Kiran Upadhyay

Sometimes it is easy to disregard something that’s available and accessible for free. Google Drive fits that bill. It’s there connected like a relationship to whatever we do with Google. Just like a relationship, we don’t realize its value till we really make the effort to get close and personal. One of the ways is to understand how to manage files and folders on Google Drive. It is simple stuff really, but still something that needs a few tips to perk up our interest about it. There’s a lot you can do with 15GB of free storage. You can do a lot more when you consider that Google Drive is a productivity suite. You can use Google Drive for research or you can use Google Drive for any creative use. But ultimately, managing it well means knowing how to handle all the files and folders you will keep on the cloud. These tips should help. Set Specific Share Permissions for Files within Shared Folders Google Drive is a collaborative environment with share folders and public ...

Bored kids are a nightmare, and that’s why tablets were invented. Weren’t they? Much as you may love your tablet, if there are kids around you know sometimes your tablet is going to wind up in their hands. It might be that you want to keep them entertained while you wait somewhere, or maybe the kids just really love to play with it. Either way, you’re going to want to have a few apps ready and waiting. Here are a handful of apps which are perfect for entertaining little kids, from toddlers to nearly school age. There’s a paint app, a music app, connect-the-dots dinosaurs and an app full of little puzzles and skill-testers. With these apps on the ready, you’ll be able to keep a small child entertained for hours. Let’s hope it never comes to that, though! Kids Song Machine Most kids love nursery-rhyme apps, cute pictures and interactivity, and this app has all of the above. Visually, this app is like an indie game with a really stylish look. The kids turn a cog to choo...

Linux has been around since 1991, but the most famous distros – from Ubuntu to Fedora to Mint – were born in the mid-2000′s. Slackware , by contrast, dates back to 1992. You read that correctly: 1992. Slackware remains the oldest actively maintained distro, and to this day remains true to its (non-user friendly) roots. Think it’s something you might be interested in trying out? Keep reading. History Debian might be the oldest popular distribution that a large number of Linux users directly and indirectly use, but Slackware is ultimately the oldest one still in existence. The project started in 1992, a year after Linux was initially released, as a way to install a Linux system that already included some core packages: the kernel, an X window system, and more. Since then, the distribution honestly hasn’t changed much – it has updated more than it has “improved”. In other words, it hasn’t added any functionality on its own, but rather just replace system components ...

As far as I can recall, WhatsApp has never updated its interface. Or perhaps they did, but I’ve never taken notice. Either way, the app’s user interace is quite dated. Italian graphic designer Edoardo Guido intends on setting things right by pitching a new WhatsApp design concept for iOS 7. Tell us what you think of it.

The Android Device Manager was launched last month. Now in a recent update, Google has added remote lock and password reset features to further add to your peace of mind. The Android Device Manager has location tracking features and also allows you to securely wipe of your data in case the phone or tablet is irretrievable. The ability to remotely lock down your device gives you an added layer of security and something you might think of applying before the drastic step of wiping all your data remotely. The features can be triggered on any device that’s running Android version 2.2. Always, make sure Android Device Manager is turned on in your device as well. You have to  sign into Android Device Manager  on the web with the account associated with your device. The lock request will be immediately enabled if the device is connected to a Wi-Fi or cellular network. If the phone is off or in the Airplane Mode, the lock will take effect as soon as a data connection is ...

Has your boss moved your desk a bit closer to his office? Yeah, he  knows  you are Facebooking on the job. However, don’t let him tell IT to shut it down just yet. You can use these networks as a means to make your work life just a bit better. Below you’ll find six ways to use social networks to increase your productivity in some unlikely ways. 1. Remind Yourself To Get Back On Track Think of this productivity tip as a reverse Pavlov’s dog experiment that is targeted at avoiding the social network black hole. Grab a small notepad and a pen, and keep it by your workstation at all times. Every single time you hop on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+, make a tally mark. Do one set of tallies for every day. Over time, you’re going to notice these marks growing in number, and more than likely, this is going to be a little surprising for you. However, the more often you make yourself jot down a tally note, the more often you are going to realize that you are on social ...

For many years, I switched between a whole range of email clients. First I went with Outlook Express. Then I bought a new computer and decided to test the waters with Thunderbird. Once Gmail became popular, I became an avid Gmail user for years. More recently, I’ve started experimenting with Thunderbird again. I keep gravitating back to Thunderbird, because of all email clients it really appears to be the most powerful and robust, with the ability to easily handle and organize as many email accounts as you want. The one thing that always bothered me about Thunderbird though, compared to using Gmail, is the fact that Gmail simply does a better job at organizing email threads. Only recently did I learn that there are actually a number of very cool Thunderbird add-ons that make Thunderbird rival even Gmail in terms of simplicity and organization. You’ve seen a number of Thunderbird add-ons featured here at MUO, including Aibek’s older list of  must-haves , as well as Dam...

Going on a trip can be such a stressful experience. There are hotel reservations to make, restaurant reservations to place, activities to plan out, and tickets to buy. What if you forget something, or you discover that the place you wanted to visit for your dream vacation falls far short of being anything anyone would describe as a dream? I do recall a time when people planned out road trips using paper maps. In fact, I still have memories of my dad staying up late the night before a trip, and tracing out the whole route in pencil on a paper map that he would fold up and hand to my mother the next day. She was the navigator. Unfortunately, she was also a nervous wreck on the road (no pun intended), and spent more time screeching about my Dad’s reckless driving than she did focusing on the map and providing driving directions. Things are so different today. Now there are GPS devices. Even better, most smartphones provide mapping applications that are just as effective — if not mor...