Play music live with your friends online!

JAM with Chrome is an interactive web application giving unique opportunity for friends in different locations to play music together in Chrome browser using their computers. No matter what your level of experience - from music pros to aspiring air guitarists - you can JAM together in real time over the web.

The application is developed by Google Creative Lab, and uses HTML5 web technologies, including Web Audio API, Websockets, Canvas, and CSS3 to allow up to four players to jam and play together right straight for their browser. When you play your part, your browser will notify other users’ browsers which notes to play, how to play them, and how to animate the user interface.

You may select from a list of total of nineteen different instruments available, including drums, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboard, hip-hop drum machine, and a distorted electric guitar (for more fun). There are two modes – easy and pro. The easy mode offers visitors pre-programmed autoplay functions, while the pro mode gives the full control of the instrument through the use of a keyboard.

Website: http://www.jamwithchrome.com/

Test suspicious files with free online scanner - Jotti

How safe you are when you are working on your computer? You may consider it relatively safe if you are not connected to the Internet and you are not plugging any external drives or recorded media. But that is not going to happen – you need your computer to be connected to the World; that is largely what computers for.

So, how to keep your connected devices as safe and secure as possible? Anti-virus, anti-malware, personal firewall – all that really helps. But does not guarantee 100% success. The “badware” developers are really creative in their efforts to succeed.

Jotti – free online malware scanner – offers one more potential level of protection. It is useful for the cases when you receive a questionable file or email attachment which might be loaded with malware. Do not take a chance - upload a file to Jotti, and the site will scan it for malware, using more than 20 security suites, embedded in the site functionality. Note that there is a 25MB limit per file, you may upload for inspection.  

Be aware that all uploaded files are shared with anti-virus companies so detection accuracy of their anti-virus products can be improved. Therefore, if you do not want your files to be distributed, refrain from submitting.

Additional information is offered about the loaded file as well, such as:

• File size
• File type
• MD5
• SHA1

The site interface is available on multiple languages. You do not have register or login to use it.

Website: http://virusscan.jotti.org/en

How to create your personal Cloud?

Recently term “cloud” became popular in relation to the virtual data storage solutions. There are multiple popular cloud services such as Goggle Drive, Dropbox, Box.net, iCloud, SkyDrive and etc., and most of them offering free limited storage plans. These systems are based on the centralized servers storing data, uploaded by users, and the clients downloading any contents on the client devices as needed. However, there are significant drawbacks and limitations, when you are storing the data at the server. Reliability, security, and limited free options are just few of the common concerns.

There is a new concept of self-served personal computing, when users are allowed to operate their own clouding systems on their own devices, like computers, smart phones and tablets. It is like having a private data center or virtual server at home on your desktop computer with ability for all other computers and mobile devices to tap into private data cloud, stored in shared locations of the virtual server computer.

The advantages are numerous:

1. You are in power of your entire network, and there is no dependency on any of the third-party servers.

2. Your clod is cross-platform, so devices with any OS - Windows, Android and Mac OS X and other – can use the solution.

3. It is totally wireless – no cables, no Bluetooth, your Internet speed will guide the data transfer.

4. Easy and straightforward backup and synchronization – multiple copies guarantee the most valuable data is safe.

5. Real time access to the data from all devices.

6. Easy sharing files with friends.

If such idea seems attractive to you, you can review the following services and choose one, which looks more suitable for your personal needs:

1. Self Cloud

Website: http://ifmw.mobi/

2. Sync Box

Website: http://www.isyncbox.com/

3. xCloud

Website: http://www.xcloud.cc/

4. Tonido

Website: http://www.tonido.com/

How to retrieve your Android phone if lost or stolen, using Android Device Manager?

You lost your phone? Don’t panic. It is possible that it is easier to locate it than you think. Just activate a small application already installed on your device, and you will be always in power to track it down to the exact location.

If you have Android smart phone with at least Android 2.2 and running once a while Google Play, you have the feature on your phone already. Google loaded the Android Device Manager onto your Android phone sometime in the past. However, official announcement and activation of this feature was launched just recently on Android official blog.

While the application is installed, it is not activated by itself. You have to activate it manually and it takes couple of minutes after all. To activate it, go to Settings > Security > Device Administrators and confirm all requested permissions for Android Device Manager.

As soon as Android Device Manager is activated on your phone, it is recommended to test the new features, and get familiar with the available options.

To use Android Device Manager, go to https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager and log in with your Google account (account you have originally signed for Google Play). You may get a prompt asking you for permission to allow Android Device Manager to use location data. Click on the "Accept" button to continue.

• Location: The location of your Android device will appear automatically on the map, along with the name of the place, when it was last used, and when it was last located. You can zoom in and out of the map to check out the location.
• Ring: The location data is an approximation and may not help you figure out if it's hiding somewhere in your home. Instead of having someone call your phone to help you find it, you can choose to ring your device from Android Device Manager. This will cause your device to ring for 5 minutes at the highest volume, even if it's set on silent or vibrate.
• Lock: Locking your device remotely can be useful if you want to lock your Android device so no one can access your data while you're trying to recover your lost device. To lock your device, click on the "Lock" option. Enter your new password twice, then click the Lock button. Once the command is sent to your device, it will lock it immediately, even if it's being used.
• Erase Device: If you think you've lost your device for good and would like to force a factory reset to protect your personal data, choose "Erase Device." This will erase all your apps, photos, music, and settings from your device. If your device is offline when you send the "Erase Device" command, it will perform the reset the next time it comes online. Once your device has been wiped, you will no longer be able to access it from Android Device Manager. Also keep in mind that a remote factory reset may not wipe external SD memory cards.

Remember, if your device has been stolen, contact the police and let them do their jobs. With Android Device Manager, your data is safe, so make sure you stay safe as well by not attempting to retrieve the device on your own.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://asia.cnet.com/googles-android-device-manager-helps-find-your-lost-phone-62222023.htm

http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57597521-285/find-your-lost-android-device-with-android-device-manager/

http://www.howtogeek.com/170276/how-to-locate-your-lost-or-stolen-android-phone-and-wipe-if-necessary/

Good bye, iGoogle!

Many people used to have iGoogle as their primary homepage. If you are one of them, you got already onscreen notification that the iGoogle services will be gone after November 1, 2013.

All of your personal data stored in other Google products, will continue to be available via those products, including Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Finance, Google Drive, Google Bookmarks, and Google Tasks.

However, if you want to keep the same visual appearance and the same functional widgets as you had before, you will have to look for iGoogle alternatives.

Following a brief search, while filling customer request, I identified igHome as the descent alternative. No, igHome is not a perfect solution, but it's a pretty reasonable basic replacement for iGoogle. It allows you to add your feeds in a variety of custom tabs to suit your needs and has a bunch of ready-to-go widgets in a variety of categories. It also includes pre-configured links to Google services, such as Gmail, Calendar, YouTube, Maps and Search.

If you need basic interface and functionality, and simplicity of operations, igHome should bring a good solution to you.

igHome operates well for desktop, laptop and tablet devices and a mobile version is in beta testing.

igHome can be accessed using the following link for Desktop, Laptop, or Tablet:  https://www.ighome.com. The link provided is a secured link. After accessing igHome, to register or login, click on the prominent blue "Sign in to Personalize" button at top right. A popup dialog box will appear. Follow the instructions to register or login. After login, igHome will redirect you to its unsecured version. Like iGoogle, many igHome gadgets are actually hosted at sites other than igHome and the nature of their content should not require delivery using a secured link. After login, you can switch to the secured link if you prefer. A good way to do that is to add the secured link to igHome's black bar. But, recognize you may not be able to access many of igHome's gadgets in secured mode.

The detailed features review: http://saveigoogle.org/going-home-ighome/

How to Instantly Remove Background from your Images?

Even the most creative and the very nice greeting card cannot be personalized. How much better your recipient will appreciate your time and attention, if you make it yourself!

But, there is a catch. You may need special software and certain experience to make the funny collages for your friends.

Here we are presenting a nice service, making your life easier, without need of software and designer skills. The service will help to remove background from your images. Definitely, you can do that manually with Photoshop or other photo editing suites, but that will take a lot of time and efforts.

With Clipping Magic, this step is simple and fast.

1. Come to the Clipping Magic home page: http://clippingmagic.com/.

2. Upload your image. Drag your image onto the drop-zone on the top of the page, or choose a file from your PC, using the Choose File button.

While images with sharp boundaries between contrasting foreground and background work best, you may find on the page on how to handle blurry boundaries and hair, using the Refine Tool.

3. Mark some foreground green and some background red and the algorithm takes care of the details.

You get live feedback so you can focus your efforts on the challenging parts of the image.

4. The background is removed by adding an alpha channel, with a suitably feathered boundary.

5. Download the modified image to your PC.

Website: http://clippingmagic.com/