Quickly Crop, Resize Images on Google Drive - No Download Required

Google Drive is our easy option when it comes to sharing files — be it for personal or work team collaboration. And it’s easy to see why. Aside from the fact that it’s free, it got a plethora of apps you can use to even supercharge your workflow and save your time in the process.

One of those Google Drive apps that I stumbled upon is BeFunky Photo Editor. If you live in a country where internet is an issue (read: slow, expensive, and often capped internet), BeFunky Photo Editor will do you a favor.

Few days ago while finishing a customer’s website, a client shared a Google Driver folder containing a bunch of images to load up into his landing pages. The problem: the images came straight from a DSLR camera and were almost 30mb each. And we’re talking about 70-100 images.

Imagine the frustration I felt realising I had to download them all using my capped internet data so I can crop, resize them offline. I only needed at least 1200px wide versions of those images.

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Just as you can unzip files on Google Drive without downloading them, there has to have a way to also crop, resize images straight from Google Drive without downloading them for offline editing. So I ended up rummaging through Google Drive apps directory and discovered BeFunky Photo Editor.

Easily Crop, Resize Images on Google Drive without Downloading them

BeFunky Photo Editor is a top-rated photo editor on Google Workplace Marketplace with 4k+ users as of writing. It’s one decent, full-featured photo editor that works straight from your browser. Probably the biggest strength of this app is the simplified editing controls, making it easy to edit photos with a few click.

BeFunky is a uniquely powerful online and mobile photo editor. Think Photoshop, but simplified for everyday users. With BeFunky, you can easily create stunning, professional-quality images with a single click. The process might be simple, but the results are incredibly sophisticated. Thanks to BeFunky, there’s no need to choose between a powerful, do-it-all tool and an easy, user-friendly interface. We’ve got it all!

Here’s how to get started:

1. Navigate to your Google Drive folder

2. Right-click any image > Open with > Connect more apps. This will bring the Google Workplace Marketplace popup

   

3. Search for “BeFunky Photo Editor” and install

4. Once installed, follow the on-screen prompts to authenticate the app to manage your Google Drive files

Once done, you’re good to go. Just navigate back to your Google Drive folder and refresh. You should be able to right-click any image and open with BeFunky Photo Editor.

While BeFunky got all the image editing tools you’re familiar with from desktop apps like Photoshop, I specially like the crop/resize feature and support for Google Drive to quickly import, resize, and crop Google Drive images.

How To: Extract All Images Embedded In .DOC Word Documents All At Once

And if you need fancier editing experience like text and graphics overlays for your ad banners perhaps or social media stuff, BeFunky got you covered. How cool is that?

Go check out BeFunky Photo Editor.

How To: Enable Yahoo Email Forwarding Without PRO Account

I recently discovered that all my incoming emails from Yahoo Mail are no longer being automatically forwarded to my Gmail account. I previously set up an automatic email forwarding inside Yahoo Mail so that I can have a centralized view of all my emails from different email accounts.

Turns out, Verizon, the new owner of Yahoo Mail, officially discontinued support for automatic email forwarding for Yahoo Mail FREE users last January 1, 2021. Verizon cited security reasons for dropping the feature, which is often abused and used as vectors for hackers to obtain information from compromised accounts.

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You can still use Yahoo Mail automatic email forwarding though, but you’ll have to upgrade to Yahoo Mail PRO, setting you back around $34.99 per year or $3.49 a month.

However, if you don’t want to spend that much to forward all incoming emails from Yahoo to Gmail, then, read on!

Automatically Sync, Forward Yahoo Mails to Gmail

The trick is easy: just grab your iPhone and open your Gmail app and then add your Yahoo Mail account via Gmailify

Just follow the on-screen instructions until all your Yahoo mails are in sync. No more missed emails plus you get the best anti-spam protection from Gmail.

10 Efficiency Tips for Mac Users

Macs are fast, high-performing, and reliable computers; therefore, they are trusted by many professional individuals and brands.

However, a device like Mac can only reach its maximum performance and efficiency if you know how to take care of it correctly and take time to learn its neatest features that can enhance your productivity.

Thus in this article, you will find a list of 10 quick and easy tips that will help improve your Mac's efficiency by keeping enough free storage space and applying such useful tips as to how to crop photos on mac.

Tip #1: Check Storage Space

Checking storage space should become a habit so that you learn to keep on track with it regularly. Knowing how much free disk space you have left is important because if you fall below 10% of free storage space, your Mac will become slow and start underperforming.

The easiest way to track your storage space is to click on the Apple icon, go to the option About This Mac, and click on the Storage tab.

Tip #2: Uninstall Apps You Do Not Use

Apps can take up quite a lot of space, and to make sure that you have enough free disk space and can easily find the apps you need, uninstall the ones you no longer use.

Look for two types of apps to uninstall. First, start with the game apps you have downloaded just for fun and never really play. Secondly, look for multiple apps of the same type, such as time-planning apps. If you have five different ones, you probably only use one.

Tip #3: Remove Large Files

Moving forward, remove large unneeded files to make more storage space on your Mac. To locate these files, you can go directly to the Downloads folder that stores all of the files that you download from the internet; thus, it may include quite a few one-time use files.

Also, in the Storage tab, you can click Manage that will open a new menu with four suggestions that can help clear system storage. The option called Reduce Clutter will guide you through large files and other documents that you might not need.

Tip #4: Clean Your Desktop

To become more efficient, keep a clean desktop. Maintaining hundreds of items on your screen will make it difficult to locate the files you are looking for. More to it, if you do not name your files properly, you may send the wrong file to a client of yours.

Also, the more thumbnails you have on your desktop, the slower your Mac becomes. To display every icon, the computer is using system resources, which slows down your Mac.

Tip #5: Empty the Trash Bin

If you have recently deleted a bunch of files to clear some system storage, do not forget to remove them from the Trash Bin as well.

Remember that as long as you keep the deleted files in the Trash Bin, they are still taking up disk space and slowing down your Mac, thus making you inefficient.

Tip #6: Use Cloud Storage

For creative people who work as graphic designers, photographers, or video editors, it may be difficult to keep enough free storage space. Therefore, another solution, such as using a cloud storage service, might be necessary.

More to it, using a cloud service will bring in more benefits, such as easy file access and sharing.

Tip #7: Invest in External Storage Solutions

However, to use a cloud storage service efficiently and without any annoying interruptions, you will need to ensure a strong network connection.

If that is not possible, you should consider investing in external storage solutions, for instance, external hard drives or USB keys. On the other hand, make sure you keep the files you use daily on your computer for fast access.

Tip #8: Use Streaming Services

Using such streaming services as Netflix or Spotify can help you keep more free disk space at all times and result in a better performing computer.

First of all, you will not have to download large media files to watch a movie or listen to an album by your favorite artist. Secondly, if you enjoy watching tv series, you will not have to worry about deleting the episodes that you have already watched.

Tip #9: Update the macOS Regularly

The Apple company has been working on developing and improving its devices and software for years and is still doing it constantly to provide you the best performance possible.

However, if you want to be using the best version of the device you own, you need to update the macOS regularly. Once you skip an update, you can find it in the System Preferences.

Tip #10: Learn How to Crop Images

You may think that you need to download photo editing software if you want to crop images on a Mac, but there is actually an easy way to do it without installing any new software.

The fastest method to crop images on your Mac is by using a built-in app called Preview. Once you open the image you want to crop, choose the Markup tools to cut out the part of the image that you want.

How To Unzip Archived Files in DropBox without Downloading them Offline

Few days ago, I was confronted with this situation where I needed to get a specific file within a zip file shared to me on DropBox. The trouble is, the archive file is over 2GB in size and I am on a limited internet data connection and I can’t afford to waste time downloading the entire 2GB file just to get a specific file for my web project.

Such dilemma would’ve been not a problem if, and only if, DropBox has a built-in file management system where you can zip or unzip files in DropBox website. However, as you might already know, DropBox web app is still deprived of such functionality. And there are no DropBox App Extensions that can do basic archive file management.

So normally your only way out is to download the entire ZIP file on your local drive and do the actual unzipping on your machine, which sounds very much unacceptably antiquated.

Because 2GB of data would cost me $5 in my country to download (and $5 is not cheap), I had to find a way how to unzip DropBox files without downloading them first. Thankfully, I found a way out, albeit not the most straight-forward. And this article, I’m going to show you how.

What you need

• DropBox account
• Google Drive account
• Otixo account (or other free cloud file management apps)

Cutting off the crap, this method works this way: using Otixo service, we remotely copy those zip files from DropBox to Google Drive. And once those zip files are transferred to Google Drive, you can unzip them straight from Google Drive website.

How to unzip Dropbox files without downloading them first offline

For the purpose of this tutorial, I'm going to use a demo file globe-at-home.zip which sits right inside my DropBox account

1. You’ll have to signup or login first to Otixo and connect your DropBox and Google Drive cloud accounts. Otixo has a decent file management functionality where you can connect multiple cloud drives into a single interface so you can quickly manage your files from multiple sources. We wrote about it before, so go check it out.

2. Once you’ve added both your DropBox and Google Drive accounts, copy your DropBox ZIP file to your Google Drive. The transfer should take in seconds.

   

   

3. As soon as you hit the Copy button, the ZIP file should arrive on your Google Drive account.

   

4. Now, you're ready to unzip the archive inside Google Drive. To do that, you'll have to add ZIP Extractor as add-on to your Google Drive. See our guide here.

   Once ZIP Extractor is added, you can open your archive file with ZIP Extractor, as seen below:

   

5. And finally, selectively extract the contents within that ZIP file.

   

You're done!

Best & FREE Alternatives To Otixo To Manage Multiple Cloud Storage Accounts

ZIP Extractor will then automatically create a new folder containing all the extracted files within that folder where the original ZIP file is located.

Final Verdict

Being able to unzip files in DropBox isn't natively supported yet on DropBox web app. However, with a little bit of creativity, we can achieve the same feat by moving that ZIP file from DropBox to Google Drive and do the extraction in the latter. Well, thanks to Otixo.

Quickly Create Printable Wifi Signs and Scan-to-Connect QR Codes

Found this cool website that lets you generate a WiFi sign and QR code so people can easily connect on your network. The service is called My WiFi Sign, which comes in handy when you want to skip the headache of sharing your WiFi credentials at home or office.

All you need to do is head to My WiFi Sign, supply your network credentials and in seconds you get a nice-looking PDF complete with your WiFi info which you can quickly print. Additionally, you get a unique QR code which your visitors can scan to quickly connect on your network without typing anything.

How awesome is that?

So, when a visitor or your child’s friends come in, you can just quickly point them to the printed My WiFi Sign rather than awkwardly reach to your access point and find the credentials.

New QR Tagging Service Helps You Find Your Lost Stuff

Not everyone will probably appreciate this but if you host an event or you own a shop, having a scan-to-connect QR code will do you a favor.

Go, check it out!

How To Automatically Block Spam SMS By Keyword on iPhone (No Jailbreak)

On average, I get around dozens of promotional spam text messages in a week from different lending companies offering their loan services. Not to mention the pesky offers from my telco and its merchant partners who aggressively promote their products through SMS.

Getting 20 unsolicited SMS in a week may not sound like a lot. But I felt harassed knowing that they have access to my personal contact number and they can anytime shoot me an unwanted SMS without my permission.

Truth is, while the internet is still the most effective place to attract customers, a handful of marketers still turn to robocalls and SMS marketing as a way to generate leads. They’ll assault your iPhone’s inbox with offers and yes, even dirty texts containing links of adult websites. And the most clever part is: they’ll use a different random number to text blast; not too easy to block and stop.

Well, not until today.

How To: Block Ads on iOS, Including Facebook Ads and Youtube Video Ads (iPhone & iPad)

If you’re using the iPhone and tired of getting spam text messages from lending companies and random people, now is the time to take action and permanently block those spam messages. And nope, you don’t have to jailbreak your iPhone just to accomplish it.

Meet VeroSMS, the Best iOS App to Block Spam Texts on iPhone by Keywords

Upon hearing VeroSMS’ promise of permanently blocking unwanted SMS, I didn’t easily get excited, to be honest. First, I thought it’s not at all possible to manipulate iPhone’s SMS inbox considering the well-protected iOS ecosystem. Or, even if you can do it, you’ll have to engage in the risky business of jailbreaking.

But I was wrong.

VeroSMS works flawlessly during my test and I don’t even have to upgrade to a $2.99 premium version just to get the job done. This iOS-only app automatically blocks incoming SMS matching my custom-defined keywords.

No more nasty alerts from spammers. All unwanted SMS are automatically rejected under SMS Junk tab in the iPhone’s Messages app. Yep, the nice thing about it is while iPhone won’t alert you for incoming spam messages, the app still keeps a copy of every unwanted SMS so you can anytime check back.

How To Stop, Block Spam Text on iPhone by Keywords or Phrases

Getting started is easy. All you have to do is:

1. Download and install VeroSMS from App Store.

2. Launch the app. If this is your first time opening the app, you’ll be asked to Enable VeroSMS Spam Filter. Just go to Settings > Message > Unknown & Spam. Under SMS Filtering, enable VeroSMS.

   

3. Navigate back to VeroSMS app. From Blocklist section, you can define your own keywords

   

   The paid version already comes with crowdsourced keywords so you can pretty much skip this step. However, you can also add your own, localised keywords, which makes this app really useful.

4. Now, see your iPhone magically junks those spam text inside your iMessage app. All matching text messages will be stored in SMS Junk tab. And you don’t hear a notification when a spam text arrives.

   

Note: Only those SMS coming from unknown phone numbers will be filtered out by VeroSMS. If a text message comes from someone in your contacts list, VeroSMS will see it as important and it won’t tag it as spam.

Top 5 Online Services to Trim, Cut YouTube Videos for FREE

YouTube, without a doubt, is everyone’s choice when it comes to entertainment and general info. With thousands of fun and informative videos being uploaded by the minute, it’s not uncommon for anyone to generate content out of existing YouTube videos.

How To: Watch Rated-R, 18+ Videos On YouTube Without Logging In or Signing Up

Teachers for instance can use copyright-free videos from YouTube to come up with supplemental video for their pupils. They can grab multiple, existing YouTube videos and do a bit of editing to produce a new video resource. Or if you’re a casual YouTuber like me, you may want to crop a YouTube video and get your favourite part to share as a meme.

Whatever the motivation is, trimming and making YouTube videos shorter doesn’t really have to be complicated. Truth is, there are free, online YouTube video editors that let you do basic trimming and cropping by simply pasting YouTube URLs.

5 Best Online Apps To Crop, Trim YouTube Videos

1. YT Cutter
   This ad-supported web app lets you extract favourite scenes from YouTube videos. Using the app is pretty much straight-forward. All you need to do is to paste a YouTube link and specify start and end time parameter. Once done, you have the option to download the cropped video, audio or GIF.

2. Kapwing Video Trimmer
   Kapwing’s Video Trimmer makes cutting YouTube video a breeze. The service offers the same video cropping capability but with a much nicer interface. After pasting YouTube video URL to crop, you can adjust which parts of YouTube videos to trim using easy-to-use, timestamp slider.
3. YouTube Trimmer
   Yet another free tool to trim, crop YouTube videos is Youtube Trimmer. The website may look simple but it offers surprisingly fast and easy way to trim, crop favourite parts of your Youtube videos online. Just supply the YouTube video URL and specify the start and end times for the crop.
4. YT Cropper
   And if for some reason you’re running out of options to make a YouTube video shorter, you may check out YT Cropper. Just supply the URL and adjust the handles to crop. Once done, hit “Crop” and let YT Cropper generates a custom embed code for you. Unfortunately, YT Cropper won’t let you download the cropped video for offline use. Sucks.
5. YT Videos Cutter by odownloader
   Yet another ad-supported YouTube trimmer which lets you cut YouTube videos in seconds. The good: it gives you the option to download either audio only or full video. And you have the option to select .webm and .mp4 formats. The bad: lots of ads.

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There you go! If there are other YouTube video editing apps out there that deserve a mention on this blog, just get in touch.

Get A List of All Google Drive Files & Folders in Google Sheet

Have you ever been in a situation where you wished you could get a simplified list of Google Drive files and folders in a Google Sheet?

If you’re working as a graphic designer or web developer, chances are you’ve probably gone through that occasion where you needed to juggle through multiples files and folders just to get the file you want.

Google Drive’s built-in file explorer isn’t that intuitive enough. Rummaging through hundreds of files can be too overwhelming, to say the least. Well right now, not anymore!

How To List All Google Drive Files & Folders in Google Sheet

Meet Drive Explorer, it’s a tiny little add-on for Google Sheet that lets you export all (or selected) files and folders into a much readable spreadsheet format.

Drive Explorer (formerly Drive Direct Links) lets you pick folders/files from your Google Drive, Shared Drive or the files shared with you to export to the Google Sheet. Sheet columns contain metadata of the files like name of the file, containing folder, folder path on your Google drive, direct download link, etc.

How Drive Explorer works:

1. You install the add-on and connect your Google account
2. Once connected, go to your Driver folder and create a spreadsheet
3. Inside your spreadsheet toolbar, click on Add-ons > Drive Explorer > Select files/folder.
4. And finally, wait for a few seconds until your spreadsheet is automatically refreshed containing your files/folders’ meta info such as folder names, filenames, folder paths, links, etc.

When is it useful?

Being able to view your Google Drive files and folders in a list helps us save time and improve team collaboration. If you own an online store and works with VAs to manage inventories, this add-on definitely comes in handy.

In our day job, for instance, we constantly update images on our client’s websites. And our clients usually just share a large Drive folder containing all the images that need to be uploaded to their website. With Drive Explorer, we can now easily get a decent list of files in that shared folder so our team can easily collaborate rather than going back and forth on Google Drive.

5 Handy Google Sheet Tricks To Help You Work Fast & Save Time

How To: Automatically Capture Web Page Screenshots At Regular Intervals

Previously on this blog we’ve talked about how we can use Google Sheet as Wayback Machine Internet Archive alternative to automatically capture web page screenshots. In that post, we’ve demonstrated how we can use screenshotmachine.com’s free API to generate a screenshot of website using Google Sheet script and store them in a dedicated Google Drive folder Web page captures.

It worked hitherto of course. The bad news is: the script suddenly stopped working, probably because of Google’s API changes or similar. But the good news is: there’s a good alternative to do just that for a minimal fee.

PageCapture: Automatically Capture Website Screenshots Daily, Weekly or Monthly

PageCapture is a nifty web app we discovered few days ago and we thought you’ll love it too. In a nutshell, PageCapture automatically creates a screenshot of any web page URL on schedule. There are a handful of capture frequencies to choose from: hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and even custom hourly intervals. You choose.

All screenshots are securely stored on PageCapture website. However, you have the option to sync it with your DropBox or Google Drive account. And if you’re a regular Slack user, PageCapture can automatically push all web page screenshots to your Slack account.

When is it useful?

Web masters and internet marketers will surely benefit such an automated screenshot-capturing tool. Web page screenshots act as visual backup which you can turn to when you want to recover something or just want to look back how your client’s sites look like in the past.

5 Handy Google Sheet Tricks To Help You Work Fast & Save Time

Or if you’re an internet marketer, you can use it to spy on your competitor’s website and monitor SERP positions on Google search results on daily or weekly basis.

While massively popular Wayback Machine is awesome, it only crawls public pages at unknown intervals; no daily or weekly snapshots. So it’s not that totally reliable if you want a simple visual snapshot of a web page daily.

Why PageCapture is awesome

Aside from the fact that you can automatically capture web page screenshot on schedule, there are also other advance options you can explore such as the ability to choose device screen size (e.g. desktop, iPhone, iPad) and user-agents. So, web masters will definitely find this useful too especially if you’re maintaining highly critical sites that requires constant monitoring.

Go check out PageCapture and don’t forget to share this to your friends who might need this.

Slack Desktop App Gets Performance Boost — App Now Uses Less RAM, Loads A Lot Faster

Popular team communication software Slack introduces a major update to its desktop app that mitigates the performance issues plaguing the app for so long. The new version now loads much faster on Windows and Mac, and eats a lot less memory, giving its millions of daily users a delightful experience when interacting the app.

Slack Drains Your RAM? It’s Time to Update Now

Slack team is rebuilding the app from the ground up, eliminating the resource-hogging bloats from its stack. The recent developments in Javascript in the past few years made it easier for team Slack to make the call and upgrade its client-side ecosystem, bringing the much-needed performance boost within the app.

“We want people to be able to run Slack alongside anything else they are using to get their job done and have that be easy, uncumbersome, delightful even. So we took a look at the environment we’re in. I think the other thing to note is that the ecosystem for client-side development has just changed a lot in the past five years. There have been some major updates to JavaScript and new technologies like React and Redux to make it easier to build dynamic web applications. We also wanted to update our stack to fit in with the modern paradigm.” — Jaime DeLanghe, Director of Product Management

Previous versions of Slack for Windows and Mac are noticeably slow for some. That’s especially true for those who have multiple Slack workplaces and channels to keep tabs on. This is due to the fact that Slack retrieves all conversations for each channel first before rendering the UI, thus, delaying your interaction to the app.

Now, Slack will only load data when needed, depending on which channel you’re on. The result: a speedier and memory-efficient user experience.

Slack is slated to release the new app in the coming weeks.

More than just Skype

Slack is a widely popular team communication tool used in a formal setting like workplace collaboration and remote communication. It got all the bells and whistles you can hope for when collaborating and working with remote team members on shared projects.

5 Handy Google Sheet Tricks To Help You Work Fast & Save Time

5 Handy Google Sheet Tricks To Help You Work Fast & Save Time

Just like Microsoft's Excel, Google Sheet has equally powerful functions hidden up its sleeve. It can help you do routinary, mundane tasks fast and perform time-saving complex operations.

With Google Sheet, being an open-source software and with its collaboration support, it's likely that you'll end up using the app more often than not. It's one indispensable tool every web master and virtual assistant can't live without.

While you may not use below's list of useful Google Sheet functions everyday, it pays to be familiar and well-verse with these shortcuts. We hand-picked this shortlist of five essential Google Sheets hacks to help you save time in dealing with spreadsheets.

1. Use SPLIT function and obtain the first word from a phrase

Suppose you want to extract the first word from a string in a Google Sheet column. You can use SPLIT() function to split a string and obtain first word , as follows:

=index(SPLIT(A2, " "), 0, 1)

With the above function, a string “10042 Ferrara” yields “10042”.

To obtain the n word, just replace 1 with n accordingly.

2. Use REGEXEXTRACT to retrieve number from a string

Suppose you have this data in a column and you wish to obtain the price

<p>Lined Linen Tunic with Silk Hem</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>RRP    $99.95</strong></p>

You can do so with REGEXEXTRACT function to extract the price, as follows:

=REGEXEXTRACT(C2, "[0-9]*\.[0-9]+[0-9]+")

3. Using CONTACT to combine multiple values

Suppose in Column A you want to get the first word and combine it with the value in Column J, you can achieve it using CONCAT function.

=concat( index(SPLIT(A2, " "), 0, 1), concat("-", J2) )

Or use ampersand to combine multiple values:

="RRP "&value(REGEXEXTRACT(E12, "[0-9]*\.[0-9]+[0-9]+"))

4. Use SUBSTITUTE() & RegexReplace() to search and replace

Say you have a column of data that contains HTML ASCII codes and you want to get rid of them. Here's how you do it:

=SUBSTITUTE(B2," ", "")

Or you can go creative, do a nested SUBSTITUTE

=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(B2, "</p>", ""),"<p>", "")

Or you can go use RegExReplace to get rid all HTML tags

=RegexReplace( B2, "<\/\w+>|<\w+.*?>", "" )

Or a combination of Substitute and RegexReplace

=SUBSTITUTE(RegexReplace( B3, "<\/\w+>|<\w+.*?>", "" ),"&nbsp;", " " )

3 Things You Didn't Know Google Spreadsheet Can Do For You (Part 1)

5. Use VLOOKUP to search by keyword and return a specified cell from another sheet

Google Sheet's vertical lookup is a powerful function you need to master. It lets you search down the first column of a range for a key and returns the value of a specified cell in the row found.

If that doesn't make sense, imagine you have Sheet14 containing sku and color columns

Sheet14

And wanted to append the color initial found inside a separate table from Sheet15

Sheet15

You can do a quick search using VLOOKUP and return the color initial (from Sheet15) by providing color from Sheet14.

The full formula:

=VLOOKUP(I2, Sheet15!A1:B7,2, false)

Where I2 is the keyword, Sheet15!A1:B7 is the range, and 2 is column position from Sheet15 we want to retrieve.

Excel Gets OCR Support, Lets You Snap Tables and Convert Into Editable Spreadsheet

So next time you are asked to update a Google Sheet and do dead boring, repetitive tasks, try to look around inside Google Sheet list of functions and see if you can automate stuff and save huge amount of time in the process.

This No-Root Android App Can Hack Wifi Passwords in Minutes

Gaining entry to a password-protected wireless network is no longer an intricate technical process reserved for the gifted. Today, with the right mix of tools and apps, one can quickly gain entry to any WiFi networks using only an Android device by taking advantage of known WiFi Protected Setup (WPS) vulnerabilities.

One Android app that caught our attention is WiFi WPS WPA Tester, currently available on Play Store.

WiFi WPS WPA Tester, as the name suggests, is supposedly a network testing tool that helps you secure your own wireless access point from WPS vulnerabilities. Think you have the most secured wireless network because of your long, unbreakable wifi password? Think again.

How To: Disconnect Other Wifi Users in A Wireless Network Using Your Phone (Without Them Knowing)

The trouble with most access points, your entry-level access point included, is that they likely have WPS enabled by default. Access points have standard 7-digits WPS PIN, which was recently discovered to have serious design flaw: it can be brute-forced with surprising ease.

And that makes it possible for wifi password cracking Android apps like WiFi WPS WPA Tester to uncover your wireless network passwords. By scanning all available WPS-enabled wireless networks and sifting through AP details such as MAC addresses, it can quickly calculate WPS PINs and brute-force your network.

Okay, enough for the technical side. Just see how this app works:

Hack Wifi Network without Rooting Your Android Device

As shown in the video above, you can hack WiFi on Android even without rooting your device by:

• Download and installing WiFi WPS WPA Tester
• Launching the app
• Tapping on Connect Automatic PIN
• In Choose Method dialog, select No Root
• And wait for a few seconds until wifi password is revealed

WiFi WPS WPA Tester certainly isn't the first of its kind that can hack wifi on Android without root. This category of apps can be both helpful and a curse.

Protecting Your Own Wireless Network Against WPS PIN Attacks

Now you've learned how your network can be compromised even by a first-grader with an Android device, now is the time to revisit and beef up your wireless network security. You are strongly encouraged to follow below's actions to spare your wifi network from this type of attack:

1. Update your access point's firmware. This should be a pretty straight-forward process, normally available in access points Dashboard. All household access points comes with a manual showing how you to administer and update your firmwares. By updating your router's firmware, you get the latest protection including WPS vulnerability patches.
2. Disable WPS. Read your device's manual how it's done or go to your manufacturer's website to learn more. Please note that any Android device can hack your wifi if you have WPS enabled.
3. Set up MAC address filter. All network devices including laptops, iPhones and that offending Android phone are all identifiable with its unique MAC addresses. In your access point's dashboard, you can define access rules, allowing only certain MAC addresses to gain entry in your wireless network.

Few more network vulnerabilities may be sitting right there waiting to be discovered but it pays to take a proactive step to secure your network.

How To: Recover Deleted Text Messages on iPhone without Backup for FREE

If for some reason you want to restore that crucially important text message on iPhone that was deleted by accident or maybe you've bricked your phone and wanted to recover those important text messages, chances are you'll immediately hop back to your computer and look for backups to restore.

But what if you don't always have a scheduled backup and you desperately need to retrieve that lost text message?

Fret not! As dodgy as it may sound, you can fully recover deleted text messages on iPhone even if you don't have a backup. And best of all, you don't have to spend a penny to restore those deleted precious text message data.

How it's possible to recover text messages on iPhone

When you permanently delete a message on your iPhone, you're not actually deleting the data itself. What iOS' Message app does is it only removes the indexing file.

So you can imagine your actual SMS data still sits inside your iPhone's internal memory and can be fully restored even if that message is deleted.

iPhone Message Recovery: A FREE Text Message Recovery Tool for iOS That Actually Works

Everyone, meet iPhone Message Recovery. It's a tiny piece of app currently available for Mac that lets you recover accidentally deleted text messages on iPhone at no cost. I was told Windows version is in the works, so maybe a little wait is required for Windows users.

I nearly had to shun and skip this tool thinking maybe this is yet another garbage app that secretly installs malware instead of delivering the promised iPhone text message recovery as advertised. But the entire install file is just below 15MB so me being too skeptical had to give it a go.

To my surprise, iPhone Message Recovery actually works like a charm! After just a few scans, the app was able to recover my deleted text message and lets me preview those deleted text messages! Sweet.

Here's how to restore deleted text messages on iPhone without backup

1. Download and install iPhone Message Recovery for Mac (14.6MB). It's FREE, no sign-ups needed.

2. Launch iPhone Message Recovery on your Mac, it should prompt you like this

   

3. Once installed, connect your iPhone to your Mac. It should automatically detect your iPhone

   

   There are two sources for text message data recovery: Device or Backup. Be sure you're selecting Device mode.

4. Click Next, it should immediately start the scan. Analyzing your iPhone data can take a while, so wait for a few mins and do not disconnect your iPhone.

   

5. As soon as you're done with the scan, the app prompts you this:

   

   If you're recovering just standard plain text message, just toggle Messages and click Next

6. Let iPhone Message Recovery app do its thing and wait until you're taken to this screen

   

   You'll notice that two striked-through items being the deleted text messages. And see how I can easily preview them even if they're deleted inside my iPhone.

Wrapping it up

iPhone Message Recovery is not your typical dodgy data recovery app you've come to know from other data recovery apps. It's a fully functional data recovery app for iPhone that brilliantly recovers lost text messages data and even recover iMessage's photos and videos attachments in one go.

LOOK: Upcoming Google Chrome Feature Lets You Organize Active Tabs into Groups

The Google Chromium team is currently brewing a new feature to its beloved Google Chrome browser that lets you mitigate tab overload, or at least that's what they try to solve.

Judging from the above screenshot, the upcoming release of Google Chrome enables users to declutter and organize multiple active tabs into one or more groups.

Add Chrome-Like Multiple Tabbing Support To Windows File Explorer With Clover

Such a feature is sure a relief for those power user who constantly juggles between multiple tabs. You can simply move your work-related active tabs into one group and separate the others, creating a less messy working environment.

Google Chrome is not the first browser that implements such Tab Groups feature. In fact, Firefox used to incorporate it first but later discontinued because only a small number of Firefox users were actually using the feature and that maintaining such unpopular feature turned out to be costly for the Firefox team.

5 Best Memory-Saving Chrome Add-ons to Help You Manage Tab Overload

Tab Group is one of the biggest updates of Google Chrome so it might take a couple of months to finally hit the online shore. For the meantime, check out these third-party Chrome extensions that help you manage tab overload.

New AI-Powered Apps Help You Generate Captions, Hashtags for Instagram

Whether you're using Instagram for business or not, writing a killer caption and well-optimized hashtags is a must. Ask any Instagram marketer it's second most tricky part immediately next to generating the visuals to post on Instagram.

A good caption should drive user engagements and virality, while a relevant set of hashtags ensures you have the most optimal reach to get the exposure you need. People discover interesting posts thru hashtags, and it's a good opportunity for your brand to get discovered and ultimately earn followers.

While the best way to come up with words to accompany your Instagram post is to write it yourself, it doesn't hurt to try and get some assistance from new breed of apps to do just that.

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In this post, we'll be featuring an Android and iOS app that should help you decide what captions to post next.

Caption AI - Your Smart Instagram Caption Assistant ()

Caption AI currently hosts 15,000 captions (and growing) grouped into easy to navigate categories. Running out of caption idea for your next Instagram post? Just launch the app, open an image to post and Caption AI will automatically detect what caption and hashtags to post based on your picture.

Not happy with the generated caption? Just tap on any of the categories like Nature, Fitness, Travel, and Caption AI automatically suggests a caption for you.

Of course the auto-generated captions aren't original. They're mostly coming from third-party sources that curate popular lines and quotes from notable people and writers. Perhaps in the next update the developer gives proper attribution to each line.

This Android app can also suggest the most popular hashtags relevant to your post. So next time you're stuck deciding what to post, check out this app.

Auto Caption - Get Caption Ideas for Instagram (, )

Another app that I am pretty much impressed is Auto Caption for iOS. The moment you open a photo to post, it automatically detects whether it's ocean, mountain or food. Auto Caption will then suggest a caption and hashtags based on what it sees.

It's pretty clever and helpful app ideally recommended for Instagram marketers or casual Instagrammers.

Wrapping it up

Again, the above-mentioned apps aren't for everyone. A more personalized and well-thought out captions will still do wonders in your Instagram marketing efforts. But if doing so takes you forever, then, maybe time to explore those apps?

5 Surprisingly Cheap IoT Devices to Easily Upgrade Your Home for Less

These are the most essential smart home devices to give you a headstart with smart home living without breaking the bank. These smart home devices we hand-picked are all affordable, requires no technical know-how, and an absolute joy to use.

Unless you’re in a cave in the past few months minding your own business, skipping all the smart home technology headlines, you probably have heard of Internet-of-Things (IoT) and connected smart home devices.

Internet-of-Things (IoT) explained

The easiest definition of Internet-of-Things (IoT) I can think of is that it’s just a network like an internet where all your smart home devices are connected. IoT typically operates on top of your existing home WiFi network, so you can just simply imagine of IoT as a network of home devices within your existing home network.

Forbes predicts that by 2022, people would spend $1.22T on IoT devices and a global market that will continue to burgeon each year. No wonder the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) continues to surprise us with cool and bizarre IoT gadgets, ranging from robotic cleaners, smart locks and pet food dispenser.

Smart home technology or IoT devices - what are they?

At the heart of IoT network are your connected home devices that able to send and receive commands at a swipe of a finger or by your voice, giving you:

• the ability to automate routinary tasks like preparing your morning brew, starting your heater, turning on your cooling system at home while driving from work, turning off virtually any appliance at a certain time (and save money in the process), etc.

• the ability to secure your home from burglary and unwanted entries inside your premises while you’re away from home

• the convenience and efficiency, saving both time and money (later we’ll tell you how some IoT devices can cut your electric bills)

One popular notion of having connected home devices setup is that it’s going to cost you a fortune and it’s bloody rocket science to set up. That’s plainly wrong. While some well-promoted IoT devices can be costly, that doesn’t mean you need to follow the herd and just buy what other people buy.

We can just start off with the basics, the least costly ones, to give you the feel what it’s like to have IoT at home. And in this guide, we’ll even skip using smart home hubs and controllers like Amazon Echo or the highly recommended Wink Hub 2. Hubs and controllers are all optional.

Below are essential smart home devices you should start using for smarter homes

IoT on a Budget: 5 Surprisingly Cheap, Essential Smart Home Devices to Automate Your Home

1. Smart Plugs (~$15)

   

   No must-have smart home devices list is complete without smart plugs. Also known as Wifi Smart Sockets or Smart Wifi Outlets, smart plug essentially lets you wirelessly control nearly every single home appliance using your iPhone or Android device. This magical device gives your home appliance wireless connectivity so you can remotely turn them on or off right at your fingertips or schedule your appliance to be automatically turned on or off at a certain time.

   I have an old window-type aircon which unfortunately doesn’t have a timer, but with Wifi Smart Sockets, I can easily put a timer and let it automatically turn off at 3 am without interrupting my slumber.

   How To: Make Any Wired Speaker Into Wireless Bluetooth Speaker for Less than $7

   Do you want to wake up from the smell of freshly brewed coffee in your kitchen? Simply prepare the beans/filter a night before and plug your coffeemaker in a smart plug. You can get it to automatically brew your coffee the next day or brew it using your iPhone while you’re in bed scanning your emails.

   Of course, the fun doesn’t stop there. You can plug in your other home appliances like electric fans, water heaters and control them wirelessly at your fingertips.

   There are a plethora of smart wifi sockets to choose from, some even have nifty features like energy usage tracker, Amazon Echo, and Google Home integration so you can simply control them with your voice. The most important Wifi Smart Socket feature to look for is a timer, where it completely cuts power after a timer expires.

   You can score a decent smart plug at Amazon like the Orvibo S25 Wi-Fi Smart Socket which starts at $15 as of writing or from your local online store.

2. Smart Bulbs and Lighting (~$34)

   

   What if you can dim your light or control your ambiance within your iPhone or Android device or by simply asking Siri or Alexa to do so?

   That’s exactly what smart lighting is all about. You get a smart bulb and a special device (bridge) acting as a connector so you can remotely control the bulb wirelessly.

   In smart lighting category, Philips Hue Smart Lighting Kit is definitely king. But it comes at a price. However, there is decent Philips Hue alternative you can try like the cheaper, all-white version Philips Hue White. Or if that’s still expensive, Eufy Lumos Smart Bulb is a good Philips Hue line alternative.

3. Sound and Motion Sensing Device (~$25)

   

   Another welcome addition to your home security system, this category of the internet-connected device lets you monitor your home away from home. This top-rated monitoring device Wyze Cam Pan for instance alerts you when there are possible intrusions within your premises. It has a night vision capability, can track moving object and can detect sounds.

   Most smart motion-sensing devices usually work with Alexa so you can simply ask Alexa to show your front door, kid’s room, or anywhere else you have your Wyze Cam Pan.

4. Smart Smoke Detector (~$120)

   

   Smart smoke detector? Why not!

   I’m extra paranoid when it comes to fire so I don’t mind forking out a few bucks for smart smoke alarms. Smart smoke detector essentially alerts you when there’s a fire even if you’re miles away from home. This special type of device connects to your iPhone or iPad over wifi or cellular so you’ll be quickly alerted when there are smokes detected.

   Nest Protect is always a good one you can invest in but there is also excellent Nest Protect alternatives you can check in. Just search for it on Amazon or eBay.

5. Robotic Vacuums and Cleaners (~$179)

   

   Just when you thought IoT can’t be any cooler, I’m ending this list with smart home cleaners. This category of a connected home device can do all the dirty work of keeping your room dust-free. Robot vacuums normally come with a smart app where you can schedule or initiate cleaning session or you can simply ask Alexa or Google Home to start the job.

   Ecovacs Self-Charging Robot Vacuum Cleaner is a popular option under this category, but feel free to explore more that works for you.

That’s it!

Again, smart home hubs and controllers like Amazon Echo are all optional. The above-mentioned smart home devices will continue to work without Amazon Echo or Google Home unless you’re willing to spend more and take your home automation game to the next level.