar.

First, decide on the number of main pages you want the site to contain. Keep in mind that these main pages are best displayed within the top navigation. Again, remember to think logically and intuitively. Next, decide how you want to organize the information on the site. One of the tricks of the trade is to start planning on a piece of paper. Visual charts and illustrations are great tools in helping you create a usable and highly navigational website.

Think of your site navigation as a road map that starts out generic and gets further into detail as you move along. Guide the visitor from the main pages deeper into your site towards the rest of the content. Also, remember to make it easy for the visitor to return back to the home page. No matter what page the visitor is on, he or she needs an easy way to get back to the heart of your website.

Create Content

Once your navigation is ready, the next element to think about is content. Visitors who log on to your website want to know that it provides and interesting and valuable source of information for the particular topic you are writing about. The role of interesting content is to help engage your visitors while a sense of value will keep them coming back for more. One important thing to keep in mind is that people appreciate both accuracy and completeness. For a professional web design, be sure to post relevant content that matches the search requests.

Test the Site

Now that you have the content together, the next step is to test the website. Meticulous testing can turn a simple website into a professional one although the process is often a time-consuming and uphill battle. Many web designers learn the hard way that there are about a hundred different browsers that people use to view content online. Understand that your website should be designed to function properly in the most widely-used browsers. Not all users know how to upgrade their browsers, so you need to be prepared for anything and everything.

Optimize Photos

The speed in which the pages on your site load is important. Pages that load quickly benefit both the user, in terms of convenience, as well as the search engines in terms of optimization. One element of web design that influences site speed is pictures. Optimize your photos to keep them from slowing down the upload speed of the page. As a rule of thumb, keep photos as small as possible without sacrificing on quality.

Colored Links

Simplify the navigation process with colored links. Make sure that links change colors after a user clicks on them to clarify browsing history. Colored links also help the user figure out their current location on the site. Also, always ensure that the links throughout the site are not broken. This can be a part of the testing phase or as its own entity before launch.

One Final Thought

Obviously, professional web design involves a long, meticulous and time-consuming process. Professional web design requires good planning, expertise and complete dedication. While hiring a professional web designer is a simple way to ensure a successful website, understand that it is possible to build a professional-looking website without the help of an expert. This guideline should help you better understand the steps to take towards professional web design.

News from - http://www.designrshub.com/2012/05/guidelines-for-designing-professional.html

Best Color Tools For Web Designers

Determining the core color for a web project could be easy but finding the right alternatives to match the core can sometimes be difficult. That’s where the color tools play its roles. Color tools help you determine matching color or even suggest sets of matching color palette when you are totally clueless.