The thing about starting your blog on 1st of January is that you never forget its birthday. Guiding Tech, or GT as I like to call it, started exactly two years ago on this date when I figured that troubleshooting stuff & writing about them, and managing (plus growing) a blog, is what I am good at and hence doing that made sense for me. The last year was an eventful one, both for GT and for blogs and websites around the world....

Google just waved goodbye to the Inbox email app. Meanwhile, Apple’s Mail app is yet to grace us with a significant overhaul due to the slow pace of development. While Apple keeps refreshing the interface and looks of the iOS in general but an essential app for emails continues to appear dated — beats me too (no pun intended)! Thankfully, a couple of alternatives come to the rescue. And the top two nominees for iOS are Outlook and Spark....

Today, I will share my experience of switching from Evernote to Google Keep (now called Keep Notes) and Docs. Why I chose Google? Most Google products are free or cheaper than the competition. Also, Google supports almost all major platforms. I was a big fan of the Sunrise calendar app before Microsoft bought it and shut it down. I used the Newton app for emails, and now it is shutting down too....

Outlook.com is Microsoft updated email service which will be replacing both Live and Hotmail. Users who are using Hotmail and Live mail can choose to get a new Outlook.com email address and will be able to monitor both the accounts under the same roof. Let’s have a look at this new email contender and see if it holds the potential to stand against Gmail. Getting Started With the New Interface Anyone can register for an Outlook....

Road trips are a popular American pastime, but they happen across the world too. The journey is the destination and that’s why it helps to plan it out in good detail. Why not, when you have web applications like Roadtrippers to help you out. Roadtrippers is a trip planning website that is based on Google Maps. The map helps you create a basic route plan for your trip. But Roadtrippers also gives you a good set of information on what’s available along your route that ranges from accommodation to eating joints…from history to the offbeat....

Yeah, you simply need to pair it to your phone and print away. Both use Zink photo paper, thereby removing the hassle of buying ink cartridges and toners. While the Polaroid Zip has been around for quite some time, the latter has been launched recently as a revised edition to the already popular HP Sprocket. The revised version comes at a slightly bumped price tag. The HP Sprocket 200 costs $129, while the Polaroid Zip retails at $99....

These include powering portable electronics, and electric vehicles. While they possess desirable characteristics and outperform other commercially available technology, they are not without their problems however. Li-ion batteries can dangerously explode under the right conditions. This is cause for great concern. Their potential danger is such that airlines only allow this battery technology in carry-on baggage. When the topic of exploding Li-ion batteries comes up, the infamous Samsung Galaxy Note 7 immediately comes to mind....

To use this feature, you have to create a homegroup on one computer and join it from other computers. Once the process is complete, you can start sharing files and folders between those computers. How to create a Homegroup in Windows 7 Click the “Start” button and type homegroup in the search box. Press Enter. On the HomeGroup window, click on “create a homegroup” button. A password will appear on your screen....

Both Reeder and Unread are primarily RSS reader apps and support multiple RSS platforms such as Fever, Inoreader, Newsblur, and Feedly. The RSS reader app’s ultimate objective remains the same – a clean, clutter-free reading experience without information overload. In this post, we are going to compare Reeder 4 and Feedly. The comparison will cover cross-platform availability, user interface, reading experience, features, price, and more. Let’s get started. Cross-Platform Availability Reeder has a slight edge when it comes to platform availibility....

Whether it was a premium phone or a pocket-friendly one, the 18:9 ratio found its fan base among one and all. One of the first companies to adopt this design element was Samsung. Rechristened as Infinity Display, this new element was seen only in the 2017 flagships — the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ and the Galaxy Note8. Sadly, the lesser-known phones were barred from this design update. However, it changed soon with the release of the Samsung Galaxy A8+....

Of Woes and Bans Recently, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) had observed that the Note7 was linked to 92 incidents of overheating in the U.S., including 26 reports of burns and 55 accounts of property damage. The entire recall will reportedly cost Samsung over $1 billion. Since there was much confusion about how exactly the recall would work, the roll-out of the replacement units has been affected. The company was also under fire for not complying with official procedures to issue replacement units....

What’s best about the Always On Display (AOD) feature is that you can customize the face widgets to your hearts contents. With the new update, this cool feature on the Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+ is set to become more trendy, all thanks to the newly introduced GIF feature. Yep, you read that right. You can now set cool new GIFs on the Always On Display screen. Though Samsung has a set of preloaded AMOLED-friendly GIFs, you can also add one from your own arsenal of GIFs....

sync music from iTunes , access computer’s shared folder on Android over Wi-Fi , transfer music, photos, apps etc. and much more without using wires. One thing that was missing that was stopping me to go completely wireless was the ability to mount Android SD card on computer on Wi-Fi with read/write access. Thanks to the tip from James (one of our readers), users who have a rooted Android phone can achieve complete freedom from USB cables and mount their phone’s SD card on Wi-Fi using the Samba server....

If you have dabbled with photography apps, you know that megapixels can be misleading. It is possible to share better looking snaps even with a budget smartphone camera. With plenty of photo editing apps available in the market, users are spoilt for choice. We have already covered Snapseed that is developed by Google and is a favorite of GT readers. Download Snapseed Challenging it is a new kid on the block that goes by the name of Polarr....

Of course, the Davids of the PDF world cannot be compared to the Goliaths like Adobe when it comes to a face-off. I just started with it so that I can illustrate the appeal of portable software that are lightweight and do their core jobs well. Sumatra PDF is an open source viewer for Windows (Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7). You can use it to open PDF, DjVu, EPUB, XPS, CHM, CBZ and CBR and MOBI files, which pretty much covers the popular eBook formats....

Task Manager to get moving. I am mainly talking about forceful killing of applications/processes to resume work or to start a new instance of the same. However, during times of haste I have accidently killed system processes, as a result of which things get worse. This definitely is my carelessness, but more importantly what I am trying to convey is that the risk and danger is always there. Cool Tip: You can start the Task Manager by using Ctrl + Alt + Del option and choosing the right option....

Oh and if you’re wondering why the podcasting thing is taking off, check out this article. This quote by the author says it better than I ever could. Recommended reading: Podcasts that will make you smarter. 1. Mystery Show For me, Mystery Show has been the most fun and entertaining podcasts of 2015. It’s the kind of show that you make excuses for to get out for walks and listen to....

The umbrella term which covers the definition of a reverse image search is Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR). The fun is in playing around with it. Reverse image search proves useful if you are trying to recognize faces or identify objects. Think that you are searching for a similar kind of furniture to the one you have a photo of. Describing it with keywords is practically impossible. Extend it and you can search for art, architecture, places etc....

Lets learn more about it and see how we could use it to bring your old and ignored laptop back to life. What is Jolicloud? Jolicloud is the first operating system designed entirely for people who live on the web (yes, it was there before the Chrome OS. ) Basically a sophisticated web browser, Jolicloud is a delight to use. It is a simple, straight-forward operating system that’s based on Linux and was created keeping netbooks in mind....

Build and Design So, before we even begin, let me add here that the name of the model is E17K and this unit is sold in tandem with the E17. If you’ve never heard of FiiO before, then it’s probably because you’re either not an audiophile or the Chinese brand hasn’t quite made its way to your location. It is widely available in most major countries, however and the Alpen 2 (or E 17K) is an external amplifier that connects via USB to your PC or works standalone with your phone....