There are number of reasons why you would want to view your Android device from your computer and I won't try to enumerate them on this article. My personal reason? I like to get screenshots of my device so I can post it on my future Android topics. Before reading further this article, you should have the following ready: Your Android device, USB cable, Android SDK, and Android Screen Capture software. Once you got hold of all these, install Android SDK and Android Screen Capture software. After you installed these two, you can now proceed to the fun part.
Install or update Android SDK Platform-Tools 1. If you haven't installed the Android SDK, install it now. 2. Once SDK is installed, Open the SDK Manager from Start > Program Files > Android SDK Tools > SDK Manager. 3. Install only the Android SDK Platform-Tools.
Prepare your phone 1. Do not connect your android device yet. Go to Settings > Applications > Development. Check USB debugging.
2. Now connect your android device.
See your Android device in action 1. Open Android Screen Capture app. 2. Viola! your device screen should now appear.
Aside from Android Screen Capture, you can also use a similar Java based app called Android Screencast.
With Android Screen Capture, you can do the following: - Take screenshots of your device. - Record or capture your device. - Install APK on your device.
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Because Public WiFi places are free, it often has bandwidth limitation to prevent users from abusing the service. This could be inconvenient of you need to rush something and your only option is to use the free service. To avoid such limitation, you can change your MAC Address. It is a unique identification serial number which is assigned to your network interface. To appear as if your a new user, you can change your MAC using Ryll MAC Editor. Once installed, it easy to use, simply select your network adapter and click Update MAC. You will be prompt to restart your computer to apply the changes.
When your PC boot up and connect to WiFi, it will be recognized as a new machine using the new MAC Address that the editor assigned. To restore your default MAC address, you can do so by clicking Reset Default MAC button. Ryll MAC Editor works on Windows operating system. I tested it under Windows 7 x86.
When I'm browsing forums such as Digital Photography forum where members post images, I often encounter large images that makes difficult for me to read through the text because the browser automatically expand the web layout. To be able to see the whole image, one should use the scroll bars. ImageFit eliminate such hassle for you. ImageFit is a Firefox extension that automatically resize the image to fit in the existing layout of the page your viewing. No more broken pages and nasty horizontal scroll bars. Once installed, you don't have to anything else. When you visit any sites that has large images, the add-on will neatly shrink the images within the constraints of the web page.
This add-on is much useful for users who uses netbooks, small notebooks and mobile devices that have limited viewing screen. I have tested the Add-On in Firefox 3.6.13.
When I want to have an offline copy of a web page, I usually print it as Microsoft XPS Document. XML Paper Specification is a standard originally created by Microsoft. Windows Vista and Windows 7 have built-in XPS viewer which has the basic functions to read XPS documents. If you need more readability, you can try aReader, an enhanced version of the XPS viewer. Its interface is more like the Office 2007. Buttons are group into ribbon tabs to improve interface usability. Once installed, you can launch the application and open any XPS document by clicking the Open Document on the Home ribbon tab. You can easily jump to any part of the opened XPS doc by using the navigate buttons on the Home ribbon tab as well.
You can see the document in thumbnail preview from View tab and print it from the Tools tab. To search the content, you can use the search box at the bottom of the application. aReader is an opensource software and its sourcecode is available at CodePlex.
aReader works on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. Testing was done in Windows 7 operating system
With the popularity of digital devices such as net books, mobile phones, cameras and etc., the use of USB and memory cards became a regular thing. Files are easily transferred between these mobile devices and PC using card readers and USB ports. These portable medias are also inclined to physical damages because of frequent use. To make sure you have a healthy portable media, you can test it with a free tool called H2testw. This tool is designed to test USB sticks and other portable media such as memory cards, internal and external hard drives and even network volumes. Its usage is pretty straight-forward. Just insert the USB or memory card you want to test, launch the application and click the Select target button to select the drive for testing. Choose between two types of testing: all available space or just a chunk of the capacity by specifying the megabytes. Click Write + Verify button to begin read and write operation.
The application will show you the read and write speeds after the test operation. if error/s found, it will also display the problems. H2testw works on Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and Windows 7. Testing was done in Windows 7 x86 version.
If your a certified Facebook Addict who is eager to constantly check your account then bringing Facebook right in your desktop would sounds brilliant. You could to this with the help of an Adobe AIR application called Facebook Desktop. It takes Facebook to your desktop and you would never launch the browser again. Once installed, it sits on your desktop and alerts you as soon as new activity happens in your Facebook stream. The alert is a transparent popup window which automatically disappear in few seconds. It alerts you for status updates, new wall posts, friend requests and messages from Facebook friends.
Since Facebook Desktop is written in Adobe AIR, it will work on Windows as well as Mac OS X 10.5.
Here are the complete features of Facebook Desktop: - messenger-style notifications when new updates get posted to your feed. - pause and resume updates when you want. - modify which notifications you want to receive. - stay up-to-date with your friends in real time.
In Windows 7, pressing Win + L hotkey quickly locks your desktop. Most user do this to secure their workstation if they need to leave their desktop but there are instance that you want to display your desktop to other user but you don't want them messing on it. ClearLock is clearly what you need. It allows you to display your entire desktop while your system is locked. ClearLock provides a transparent barrier which disable input to your computer while allowing you to see what is going on. It is aim for system admin who monitors processes on a computer while it is locked.
To get started, extract the downloaded Clearlock zip archive to any folder you wish. Launch ClearLock by clicking its executable then give a password and your screen gets locked. The password prompt will disappear in few seconds. Once the desktop is locked with ClearLock, others can't mess with it unless they provide the correct password. This is also a great tool for home users who want to keep their kids from accessing your computer while your away.
ClearLock works on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. Testing was done in Windows 7 x86 operating system.
