How to Prevent Phishing Attacks with Google’s Alert Tool
Google has created a new security tool that’s aimed to thwart phishing attacks. The free Chrome extension keeps track of where you enter your Google account password, and will alert you when you’ve entered it somewhere other than accounts.google.com.
If you’re not familiar with phishing, its when a shady operation poses as a legitimate company like your bank, and sends you an email, that looks like the real deal, and it directs you to a site that looks equally legit. Then has you enter in sensitive personal information such as your account number, password, or social security number.
For instance, you could get an email from some third-party claiming to be Google, the email looks legit, with the company logo, and professional language, and it gives you a link where you need to change your password. When you click that link, instead of going to the real Google, it goes to a nefarious site that steals your information.
This tool will alert you when your Gmail or Google for Work password is entered anywhere other than account.google.com. It also tried to detect fake Google sign-in pages and alert you before you enter your password.
Google Alert Chrome Extension
Setting this up is a piece of cake, and does add an extra layer of security to your account data. Download the Password Alert extension from the Chrome Web Store.
After it installs, you’ll be prompted to enter your Google account credentials. After that, it will start monitoring where you enter your Google account, and help prevent phishing attacks before it’s too late.
For more information, you can read the full FAQ page here.
Remember, this is an extra tool to help keep your Google account protected, but for the best protection of your account, make sure and enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA).
6 out of 10 People Ignore These Simple Computer Tips
You might be a rockstar of PC tips and trick, but there is a large, really large group of people who don’t know few simple PC tips that can save time or effort on a daily basis. Few people are just ignorant and don’t use them. Here are some common but not so common tips shared for you which you can apply for productive computing.
1. Automate Scrolling Facebook Timeline
When you are browsing your Facebook timeline, you keep scrolling down using either the down arrow or the mouse wheel. Simply clicking the mouse wheel, you can set autoscroll, set the scroll speed by placing the pointer away from the scroll point. It is very useful for reading long form articles or just browsing through Facebook.
You may also try pressing Space bar to scroll down.
2. Find anything on Webpage Instantly
Many people still try to find a particular word by reading out the whole page of text. Ctrl + F works on any kind of document file and can save a huge amount of time and effort.
3. Browser Based Keyboard Shortcuts
It surely does take a lifetime to switch between tabs in browsers but a simple shortcut (Ctrl + Tab) can make it easy when you are on a laptop and the touchpad isn’t very convenient. There are other shortcuts like Ctrl + T opens new tab, Ctrl + W closes the current tab and so on.
4. Sending .exe Files in Email
Few email services don’t allow attaching .exe files, and you stop trying further. But if you change the extension of your file to something else, say .jpg or .png, you can send it over email and instruct the recipient to change the file extension back to .exe. Or you can also zip the file using Winrar or Winzip. You can also send multiple files at once by zipping them together.
5. Favorite or Most Used Programs on Taskbar
If you use few programs very frequently, it is a good idea to pin them to taskbar so that you can get them without leaving the app you’re working on. What many people do is, minimize the app they are working on, go to desktop or start menu and launch the program. Launching another app from taskbar just takes one step.
6. Take Full Control of Small Screen Laptops
Assuming you do not use a 17 inch laptop, just a simple trick will get you little more screen space. Taskbar is very important, the reason I have mentioned above, but you don’t need to see it all the time, better to auto hide it.
7. Stop Typing Google.com to Search
There are people who still type google.com in Google Chrome address bar and then do a search, I am on a mission to tell everyone that they can directly search from the address bar, this is now being offered by other popular browsers as well.
8. Using Google More than Search Engine
You can save so much time by using this, many people know about it but they still don’t use it, type Movies in ‘city name’ and you get the movies playing in cinemas, You can also get currency conversions (‘$23 in rupee’) , simple and complex calculations ( type ‘calculator’) and so on.
There are many more tips which can make your tech life easy but are not being used by many people, if you know any such tip which you want to share with other readers, please leave them in the comment below.
Windows 8.1 will be released for public preview at Microsoft's Build conference on 26 June. Here we reveal the new features, screenshots and videos of the first major update to Windows 8.
Windows 8.1 is the first update to be released under the new "Windows Blue" scheme, and will mark a shift to annual updates, similar to how Apple releases versions of OS X.
Change log
This feature was updated on 5 June 2013 with confirmation of several new features from Microsoft and a new video Frank X Shaw, Microsoft's corporate vice-president of communications, said the "continuous development cycle" introduced by Windows 8.1 will become "the new normal across Microsoft", confirming the update model will apply to products beyond Windows 8 and RT, including Windows Phone and Server.
Windows 8.1 will be a free update available from the Windows Store, for both Windows 8 and Windows RT.
Developer builds of Windows 8.1 have confirmed that the much-missed desktop Start button will return - although not in the form many have hoped for.
The Windows logo will now appear in the bottom left-hand corner of the desktop, sporting exactly the same appearance and behaviors as the Start charm that zooms in from the right-hand side of the screen. In fact, leaked screenshots look almost identical to the Start 8 add-on created by Stardock (pictured below).
Pressing the Start button on the desktop will simply send users back to the Windows 8 Start screen. It won't open an old-fashioned Start menu, like the one that comes with Start 8. However, reports suggest that users will be able to tweak the Start button to jump to the All Apps screen instead, which might make it slightly easier to find an application that's not already pinned to the task-bar.
Direct to desktop
Windows 8.1 will also feature an option to bypass the much-maligned tile-based Start Screen.
The new Start Screen has proven controversial, with many desktop and laptop users bemoaning the fact that they can't simply skip straight to the more mouse-and-keyboard friendly desktop of old.
According to Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows, boot straight to desktop is included in developer builds of Windows 8.1, although not switched on by default.
The new "larger" desktop tile that appears on leaked builds of Windows 8.1 (see below) is a further indication that customers want easier access to the traditional desktop.
Start screen wallpaper and lock screen
Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 8.1 will allow users to set their own wallpaper on the Start screen. Currently, users are merely allowed to choose from a selection of preset "accents" and to select a colour scheme.
The Settings charm includes a new Personalize option that provides more granular control over the appearance of the Start menu backgrounds and colors, including the accent color of the Start charm itself.
Windows 8.1 also includes new "motion accents" - animated wallpapers that move as you scroll through the Start screen.
The lock screen can now be used as a digital photo frame, displaying a slideshow of images stored on the user's PC or in cloud services such as SkyDrive.
New tile sizes
Windows 8.1 will offer support for more tile sizes. Windows 8 supports two - "smaller" and "larger" - but Blue throws another two sizes into the mix. App tiles can now be reduced down to thumbnail size, occupying only a quarter of the space an existing "smaller" tile occupies.
There’s also a new super-sized tile, the size of two of Windows 8’s "larger" tiles. This allows you to display more live information on tiles such as Mail and Weather, providing a detailed synopsis of recent messages in your inbox or a long-range weather forecast, for example.
Revamped search
One of the biggest criticisms of Windows 8 was that the search menu had been hobbled, only returning results for apps by default. Windows 8.1 reverts to a unified search menu, which as you can see from the screenshot above, returns results for apps, settings and files as you begin to type.
Search results will also be presented in a new screen, which Microsoft is rather cheesily dubbing "heroes". These provide a graphical, app-like screen that combines Wikipedia-style facts, previews of internet search results, images and videos, as well as relevant files stored on the PC itself.
Split-screen apps
Windows 8 allowed you to put two "Metro" apps on the same screen, but only with one at almost full-size and the other running down a thin strip. Blue now allows you to give both apps equal billing, in an echo of the familiar snap-to-edges style of the Windows desktop.
Internet Explorer 11
A leaked Windows 8.1 build gave us the first sighting of Internet Explorer 11, in both Metro and desktop modes. The appearance of the browser remains largely identical in both versions, but there are a couple of intriguing new features.
The Settings menu in the Metro version of IE11 now includes a "Show synced tabs" option. This suggests Microsoft will allow users to synchronise tabs across devices, and possibly even from Windows Phone 8 devices, although the feature wasn’t functional in the leaked build.
SkyDrive integration
SkyDrive looks set to become much more tightly integrated into Windows 8.1, with its own entry in the main Settings menu, allowing you to view the amount of free space you have in your account.
There are also new options to automatically upload photos and videos to your SkyDrive at either "good" or "best" quality. SkyDrive can also be set as the default save location for a variety of different app files. Perhaps the most intriguing option is to use SkyDrive for online backups of the device.
Business features
Microsoft showed off a selection of business features that will arrive in Windows 8.1 at TechEd in New Orleans.
That includes networking features, such as support for wireless secondary displays, auto-triggered VPNs that turn on automatically when security is required, and NFC pairing with enterprise printers, letting users tap their device to a printer to connect. "No more hunting on your network for the correct printer and no need to buy a special printer; just attach a NFC tag to your existing machines," Microsoft said.
Windows 8.1 devices with mobile broadband will also be able to act as personal WiFi hotpots.
New security features in Windows 8.1 include "modern access controls" - such as fingerprint authentication - and the addition of network behavior monitoring to Windows Defender, the antivirus included with Windows 8.
Windows 8.1 will feature improvements to admin controls, too. IT departments will be able to control the Start Screen to keep key apps front and center and ensure consistency across company devices. PCs can be set up to show a set app only, such as a customer service tool for a store.
Bring your own device will be encouraged by making it easier to wipe business data from personal computers.
New app settings
There are also new settings for apps, allowing you to set quiet hours, so notifications don’t chime and wake you at 2am. There are options to allow incoming calls during the quiet hours, and let calls switch on the homescreen, suggesting Microsoft is looking to beef up the telephone features of Windows, possibly in conjunction with its Skype subsidiary.
There’s a new App Sizes listing, making it easier to work out which Windows Store apps are stealing your disk space, and a new option to set app defaults for web browsing, email, music, video and photos, which indicates Microsoft is wary of another EU fine for app bundling.
The new Gmail Redesigned to clear the email Clutter
Google has redesigned Gmail and it now offers more control over your email inbox and tries to give you a clutter free inbox so that you never miss your important emails.
Hotmail and Yahoo have also got redesigned to offer better service and user experience. Gmail, which was already offering some features to fight email clutter, Gmail Priority Inbox was launched in 2010, it offered multiple inbox, such as Important, Everything
This new Gmail redesigned offers tabs where different type of emails land, such as Primary tab is your main inbox where emails from people you frequently interact with, lands. Social tab gets all the notification emails from social networking websites. Promotional will contain deals, offers from the newsletter you’ve opted in for.
I am using it right now and I can say it’s pretty accurate in recognizing emails and putting them in tabs. The emails which you feel belong to the other tab, can be dragged to the other one asking you to do this for other such emails in future.
Multiple inboxes for email can confuse people, this is why I wasn’t using Gmail Priority. Now, this offering may help few people who want to stay organized but are not interested in digging deep to get more control over emails.
Filters and Labels, which are pretty useful and I have been using them to organize my emails. These two features are enough to keep the clutter away from your inbox. But having more choices doesn’t hurt.
How to configure the new Gmail on Desktop.
Click on the Gear icon on the right hand side of your Inbox and Click on Configure inbox.
more Tips on Google Inbox are Coming Soon...STAY TUNED...
In case you missed the big news yesterday, Microsoft announced its next generation gaming console called Xbox One. It’s to be an all-in-one entertainment console with a new Kinect sensor, controller and a lot of entertainment options. Oh, and new games of course. For more details, check out the Meet Xbox One page.
Steve Jobs, the American businessman and technology visionary who is best known as the co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc, was born on February 24, 1955.
