Automatically upload Android screenshots to the Internet

By Martin Brinkmann on October 11, 2012 - TAGS: None

I'm planning to increase the Android coverage here on the blog using my new Samsung Galaxy Note 2 smartphone that I have just received. One of the things that is really essential for that is the creation of good looking screenshots. Most Android devices for some time now support the creation of screenshots. On my phone, I just have to press the Lock and Home button at the same time to create a new screenshot of what is being displayed on the screen at that point in time. It takes between 1-2 seconds of pressing the buttons before the screenshot is being taken, likely to avoid accidental screenshots being taken.

Taking the screenshot is however only part of the process, as the image needs to be transferred from the phone to the Internet or web server. Here is one option on how to upload screenshots that you take with your Android phone to the Internet.

Android to Dropbox

If you are a Dropbox user you can download Dropbox for Android to link your smartphone with a Dropbox account. You need to sign in to Dropbox once to establish the connection. A wizard is displayed afterwards that walks you through the initial configuration.  If you have a limited bandwidth available or pay for your bandwidth, you may want to enable Wi-Fi only uploads to avoid additional costs. You can furthermore select to upload existing photos or videos.

Once setup, all screenshots that you take using the phone are automatically uploaded to the Camera Uploads folder of your Dropbox account. It is alternatively possible to disable automatic uploads and upload photos manually instead only. To do that open the settings of the app and tap on turn off camera upload

You can then access the screenshots either on a computer if the Dropbox client is running on it that synchronizes the files with the computer, or by opening the Dropbox site on the Internet where the screenshots are also available.

Semi-automatic options

I first thought that the Instant Upload feature of the Google+ app did the very same thing, upload screenshots and photos that you take to the social networking site. It appears though as if the feature is limited to photos that you take, while screenshots are not uploaded automatically to the social networking site.

You can still upload photos to Google+ or Google Picasa from the gallery of the phone, but that is a manual process which may work if you only do that every now and then. If you need to upload photos regularly, you are probably better off using Dropbox for that.

Are there other apps or built-in features that you can recommend to upload Android screenshots to the Internet? Let me know in the comments.

Vizio Unveils New Windows 8 All-in-one Touch PC’s

By Alan Buckingham on October 11, 2012 - Tags:pc, Windows 8

As we continue to march towards the big Windows 8 launch on October 26th, more and more manufacturers are showing off their hardware for the new operating system.  So far we have seen a lot of tablets from makers like Lenovo and Asus, and an even larger number of convertible notebook computers that are very tablet-like.  Now Vizio, who became famous for their low-price, high-quality TV's are getting into the game.  Vizio isn't entirely new to the business, they released a line of computers earlier this year and, more recently, a Google TV set-top box.  Now they unveiled a line of touch-screen Windows 8 all-in-one computers.

Vizio is one of the few manufacturers to get their devices officially certified by Microsoft (known as the Microsoft Signature computers), meaning their design meets the Redmond company's standards and that they don't install frivolous software such as trial versions of anti-virus and the like.  A Vizio computer comes with a completely stock version of Windows.

The new Vizio All-in-One Touch will come in two different sizes - a 24 inch and a 27 inch.  Both computers come with a high-definition 1920 x 1080 touch display, 2.1 surround sound with subwoofer, Intel Core processor (the i5), NVIDIA graphics, 6 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SATA drive.  In addition, the 27 inch model also contains an SSD for the operating system.   The 27 also offers a model that features a Core i7 processor with 8 GB of RAM.  Fianlly, there is a low-end 24 inch, although the tech specs listed seem to indicate that it's not much different from it's big brother.

The 24 inch models will be priced at $899 and $1249, while the two 27's are listed for $1219 and $1539 respectively.  All four are currently listed as "Coming soon" and pre-orders are not yet available.  They are listed now on the Vizio Store, along with several new Windows 8 notebook computers that are on the way.  Vizio hasn't said, but we assume they will go live on launch day, October 26th.

Ashampoo UnInstaller 5 review

By Martin Brinkmann on October 12, 2012 - Tags:Giveaways, Windows software

Windows' Uninstall a Program dialog is a basic control panel applet that enables you to remove previously installed software or Windows updates from the operating system. It is one of those programs that has not seen improvements in a very long time. The core issue that many users have with it is that it is not very thorough when it comes to the uninstallation of programs.

It is quite common that leftovers remain on the system that waste disk space, may make it harder for you to find and manage stuff on the system, and sometimes even cause issues that go beyond that.

Ashampoo Uninstaller 5 is a commercial software remover for the Windows operating system. The program ships with two main features when it comes to uninstalling software, and a set of additional tools that are offered on top of that.

Installation monitoring is probably the most interesting feature of the program. The uninstaller can create a detailed log of changes made to the system during the installation of software. Note that you need to enable the monitoring first on the overview page.

Once you have enabled the monitoring of application installations, you will notice a few things when you install new programs on your system. You will first notice that an onscreen toolbar is displayed by Ashampoo Uninstaller whenever you do that. It displays the elapsed time, the file writes and the Registry modifications made by the installer.

You will also get a system tray notification when the installation completes that displays stats about the process. The installation is then displayed in the program window under recent installations, and in the log files tab of the window as well. When you switch to that menu, you will notice that you can display all system modifications a selected program made to the Windows system during installation. This is not only quite useful for troubleshooting purposes, but may also be handy if you want to make sure that the installation did not tamper with any important system files or data.

A simple example where this can help is the installation of toolbars or other adware during software installations as it reveals where the toolbar has made its mark on the system. There is however no option to delete select files or Registry keys only, which means that you need to do that manually on the system after all. File and Registry changes can be imported and exported in the log files view, which may be useful for safe keeping or further analysis.

The uninstaller itself displays the list of installed programs on the system. To uninstall a program, select it from the list and hit the uninstall button afterwards. You can only select one program at a time that you want to uninstall. It would have been useful if you could queue up uninstallations to save some time. As it stands now, you can only select on uninstallation at a time. A search form is available to filter installations, useful if you are looking for a particular program and do not want to browse the full catalog. You can furthermore filter installations by logged, unlogged, corrupt or incorrectly installed.

The group feature is quite interesting. You can create groups and assign applications to them. These groups become available in the filter list improving the manageability of the listing. You can for instance create a test software group and move all applications that you test into it. This way, you always have an overview of programs that you have installed for testing purposes so that you can easily uninstall them again or move them to the list of regular applications. An option to hide select applications or groups from the listing would have been a nice addition though to make sure you do not accidentally delete the wrong application.

A click on uninstall triggers a new window where you can select whether you want to run the original uninstaller that shipped with the program. The option to scan for leftover files, folders and Registry keys is enabled by default, and if available, a silent uninstallation is selected that surpresses dialogs. Ashampoo Uninstaller will run a scan for leftover files after the uninstallation completes to make sure that no data of the program remains on the system.

The program uses a list of setup file names that it automatically recognizes as installers. You can add or remove entries in the settings to suite your own needs. Here you also find the ignore list that lists file names that won't be monitored and the security list, which limits the monitored setups to the processes listed within.

As mentioned earlier, Ashampoo has integrated a set of system tools into the uninstaller. The tools are described below:

• Drive Cleaner - Scans for temporary files and offers to delete them
• Registry Optimizer - Scans for problems in the Windows Registry
• Internet Cleaner - just like the Drive Cleaner, only for Internet browsers.
• Defrag 3 - A file defragmentation program (with SSD warning)
• Service Manager - Manage Windows Services using the program, with community ratings
• Startup Tuner - Manage Windows start up items, also with community ratings
• Font Manager - Preview and delete fonts
• System Restore Manager - Create or delete System restore points, or restore a previously created point.
• File Wiper - Delete files and folders securely
• Undeleter - A file recovery tool to recovery previously deleted files
• Link Checker - Scan for and fix invalid shortcuts
• Duplicate Finder - Find duplicate files on the system

The good

• Installation monitoring, including manual monitoring
• Scanning for left overs after uninstallations complete
• Blacklisting and whitelisting of processes

The bad

• An option to queue multiple uninstallations is missing
• It would be useful to have an option to delete select files or Registry keys of a logged installation, for instance to remove a toolbar that was installed as part of an installation
• No option to disable the system tray popup that appears after installations
• File wiper not integrated with uninstaller

Verdict

Ashampoo Uninstaller is a useful program for Windows users who want to have full control over software installations and uninstallations on their system. The program shines when it comes to the uninstallation of logged applications as it is very thorough in this regard. It could use a few features here and there though that will make it more usable.

The integration of additional system tools is a nice add-on, but nothing that is really related to the program's core functionality. Ashampoo could change this in the future, for instance by combining features offered by the system tools with the uninstaller. The file wiping is just one example where this may come in handy.

Giveaway

Ashampoo gave us ten Uninstaller 5 licenses for a giveaway. If you are interested in the program, leave a comment below to be included in the drawing of winners. It would be nice if you would comment on your current uninstallation routine.

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Change Firefox preferences from the Developer Toolbar

By Martin Brinkmann on October 10, 2012 - Tags:Firefox Tips

If you want to change advanced Firefox preferences you have two core options to do so. You can enter about:config in the address bar, confirm that you will be careful and edit away, or edit the prefs.js file located in your user profile directory manually instead when the browser is not running on the system.

Ken Saunders just informed me that there is a third option which I think is pretty cool. You can change preferences from the Firefox Developer Toolbar instead. This works well if you know the preference name and value that you want to set, and not so well if you do not.

The process itself however is faster and easier than that of the methods mentioned above. Let me explain how you would go about it.

You can open the Firefox Developer Toolbar with the Shift-F2 shortcut. This opens a small toolbar at the bottom of the page. It contains an input console as well as links to various tools that Mozilla integrated into the browser. All we need is the console.

The basic command to change a Firefox preference using the toolbar is the following: pref set name value

The command pref set browser.tabs.onTop false will move the tabs below the address bar in the browser. It is really easy to use, and if you just want to browse a bit, you can do that by using the auto-complete feature here. Once you have entered pref set here you will see a list of suggested preferences that you can edit. When you start typing in characters, Firefox will automatically match what you type with the preferences, so that you only see matching preference suggestions here. When you find the one you are looking for, select it with a left mouse click or the up and down keys on the keyboard and enter to select. Some preference become active immediately, while others may require you to restart the browser before they do.

If you are a fast typer, of have copied the preference name before, you can speed up the editing of preferences in the browser significantly. Just hit shift-F2, enter pref set, paste in the preference name with Ctrl-V, and enter the value afterwards. You need to press enter to send the command to the browser. The first time you do that, you will a warning message that editing preferences can be dangerous. Just accept the warning, and you won't see the message again.

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