Tag / access

by Kush Sharma

Useful and Impressive Cloud Services

Are you lazy enough to download software just to convert a pdf file to word or video song to mp3? Are you afraid to handle a bulky professional tool to edit your small personal video? Well don’t worry because its 2014! The cloud services host too many handy little task specific tools that can be real time savers for these kind of work. Here we showcase few of the best ones.

Data Conversion Services

Every day we work with hundreds of different file formats based on our need, availability and comfort level. Most of the time while uploading to the web the format we have used is incompatible or target who is receiving demands other format of your file and we need to convert the file to some specified type. Usually doing this would require downloading a conversion software even if it is just for that one file. Now file conversion, encoding, transcoding is possible directly in the cloud. Your file gets converted into the required format and is sent to its final location in just a few clicks.

Zencoder [http://www.zencoder.com]

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Launched in 2010, Zencoder is a cloud based audio and video encoding service. It converts any audio or video into mobile and web compatible playback formats for the device you need to support. By using Zencoder you dont not need to maintain your own transcoding engine. Its API is used to create encoding jobs by sending HTTP Post request along with video attributes and API Key. By signing up for a Test account you can try out Zencoder for free and see if it meets your needs. Your videos need to be accessible in the cloud. 99% of the video codecs used today are supported by Zencoder. It is used by some very popular enterprises like AOL Network, Github, KhanAcademy, etc.

CloudConvert [http://cloudconvert.org]

cloudconvert

CloudConvert as its tag line goes converts ‘anything to anything’. You simply upload your files by dragging onto browser to the cloud, choose the format you want to convert it and the service converts it and sends it to the location of your choice (Dropbox or Google Drive). You can also provide url of the file if it is already available online. All the conversion takes place in the cloud and there is no need to install any software on your computer. It is currently in its beta state and supports over a hundred audio, video, document, ebook, archive, image, spreadsheet and presentation formats. CloudConvert is also a very secure service as all your files are deleted after conversion and transfer to the desired location. And best part is The Cloud Convert API allows you to integrate it with your own application and use its conversion services.

Cloud based Video Editing Tools

Video editing tool is usually proprietary with high cost and have to be bought or downloaded. If some of them are free than even you have to first download and install it on your device. Video editing tools in the cloud allows users to edit videos without downloading or buying specialized software. Of course not all of them are free but hey at least all the editing is done in the browser, making it easy, quick and convenient.

WeVideo [http://www.wevideo.com]

WeVideo easily connects to DropBox, Google Drive and other cloud storage tools to get the raw footage required to edit your videos. This is a major plus point as the alternative would be to upload hours of footage which, with a slow internet connection would be nothing short of painful. WeVideo’s user interface offers you a timeline on which you can do your editing which helps letting you know when and what will appear on your final video. You can add or trim clips, use soundtracks from their library with just a couple of clicks. One of WeVideos key features is that it allows collaboration. You can invite friends to help with your project. They can add footage or work on different edits based on the same footage.

Once done WeVideo can directly upload your videos to YouTube or other web services. It saves you the trouble of having to download the video and then upload it yourself. It is also available in Play Store for your Android Smartphone.

Here is Pro Tip! You can use this for preparing short video of your choice by using free account and after publishing the video you will see there is a banner in the end of the video. Download video to local computer and crop the last 3-5 seconds using any simple video cutter tool. This is how you can get completely personal video with so much less hassle without paying a penny.

Cloud Gaming Services

Streaming video and music to TVs, PCs and tablets using cloud services like Netflix, YouTube, Pandora and Spotify has become the predominant way to enjoy content for connected devices. The convenience of large cloud-managed libraries of content with stream-anywhere capability is impossible to resist. Now with revolutionary cloud gaming technology, you’ll soon be able to stream video games from the web just like any other streaming media. Cloud based gaming is becoming a trending phenomenon with the cloud becoming a means to offer state of the art gaming services.

OnLive Games [http://games.onlive.com/]

OnLive Games were the first to demonstrate cloud gaming.  OnLive’s computers run high end games, and then stream the video output of the gameplay to you, wherever you are, on whatever device you choose. Your actions are sent back to the cloud computers in a fraction of a second to give you complete control. Most devices capable of streaming video over the Internet are able to play our games instantly, without downloading the game, and without expensive hardware.

Onlive Cloudlift service

The game ‘Crysis 3’ was played on a low end laptop located several miles away from the server. Now using OnLive’s client users have access to all the games in their store and can stream and play any one of them. The company almost shut down recently because no one was signing up for the paid scheme when there were free 30 minutes demos to take advantage of. Now with new management in place it is said they are slowing recovering.

Cloud Data Backup

Backing up your data is one of the most important services that cloud based applications have to offer. Regularly creating backups of their data is also something the most people put till it too late which is why many cloud services offer automatic backup and sync services.

ZipCloud [http://www.zipcloud.com]

ZipCloud is simple and effective cloud based backup tool. Once installed it knows which files and folders it has to backup and the user doesn’t have to bother with any additional measures. ZipCloud will automatically sync up your computer to a schedule of your choice without you having to do anything. It is completely automated and offers unlimited storage space. Files are encrypted so privacy is not an issue. With separate business and personal deals it is tailor made to each user’s requirements. In business tier from your central administrative control panel you can oversee how your business not only backs up its files, but you can give your employees the chance to share and collaborate on projects seamlessly. It also has support for mobile operating systems like, iPhone, Android and Blackberry.

MiMedia [http://www.mimedia.com]

Currently in beta state, MiMedia is one such Backup Service that has one of the biggest and best free online backup plans. Once uploaded, you can access and share files, music videos from anywhere. MiMedia offers a free 7GB+ of space. If required you can easily upgrade and get more. MiMedia stores your data in Tier-1 data centers and uses highly reliable and secure server architecture so that data loss is nearly impossible. The MiMedia backup client runs in the background and ensures real time data syncing, omitting the need for scheduling backups. It also has shuttle Drive service for Premium users in which it sends an encrypted hard drive in the mail. Once you fill it up your files backup automatically and you can send it back the same box.

by Kush Sharma

uTorrent Remote: Control torrent remotely

utorrent-logo-banner

uTorrent is a pretty popular BitTorrent client for computers. With the remote app, you can control the activity of your file sharing on the move. You can check progress of your current downloads, stop or resume them. You can even add new downloads remotely. This is ease the pain of accessing target machine again and again.

What is uTorrent Remote?

According to uTorrent.com, “μTorrent (uTorrent) Remote is a remote control that lets you access μTorrent running on your home computer– from anywhere on the internet, including most mobile phones and tablets.”

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So how it is done?

First of all, you need to open Preferences in uTorrent on target machine, click on ‘Remote‘, and enable remote access by checking “Enable uTorrent Remote Access”. Give your computer a name and associated password and you’re ready to go. Now put these credentials in uTorrent Remote app to start using in Real Time!

preferences-utorrent-remote

Unfortunately, there isn’t an app for iOS but they have a mobile-friendly website which can let iPhone and iPad users have the same functionality as the apps for other platforms. You can even create a shortcut on your home screen by opening the page in Safari and clicking the “Add to home screen” button in the Share menu. Link for remote uTorrent can be found here: https://remote.utorrent.com.

The uTorrent Remote interface is very user friendly and how it works will be clear to anyone who uses uTorrent. It’s not quite as polished as the desktop apps, but it is almost as complete, letting you do pretty much anything you can do on your computer. Just remember that to use it, your computer needs to be on and uTorrent needs to be running.

Price: Free

Platforms: Android, Windows

Play Store link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.utorrent.web&hl=en

by Kush Sharma

How to block access of USB

block-usb

USB access is something that can affect your computer in a variety of ways. Whether you’re protecting your computer against viruses or malware, or you don’t want anybody to have the ability to copy files onto a USB memory stick, you will need to restrict the access to the USB ports on your system. Setting this up will give your computer the security it needs and keep your data safe.

  • Click “Start” and select “Run.”
  • Type “regedit” into the box and press “Enter.”
  • Look for “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor.”
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  • Select the “USBSTOR” entry.
  • Right-click on the “Start” file on the right and select “Modify.” Change the value to “4” to deny access to the USB ports.
  • To enable it , just turn back value  to “3”.

You can speedup the process by creating desktop shortcut of this procedure. Learn from here: Create shortcut to modify registry files

Note: You need administrator privileges for this.

by Kush

How to Access Shared Folders of Windows 7 and Stream Videos on Android over wifi

Want to play videos from your computer on your Android, without the hassle of copying them to your device’s internal storage? Share a folder over the network with Windows. You can copy files back and forth over Wi-Fi, too.

 

Sharing Folders on Windows 7

To share a folder and make it accessible from Android, you’ll need to share it with “Everyone.”

To do this, navigate to the folder you want to share, click the Share with menu, and select Specific people.

windows android stream

Enter “Everyone” in the box and click the Add button. Select Everyone by clicking on it.

By default, Everyone will only have Read permissions – if you also want to copy files from your Android to the shared folder, you can change the permission level to Read/Write.

Click the Share button after configuring your permissions.

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Next, go to the Network and Sharing Center. Click Start, type “Network and Sharing” and press Enter to quickly open it.

win-droid-share

In the Advanced sharing settings, you may want to disable password-protected sharing. If you disable password-protected sharing, only folders you share with “Everyone” will be accessible without a password.

You can also try leaving password-protected sharing enabled, in which case you’ll need to enter user account credentials before connecting to your shared folder on Android. This may work, although I couldn’t get it to work, myself.

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Accessing Shared Folders on Android

To access the shared folder on Android, we’ll use ES File Explorer. It’s high-quality, free, and supports Windows shared folders with the SMB protocol.

From ES File Explorer’s main screen, swipe from the right to the left to access the LAN section. You can also tap the Local option at the top left corner of the screen and select LAN in the list.

Tap the New button on the toolbar in the LAN Shares section and select Scan to scan your network for PCs sharing files. You can also tap New and select Server to enter your computer’s IP address manually.

 

After the scan is complete, tap a computer to view its shared files. If ES File Explorer finds your computer but continues scanning for more computers, tap the screen to stop the scan process.

win-droid-share

Log in as Anonymous if you disabled password-protected sharing earlier. If you didn’t, try to log in with your Windows username and password – this never worked for me, however.

Browse to the folder you shared in your computer’s file system. I shared my D drive, so I’d tap D, tap my user account’s name.

While we can see other shares like C$ here, they aren’t accessible. We’d see an error message if we tried to access them anonymously.

Tap a video, music file, image, text file, or any other type of file to view it. You can also long-press a file to view a menu and optionally copy it to your device.

 

If you tap a file type Android supports – such as an MP4 video file – it will open immediately and start streaming to your device.