Techiesmo (Tech+Gizmo)

Thousands of web applications are being produced each day all over the world. Some of them are revolutionary, but most of them are just an imitation of what’s available. There is also an imitation that works better than the one that it imitates, improving its features and uses. However, as like most web applications, these higher quality web applications may be buried inside the internet because of poor advertising and low budget given.

Here, we will show you some of the web applications available in the internet that are cool and helpful in their own way.

1. Cryptocat

Love instant messaging but scared of your messages to be intercepted along the way? Cryptocat eliminates this threat where it provides a great and private instant messaging to its users. It works by starting a chatroom with a name and send people the url of the chatroom to join. Any chats will be encrypted and deleted after the chatroom is inactive for 60 minutes and no chat history will be saved.

2. Aherk!

Love challenges? Then Aherk! will be the best application for your usage. Firstly, you will need to define a goal, what to achieve and then set a deadline for the goal to be completed. Then, upload a compromising picture into Aherk! that will be posted to Facebook if you fail to achieve the goal. After the deadline expires, your Facebook friends will vote whether you have achieved the goal or not. If you have trustworthy Facebook friends and motivated by fear, this will be the best web applications to get your goals done.

 3. Cloudtact

There have been a lot of applications that sync your contacts but few have reached the effectiveness of Cloudtact. It has the ability to sync contacts from all your devices and let your contacts do the hard work of updating their information. Just ask your friends to Cloudtact and then Cloudtact will keep everything up-to-date.

4. Pixlr

A simplified version of the Photoshop, Pixlr is incredibly useful where its response time are marvellous, given the limited resources of using a web application. It is hard to notice any slowdowns while using this web application and Photoshop users will have a great time using Pixlr. This is because it has the same keyboard shortcuts as Photoshop. There are also other features like multiple layer support, blending modes and multiple filters and adjustment. If you cannot afford to buy Photoshop, Pixlr is the way to go.

Hundreds of new apps are published in the AppStore everyday and not all of them are able to provide the best experience for its users. Some are lacking in features, full of bugs, not compatible with older devices and many more reasons. However, those apps which are really good will be remembered and downloaded by many iPhone and iPad users. Here, we will see the top iOS apps that were built and published in the year 2011.

Firstly will be the Tweetbot, a Twitter client for iPhone. When it is first published in April, it proved that even in a congested market with many rivals, a new application can still have a breakthrough. Its ease of use and tons of features which includes advanced gesture support are the main selling point for this application.

W.E.L.D.E.R is another good example of an app inside a congested market. It is a word game that is simple but appealing to its users; build words by swapping letters on a board and when you run out of swap, it will be game over. It is simple to play, easy to learn, hard to master and good for those on-the-go; an instant classic in the word game category.

For those who love photography and multimedia, Super 8 is a must in your iPhone and iPad. It turns the device into a super 8mm camera that is really useful for those who want to have some fun with this old device that has gone virtual. You can control the grain level and the picture effects of the photos you take, and you can also upload them directly into YouTube or share them on Facebook and Twitter.

It was a masterpiece when it was released 10 years ago in the PlayStation 2. Now, it can be played right on your smartphone! Grand Theft Auto 3 are improved in a lot of aspects, especially graphics and the new touch and gesture control really makes it a must buy for those who love the Grand Theft Auto premise.

Last but not least is another app for those who love editing works on pictures and videos. Mixel is and iPad app that let users create digital collages from any pictures that they found on the web or their device storage. You can cut, paste and put vignettes into those pictures making it a special and unique artwork that can be shared to social network sites. You can also follow a user’s profile and share the elements that they used in your own work.

Android is the most widely used smart phone operating system after Apple’s iOS. This is mainly because it is used by a lot of smart phones manufactured by a number of smart phone maker, unlike iOS which is only used by Apple’s devices like iPhone and iPad. Making an exceptionally good Android application is really hard because of the many screen sizes and the device types that the developer will need to think about. It is also hard because of the inconsistent operating system updates that are always feature new features which means new coding to be mastered.

It is not easy to build an Android application that uses all the technology available in the operating system, and it is also hard to maintain the accessibility of the application to the users. If the developers manage to build this kind of application, it can be said as a masterpiece that deserves an award and recognition. Here are the top five ‘masterpieces’ of Android that receives millions of downloads produced in the year 2011.

1. Any.DO: To Do List

It is the best productivity and to-do application exclusive for Android users only. It has an elegant interface that is not only just looks but is optimized for functionality. It features voice-driven commands and also a solid integration with Google Accounts so whenever you create a new task on your Google Calendar, you save the hassle of creating it twice.

2. Lightbox – Photos & Effects

It can be said like Instagram for the iPhone but with a whole lot of other features. It can be used as a photo journal and you are able to arrange your pictures, unlike the Instagram. The top-class visual display and compatibility to almost all types of Android devices makes it a common app to be downloaded.

3. Amazon MP3

A library to more than 20 million songs and a free 5GB of storage to each user, it is hard to see that this application will not be loved by the Android fans. Widely regarded as a competitive rival for the iTunes.

4. AirDroid

The best application to operate your smartphone from a personal computer or laptop. It uses the Wi-Fi connection to connect the two devices and features regularly changed passwords to handle privacy problems.

5. Swiftkey X Keyboard

A keyboard customisation for the Android devices. It features larger keys and a top-notch word prediction algorithm with three color schemes to choose from. It can also learn from the previous messages and emails that you have written.

If you have been religiously using your computer; installing and uninstalling, surfing the internet, downloading files, you’ll probably find your computer getting slower. This is due to many things. More unnecessary files, malware or bots causing conflicts, unneeded programs running in the background and so many others that you can’t get rid off with your built in software.

So, you need to look at some problem prone area that might be causing those annoying hang ups. You could start by looking at the programs or scripts that are running in the background. The easiest way to do this is by using a freeware called Autoruns. It basically shows what is running, the basic description and who is the author or publisher. If you are suspicious on the publisher just turn it off. You might be surprise finding your computer processing faster after that.

Another thing to look at is all the scrap, leftovers, useless data files that had been building up since you first started your PC ages ago. For this you need a special program to clean up your computer. My recommendation is the freeware CCleaner and Glary Utilities. CCleaner is great on very old computers as it tends to delve deeper into your system to extract all those ancient files that you never use again. But I give you a fair warning. Some of these files are part of the operative system so you have to be careful when choosing what to delete.

As for Glary Utilities, it does function like CCleaner though it doesn’t clean that deep. I find that is okay with me as it does have other utilities that I can use. I especially like the one click button that initiates all the necessary clean up without me going through them one by one. Personally, I think Glary Utilities is best for your day to day maintaining. Using CCleaner every day might be harmful to your computer but it does serve its purpose.

As for cookies, you might find it annoying that when you used CCleaner or Glary Utilities, some of your favorite cookies had been deleted too. Obviously, if you had manually chose which one to delete than it would not be a problem. However, if you find yourself always missing this step, just choose to disable cookies cleaning and use another freeware called the Expired Cookies Cleaner. This simple and light weight software would be the safest one to run.

Lastly, my recommendation would be another freeware named HackCleaner. Honestly, I’m not really keen on its cleaning capabilities. It does goes deep like CCleaner but some of the files that are listed down are obviously operative files. Though you can actually delete them to recycle bin and restore them later. What I like about HackCleaner is its ability to clean up your memory while it runs. So your actual program could run faster.

At the end of the day, to be on a safer side, you do need to create a restore point before doing any of the above.

As long your computer is connected to the internet it is prone to virus attack. Even if your computer is not connected it also can be infected through external drive like a simple thumb drive. So why do some people refuse to install some protection for their system?

It is likely that some users are not aware that there are a lot of functional and good free antivirus software that can be easily downloaded online. And with the vast collections of free software out there you might find it is hard to make the right choice.

So let me make it easier for you.

One of the things you need to look at, are both your computer disk space and virtual memory. Even if you install a smaller size antivirus you might not have enough good memory to run it. This is one of the most common problems when user complains that their system slowed down when the anti virus was turn on.

Also some antivirus actually used a bigger memory so my suggestion is to install some software first. Using the task manager runs the anti virus individually. You can actually see which one is taking more of your memory. Then you can easily uninstall the one that you don’t need.

What you can also do is to increase your computer virtual memory. It is quite easy to customize. For Windows XP, you can choose the ‘Advanced’ option under ‘System Properties’ in the Control Panel. Look for the ‘Performance option’ and again under ‘Advanced’ set you virtual memory higher. Though, you need to reboot for settings to be effective.

Another good way to choose the best protection for your system is going through the software reviews. Look through the user reviews as it is more relatable. More so the user reviews usually consist of actual users problems with the software. This will help you to choose which one is the best and suitable for your computer.

Some of the best free antivirus downloadable online are Ad Aware FREE Internet Security, Avast FREE Version 6.0,  AVG Anti Virus Free 2011 and Comodo Antivirus 5.0. These are suitable for real time protection. Do update them from time to time as virus attack does evolve.

However, even with these protections, trojans, malware and other potentially dangerous bots are able to slip through. In this case, installing Malware Anti Malware Free 1.51 is a good choice. When it was tested the detection level wasn’t as good but the removal was very effective.

So make your choices carefully. But no matter what, you must have some sort of protection for your system.

To those who are pretty new in self-maintaining your own computer might be wondering why many experts are recommending registry cleaners. Let us start with the basic of registry first. Registry is basically a long list of database consist of your Windows configurations settings and options. Essentially, your programs will need to refer to these settings to run properly. So, if these registries are messed up, you might find your computer unable to run smoothly or becomes slower and slower.

Each time you install, uninstall or make changes to your Windows configurations, the registry would change. So it is very important to keep the registry in good shape. There are several good free registry cleaners that you can use to self-maintain your computer.

Below are the best three registry cleaners which are available for free to use.

1. Wise Registry Cleaners

Pros: The interface is well-designed and user-friendly. Wise identifies registry entries as to what are safe to delete as well as those that may be unsafe to delete. It offers a restore point or full registry backup before registry scanning.

Cons: During the installation, you will be persuaded to install the Ask toolbar and extra programs that are unnecessary.

2. CCleaners v3

Pros: The interface is fast and contains no Adware or Spyware. You will be prompted to do backups and after scanning it provides a good listing that you can choose to fix. You can easily unselect any of those fixes too. Additionally, CCleaners provides other useful cleaning tools such as drive wiper, uninstall and browsers cleaners.

Cons: Firefox and Thunderbird are being treated as one single application. This program will remove your Thunderbird passwords as well even though you only want your Firefox passwords to be removed.

3. Advanced System Care Free

Pros: Apart from being a registry cleaner, this free software implements the one-click functions that basically clean, tune up and optimize your system. You can choose not to use the one click if you think it is unnecessary for the time being. It has a stylish and user friendly interface.

Cons: You won’t be able to schedule scan with the free edition. The program also does offer ‘Turbo Boost’ feature but it can be dangerous to use.

So the above are three most recommended registry cleaner. The registries are really sensitive. Do understand what they are first before you choose to fix or delete them.