Archive for April 2013

THIEF 4 ANNOUNCED




         Square Enix has announced a return to the first person stealth based gameplay of days gone by with Thief 4. It is set to continue the series' tradition of first person stealth and actively discouraging combat, just like the previous games. Thief 4 will also add a major new mechanic called Focus. It works like Detective Mode did in the Batman: Arkham games, and highlights scalable walls, extinguishable lights and fingerprints that can be analysed. It also works as a sort of Bullet Time, as you can use it to slow down time while pickpocketing.
         The enemy AI can make or break a stealth game, and first few Thief games' AI were revolutionary for their time. Apparently, this game is set to continue the tradition. "Garett's enemies understand the topography of the level and which ares could be useful for hiding. Different NPCs will look for Garrett in different ways," noted AI programmer Eric Martel. Overall, the game sounds very similar to Dishonored, which is unsurprising as the Thief games are cited as some of the biggest inspirations for Dishonored.
         Thief 4 is set to be released for the PC, the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360, and possibly the next-gen consoles in 2014.

ALSO SEE: ATTANO.COM
Saturday 27 April 2013
Posted by Unknown

ATTANO.COM



     
         Attano.com presents a novel way to supplement your studies. It provides interactive eBooks that can be accessed on PC, tablets and even smartphones. So far, most of the eBooks available are limited to fictional books. With Attano.com you now have access to educational books right from preschool to higher education. This includes educational books for CBSE, ICSE, and Maharashtra and Karnataka board. Their higher education offerings include books for business, engineering, computer science, biomedical, physics, chemistry, humanities, mathematics, and law, amongst others.
          Of course, these books aren't free and the prices start from Rs 15 and can go over Rs 200, depending upon the book. Once you have purchased a book, it will appear on the bookshelf in the app. When reading, you can select the type of layout, as a single page or just like a book. You have options like bookmarks, highlight, adding notes, etc. Apart from this, in case you have an urge to doodle, then you can easily do so by using the pen tool. All your bookmarks and notes can be accessed from the 'My Data' tab. Here, you will also find the Consumption Report, which will reflect how much of a book you have read. In terms of interactivity, it also has educational videos, audio, spot assessments, plus a social feature that will allow you to interact with fellow Attano users. As of now, it supports the Apple and Android OS. All you need to do is to create an account, download the Attano app, and install.

ALSO SEE: PIRATE BAY ALL LINKS ARCHIVE
Friday 26 April 2013
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PIRATE BAY ALL LINKS ARCHIVE



        The pirate Bay has published a 75 MB archive containing a copy of every single magnetic link indexed by it. The self-described "galaxy's most resilient bittorrent site" switched from hosting actual Torrents to text-based magnet links a year ago, allowing users to scrape all the essential information from the site's 2-million-plus entries into such a small file. While 75 MB gets you only file titles and Magnet links, an expanded 631 MB version of the archive includes comments and descriptions. The archive has been published to help users continue sharing files even if the site is disrupted or forced offline in the course of its various legal battles.
Wednesday 24 April 2013
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REPAIR A DEFECTIVE USB IN A CONVECTION OVEN



                 Ia a USB stick stops functioning abruptly, you might be able to save it. Try using in on another PC before deciding it is faulty. If it still doesn't work, you have two options to recover important data from the stick. In each case you must first carefully remove the pen drive's casing. Wrap the circuit board tightly using Scotch tape. In this way, the board is firmly insulated and safe from contact contact with outside objects and safe from short circuits. Check if the drive works now. If the stick starts functioning again, quickly copy all data. If this is a possible last resort-- but beware the device might thus be damaged irretrievably! Often, the solder holding the internal components together tends to get dry and does make good contact. Re-soldering the entire circuit board is impossible by human hands because of the tiny SMD chips used. This needs wave of soldering machine, which is not easy to procure. But you can use your oven at home to do the same work.
               Place the USB stick for five minutes in an oven preheated to 200 C. In this way, the solder melts a little and all contacts are strengthened. It is important that all plastic casing pieces be removed before popping the drive into the oven.
              If the memory modules are soldered on one side of the circuit board, place these upturned. The plastic inside the USB plug should survive this effort unscathed. Once the five minutes are up, shut down the oven and leave the door open for cooling without removing the stick. After approximately 30 minutes, you can remove the pen drive and check whether it works again.

ALSO SEE: GAMERS ENRAGED BUGS, DRM IN NEW SIMCITY
Friday 19 April 2013
Posted by Unknown

GAMERS ENRAGED BY BUGS, DRM IN NEW SIMCITY



            EA's big SimCity franchise resurrection was preceded by months of hype and mounting expectations, which peaked when early reviews rated it as 9.5/10 and above. However gamers who bought it were in for a rude surprise--at launch time, EA's servers crashes. Even worse, EA responded by reducing functionality and killing online features. Gamers, who never wanted the game to require a constant internet connection, also quickly discovered that traffic routing is completely illogical, and usable land area is laughably limited. EA still refused to allow offline play, claiming that calculations are offloaded to the cloud, but this has been proven to be untrue. EA hasn't yet responded to the latest set of revelations.

ALSO SEE: RECOVER DATA OFF UNREADABLE CDS AND DVDS
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RECOVER DATA OFF UNREADABLE CDS AND DVDS




              You want to copy photos from a scratched disc onto the hard drive. But the Windows Explorer aborts the copy process with the error notification 'File cannot be copied'. Where the Windows Explorer fails, the mini-tool 'Roadkil's unstoppable copier' prevails against scratch and damages on the data storage medium. This program copies and restores data from unreachable discs - you can download it for free at http://www.roadkil.net/.
              In order to recover data, select the source and the target drives using the 'Browse' button in the 'Copy' tab. Subsequently in the 'Settings' tab, move the slider approximately to the middle, it is a good compromise between the best and fastest recovery of the data. You should also set the tick in front of 'skip damaged files automatically', otherwise it may take considerably more time till the tool copies the still usable data. This utility is ideal for hard drives, floppy drives, CDs and DVDs which could have bad sectors or partially corrupted file systems.

ALSO SEE: WICKEDLEAK WAMMY MAGNUS
Tuesday 16 April 2013
Posted by Unknown

WICKEDLEAK WAMMY MAGNUS


VERDICT: A powerful quad-core tablet with an HD IPS display.
FOR: 4K video support; IPS display; powerful hardware; low price.
AGAINST: Average build quality; OS needs to be updated by user.


         The Wammy Magnus is a 10.1 - inch tablet that runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and is upgradeable to Android 4.2. The tablet has an Allwinner A31 SoC, which comprises an ARM cortex-A7 quad-core 1.5GHz CPU. The processor is presently clocked at 1GHz but will be able to run at full speed when upgraded to Android 4.2. It has 2 GB of RAM. The GPU onboard is the octa-core PowerVR SGX 544MP2, which is capable of handling 4k videos @ 30 fps and 1080p videos @ 60 fps. The IPS display has a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels and looks crisp and sharp. We tested a few SD, HD, full HD and 4k videos. The Magnus has 16GB of internal storage of which 13GB is available for the use's data while the rest is reserved for the ROM and app data. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi b/g/n, 3G via an external dongle, and a micro USB port. The tablet is powered by an 8000 mAh battery that can last you for around 7 hours. Since the tablet is not running on the latest compatible Android operating system, we did find the user interface to be a bit buggy. The system would behave erratically at times: the touch sensor would either lag or act too quickly, making you think the tablet was sluggish. But we shall blame it on the incompatible operating system installed.


SPECIFICATIONS
DIMENSIONS(W x H x D):  267 x 177 x 80 mm
WEIGHT:    620g
DISPLAY: 10.1-inch IPS, 1280 x 800 pixels
CPU: Allwinner A31, quad core, 1.5GHz
GPU: PowerVR SGX 544 8-core
RAM: 2GB
STORAGE: 16GB
CONNECTIVITY: Wi-Fi b/g/n
Battery: 8000 mAh
OS: Android JB 4.1

ALSO SEE: UBISOFT ANNOUNCES ASSASSIN'S CREED IV: BLACK FLAG
Monday 15 April 2013
Posted by Unknown

UBISOFT ANNOUNCES ASSASSIN'S CREED IV: BLACK FLAG



             Amidst a mix of leaks and official announcements, Ubisoft revealed Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. The game is set to go for a pirate-themed setting, and is apparently going to subvert expectations. The game is going to have a more serious take on pirates than pop-culture would have us believe. Lead Content Manager, Carsten Myhill said, "Certainly when Assassin's Creed III naval came out, there was a clamour from the fans for a pirate game. But it's not easy. It takes a very long talented team, a lot of experience and great tech. It's one thing having good naval combat, but combining that will good boarding and land-based gameplay in a seamless way, is hard to do."
            It will also feature something developers refer to as "seamless systemic naval adventuring." This essentially means you don't have to line your ship up to an enemy's to get to the sweet spot that will let you board their ship. You can sail up to an enemy ship at any angle and still raid it.
           The game is set to feature three cities - Havana, Cuba; Nassau, The Bahamas; Kingston, Jamaica. One of the developer's major goals is to have the player always know where they are as soon as they come to a city.
           We don't know much about the game, except for the fact that we'll be playing Connor's grandfather Edward Kenway.
           Considering everything we know, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag(this is the first game to have a number as well as a subtitle) looks like it's going to be one hell of a game. It's going to have vast oceans to explore, a combat system that'll let you wield two weapons at the same time, and best of all: pirates!

ALSO SEE: MULTI-BOOT: ANDROID OS
Saturday 13 April 2013
Posted by Unknown

MULTI-BOOT: ANDROID OS



             You can now boot up to five Android operating system versions on a single phone with just a reboot. All you need is simple utility app called Boot Manager, a fairly large SD card(at least 8 GB) and your favorite ROMs. Boot Manager is a unique and powerful utility app from 'www.init2winitapps.com' and cost just Rs.146 on the Android Market. The first ROM is installed on the phone's internal storage itself, while the other four ROMs are installed on the SD card in the form of image files that are mounted and ready for use when required. Each image file(boot, system, data and SDEXT) is created according to the existing phone's partition table and ROM needs; but they can be tweaked to increase or decrease the space for each ROM's requirements too. Switching between ROMs is as simple as selecting the desired ROM and rebooting the device. The app switches the boot.img file according to the chosen ROM to boot into. These ROMs run directly from the SD card without disturbing or affecting the original ROM on your phone's internal storage. Those who like to test and try different ROMs from third-party developers can benefit from this app. It can also benefit those testing their apps on different Android OS versions using a single phone. Let's see how you can configure and run this app. But before we start, here are a few important things you need to know.

# You will need a rooted handset with recovery (CWM or 4EXT recovery) utility already installed on the phone.
#Your phone should have the security flag set to OFF(S-OFF).
#An updated Superuser app with logging disabled.
#An SD card with no bad sectors.
#A fully charged phone. Connecting the charger is best suited.

          Those unfamiliar with some of the above terms can refer to the XDA forums on how to root, S-OFF and install a custom recovery utility on the phone. 
          Those who have incompatible handsets can try them at their own risk. To get more information about handset support and software related issues, you can log on to developer's website at 'www.init2winitapps.com'.

NOTE: Incorrect rooting or tweaking can leave you with a permanently damaged phone. We are not responsible for any bricked handsets while performing this guide. Do this at your own risk.

          LET'S BEGIN.

           Pay for, download and install the Boot Manager app from the Android Market. Run the app. You will be greeted with a few welcome screens. Proceed with the instructions on the screen and you will be informed to initially setup phone's original ROM before installing any other ROM using Boot Manager. This is a crucial step as your phone's original ROM's boot.img file needs to be saved in order to boot into the original ROM whenever you need it. Once done, the app will inform you about the success of saving the boot image of your phone's original ROM. A warning message will also pop up, informing you not to do this step if you are booted into one of the SD card's ROM. This step needs to be performed only once and will take just a few seconds. If you bypassed this screen accidentally, you can do it after Boot Manager starts up. It is recommended that you take a complete backup of your phone's existing ROM using the recovery utility of the phone before proceeding.



          Now that you are in the Boot Manager's user interface, you will see sex screens from from left to right named 'Phone ROM', 'ROM 1', 'ROM 2', 'ROM 3', 'ROM ' and 'Settings' respectively. Begin with the Phone ROM first. Click on the button 'Manage UI'. This step is optional as it is just an information screen setup for the phone's ROM. Here, you can enter details about the ROM, such as ROM name, kernel name, description about the ROM and a screenshot for visual identification of the ROM. Now proceed to the next step to install the first ROM. Make sure you have downloaded the ROMS from Internet and stored them in appropriate location on the SD card before you proceed. Now switch to the ROM 1 screen and you shall find four buttons 'Boot ROM', 'Install ZIP', 'Manage Slot' and 'Manage UI'. Click on the 'Install ZIP' button. At this stage, this ROM 1 slot should be empty as you have not yet installed any ROM. Clicking the Install ZIP button will bring up three more options - 'Install ZIP', where you can start installing the ROM you downloaded; 'Install kernel', using which you can upgrade or replace the kernel of the ROM installed on this slot; and 'Restore Nandroid', where you might have stored previously from another ROM. The buttons are self explanatory. Click on 'Install ZIP' and Boot Manager will open a file manager to locate the zip file of the ROM you want to install. Select the zip file and you will be asked if you want to wipe the system, cache and data partitions before installing.  Select all three and click on the 'install' button. A confirmation window will ask for permissions to proceed, which will be followed by another confirmation for the file system needed for the specific ROM you are going to install. This would be either an EXT2 or an EXT4 file system. Choose the file system as EXT4 if your ROM supports EXT4 or else EXT2 should be good enough. The app then starts creating the image files, mounts them and installs the specific ROM into that slot. The installation procedure will then take place in the status bar. Keep an eye on the installation, which should take around 10 minutes depending on the speed of the SD card. Once completed, you can click on the notification and proceed to 'Manage UI' section of the ROM if needed. After it is done, all you need to do is click on the 'Boot ROM' button and your phone will boot into the ROM 1 you just installed.



             You can follow the same procedure to install three other ROMS of your choice in slots ROM 2, ROM 3 and ROM 4 respectively. Boot Manager will also install its app in all the ROM slots you installed so that you can easily switch back and forth into different ROMs. If you have taken a backup of your apps, data settings using Titanium Backup, you can restore your data and apps into other ROMs with ease. But be careful, using Titanium Backup across different ROM types can cause problems. Hence, we recommend installing apps and setting up the ROM completely from the start rather than restoring from Titanium Backup unless you know how to handle it well.


             Boot Manager actually creates a virtual file with partition table information of the phone and installs the ROM accordingly. When you switch to a particular ROM, which then instructs the handset that partitions are not on the phone's internal storage, but on the SD card(actually creating a hard link to the partitions). Once booted into the new ROM, you will be able to use the phone as though i was installed on the internal storage itself. Setup the phone as you would do when installing a new ROM.




            
             There might be times when you will witness a failure to boot into ROM, but don't panic. If this happens, simply replace the boot.img file of the phone back to its original. To do this, remove and re-insert the battery, boot the phone into recovery mode and flash the 'update.zip' located in the folder '/sdcard/BootManager/PhoneRom/'. This will replace the original boot.img file to the phone and you will be back on your phone's original ROM. 
        


ALSO SEE: QUIRKOSHOP.COM
Saturday 6 April 2013
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QUIRKOSHOP.COM





         If you are bored by the same old mundane stuff and want to add a dash of fun to your environs, then there are lots of options you can choose from online. Whether you are looking for something to jazz up your house, as a gift option for someone special, or for kids, you can choose from some quirky stuff online that will make your gift standout.
         Quirkoshop.com has been around for a while and boasts of some of the coolest stuff you can find online. Looking for things to buy on Quirkoshop is quite easy as well, thanks to the tags on the left like 'for your bar', 'for your desk', 'for your wall', 'for your fridge', 'for your garden', 'for your loo', 'for your kitchen', and more. Alternatively, you can look for stuff from the drop down menu according to the products you are looking for. If you are looking at a gift option and have a particular budget in mind, then you can always browse according to price.
        Chappal-shaped ashtray, melting wall clock, 'chaddi buddies' badge, animal pot sticks, watering cans, golf ball bottle opener, drunk coasters, nose cups, cutting chai candles, Sudoku toilet paper; the list can't get crazier than this. Quirkoshop delivers all over India at an additional shipping charge and the products are usually delivered within three to four working days. Quirkoshop features products from popular brands like Happily Unmarried, Chumbak, Loose Ends, Elan, etc. What's more if you are an artist then you can add your own designs for sale on the Quirkoshop.com

Posted by Unknown
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TRIBUNGA - THE STAND THAT MOVES WITH YOU



            Tribunga is the first ever triflex bi-pod. The triflex bi-pod extension offers a new experience in hands free electronic device use, which means you are not restricted to one position any more while you are using gadgets. Its bi-pod base gets adapted to different platforms and provides stability.


            The Tribunga's polymer ball and socket system joins to make triple flexible extensions which allows for the perfect obedience to hold various devices including the use of laptop computers. It is very light weight and makes the perfect travel companion for hands free use where ever you go.

            It uses the traditional vacuum and a state of the art micro-suction simultaneously. This gives the superior hold strength while keeping the size of the suction cup down. The outer housing was ergonomically designed to fit perfectly in the palm of any hand comfortably. The detachable suction cup allows Tribunga to seamlessly turn into a handle and snap desk stand, combining several accessories into one compact, lightweight powerful stand.



ALSO SEE: SURF ANONYMOUSLY
Monday 1 April 2013
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SURF ANONYMOUSLY



         
               If you wish to surf anonymously you can use the service offered by the website anonymouse.org. This does not really depend on the browser that you are using and does not even require installation. You can select the English version on the website. You will now find an input field for the desired Internet address, you can now surf this site anonymously after clicking on "Surf anonymous" option.
             Anonymous surfing does not just offer more protection in case of unknown site, but also generally in practice when you are sending e-mails via online service from some other computer. However, the website does not support any secure connections in the free version over "https".

ALSO SEE: GOOGLE PLAY STORE ALLOWS APPS THAT STEAL PERSONAL DATA
Posted by Unknown
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Technodrivein by Harish is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
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