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.

How To: Download Blocked Email Attachment in Gmail — Bypass Gmail Virus Scanner

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.

How To: Import, Upload Videos from DropBox to Vimeo in Seconds

A few days ago, I was asked to upload a bunch of client testimonial videos to Vimeo. The videos are about 2+ GB in size total, and they all sit on DropBox shared with me by one of our clients. And me being on the other side of the planet with a limited internet data allocation and unreliable internet, I can’t afford to waste time and manually download them all locally and upload them to Vimeo. Sure it will take me forever to do just that.

A quick look on Vimeo’s dashboard doesn’t offer much help. There’s no “import DropBox to Vimeo” or equivalent that could help me move those videos from DropBox to Vimeo with ease. All I got is an UPLOAD” button that prompts you to locate your videos locally hosted on your computer.

5 Ways To Free Up, Increase Your DropBox Disk Space

After a few tinkering, I realized that there’s indeed a way to send and import videos from DropBox to Vimeo. And it’s easy to miss it because it’s hidden somewhere.

So, how do you import or upload videos from DropBox to Vimeo and save time?

The trick is easy: just head directly to https://vimeo.com/upload. On the right, click on the DropBox icon. It will bring in a DropBox dialog where you can choose the videos to import. And your videos will be automatically imported in seconds to Vimeo.

You can also import, upload videos from Google Drive to Vimeo. Just click on the Google Drive icon right beside the DropBox button.

5 Ways To Free Up, Increase Your DropBox Disk Space

If you’ve been using DropBox since its inception back in 2008, chances are your FREE DropBox account now is either full or about to run out of space. That’s especially true if you’ve been using the platform as your go-to repository to store your personal and work-related files. That’s a massive 12 years of backup files to date.

While there are a handful of newcomers offering the same DropBox-like functionality + FREE disk space, nothing beats the niftiness and simplicity of DropBox. Not to mention the fact that DropBox has been used by well-known digital companies so we can be sure our data is well-protected.

DropBox’s Basic Plan gives you 2GB of disk space. Sure it’s not enough. And if you’re a freelancer who isn’t ready yet to upgrade, then, read along as I’ll show you how you can get as much as 20GB of disk space from DropBox at no additional cost.

(Note: 2TB starts at $9.99/month, if things aren’t tight please consider upgrading to paid plans)

Here are 5 legal ways to increase your DropBox disk space for FREE

1. Delete unused files

   Digital assets such as images, PSD, XD, and other Adobe files can easily eat up our DropBox disk space. Visit each and every single folder and see if you can safely remove those files. If it’s already a one-year-old project or so, better delete them.

   Removing those unused files and folders can quickly regain the extra DropBox disk space you need.

2. ZIP/compress folders

   If you have a large folder on your DropBox you want to keep but don’t constantly use, try archiving it and zip it. You can save as much as half of its size. You can even further reduce it by using the most optimized compression method or use GZIP format to shrink its size.

   How To Unzip Archived Files in DropBox without Downloading them Offline

   Of course, you don’t want to archive those folders you’ll likely access in the next few months. Just archive those 1-2 years old project folders that you don’t have reasons to access again.

3. Take Advantage of DropBox Referral System

   DropBox has an existing referral system that rewards you with 500MB bonus space for each successful referral installs. Just go to https://www.dropbox.com/referrals page to get your unique link and you can start inviting friends to signup.

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

   A lot of people have been gaming this system and was able to snatch as much as 16GB of bonus disk space. The popular method includes using virtual machines and doing fake installations using their own referral link. DropBox requires each referred account to install its Windows or Mac app before rewarding the extra 500MB bonus disk space.

4. Move your backup files to other cloud services

   Again, DropBox has attracted tens of competitors trying to get a slice of the pie. Popular cloud storage platforms include Google Drive, OneDrive, Otixo, Mover.io, ZeroPC, etc. What these guys have in common is that they have free plans that give you as much as 30GB of FREE cloud storage space.

   You now have multiple options to choose from to unload some of your files and free up your DropBox disk space. You can go classic by downloading your DropBox files and upload them to your cloud storage of choice or you can use cloud storage management platforms such as Otixo to move files between multiple cloud storage providers. Doing so guarantees to free up your DropBox disk space.

6. Upgrade your DropBox plan

   If you want to skip the headaches of increasing your DropBox disk space, then, this would be your last option. DropBox Plus tier sets you back $9.99 a month which gives you 2 TB storage space. That should already be enough storage space for your digital life.

Wrapping it up

Our work-related stuff can easily eat up our DropBox 2 GB storage space. While there are other cloud storage platforms we can check out, it’s the security & simplicity of DropBox that makes it hard to depart. And if you’re unprepared to upgrade to a much higher storage plan, you can try the above suggestions to free up and increase your DropBox storage space.

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.

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

YouTube may prevent you from playing certain videos because the contents might be inappropriate to you. You may be below the age of maturity to view the video so YouTube normally requires you to sign in or signup first before heading on.

Here's a sample message I got from YouTube when I tried watching this video:

This video or group may contain content that is inappropriate for some users, as determined by the video uploader. To view this video or group, please verify that you are of the appropriate age by signing in or signing up. If you would instead prefer to avoid potentially inappropriate content, consider activating YouTube's Safety Mode.

How To: Watch YouTube, Netflix on Sticky, Floating Window While Keeping Other Apps Opened

For situations when you're in a hurry and you don't want to waste your time remembering and recovering your lost usernames or passwords, how can you skip and bypass through this age verification process and just play the video of your choice?

If the constant Sign In prompts of YouTube annoys you, here's a you can do so you can instantly play any YouTube video without having to login or signup.

Skip, Bypass Age Verification Process On YouTube - Watch 18+ Videos Without Signing In

1. On the YouTube video you want to view, obtain the URL. For example:
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O07u7KdRVo0

2. Now replace youtube with nsfwyoutube
http://www.nsfwyoutube.com/watch?v=O07u7KdRVo0

3. Now, head on to that link and you should be able to watch the video without logging in or being over 18.

Easiest Way To Play YouTube in the Background on iPhone, iPad + Auto Play While Keeping Other Apps Opened

You might also want to check out this nifty tip on how to bypass, remove country restriction on YouTube so you can watch blocked YouTube videos anywhere.

How To: Generate APK Files Straight from Google Play Store

Grabbing APK files from the Play Store may sound absurd, considering that you can just fire up the Play Store app and search your desired Android app and install. That's the de facto legal method of obtaining apps of your choice from the Play Store.

However, there are situations when you needed to bypass the app marketplace for some reasons. For instance:

(a) you may be fiddling around an Android simulator on your Windows or Mac and the only way to install an app is by loading its APK files.

(b) Or you desperately need to install an Android app not available in your country so you resort to bypass the Google Play Store country restriction and just grab its APK files.

(c) Or you've stumbled upon a controversial Android app and you know it's going to be removed soon so you create an APK file as a backup.

Whatever the motivation is, you can always grab a standalone Android Package Kit (APK) from an Android app published on Play Store.

Generate APK File from Google Play Store

The trick is easy.

1. Head to APK Download website (https://apps.evozi.com/apk-downloader/)

2. Copy and paste the package name or Google Play URL (e.g. wifi.killl.com)

   

3. Click Generate Download Link button.

   

You're done.

Obtaining APK file may take a minute or so depending on an Android app's package size.

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

The release of Content Blocking Extensions on Safari back in iOS 9 days was met with excitement among iOS users, who've seen the barrage of ads assaulting their iPhone screens from time to time.

With Content Blocking Extensions finally supported on Safari, iOS users now have complete control over the level of privacy-invading adverts and trackers they are willing to tolerate.

While we do believe ads are necessary nuisance to skip paywalls and keep everything free online, some web pages are just plain annoying, deliberately degrading user experience by bombarding us with ads and popups.

If you're just as fed up as me and want to block ads on iPhone including those pesky Facebook ads and YouTube ads that's cluttering your iPhone screen, then, read on!

Meet Wipr: the Best and Last Ad Blocker You Need for iOS — Blocks Facebook and YouTube Ads Too

Forget about Adamant, Purify, or Crystal. Those popular content blockers on iOS just don't make the cut. I had an unpleasant experience with those apps that I decided to completely remove them for good. And not too long ago, some of those well-advertised apps even caught receiving $$$ from big-time advetizers in exchange of whitelisting their ads.

Wipr is heaps better than them. It works just as promised without compromising your iOS browsing speed. And it's regularly-updated list of trackers ensures all ads, trackers, cryptocurrency miners, EU cookie and GDPR notices are all blocked.

One thing I appreciate about Wipr is this bold promise of transparency:

"No one can pay to unblock ads. There are no acceptable ads. Wipr only answers to you."

Which means, no single advert gets whitelisted.

Wipr works in Safari (for now)

You can best appreciate Wipr if you regularly use Safari on your iPhone. It's tough on ads and gives you speedier browsing experience. One reason why a website takes ages to load is because of multiple trackers and adverts competing a slice of attention from you as user.

With Wipr, not only can you save precious data but websites now load significantly faster.

Block ads on Facebook and YouTube

Wipr also blocks Facebook and YouTube ads on iPhone's Safari. If you primarily use Safari to access web pages like Facebook and YouTube, Wipr is a must. I've long uninstalled YouTube and Facebook apps in an attempt to limit the amount of time I spend on these apps. But if I needed to quickly see Facebook updates or binge watch on YouTube, I just turn to Safari.

How To: Watch YouTube, Netflix on Sticky, Floating Window While Keeping Other Apps Opened

Wipr sets you back around $1.99, but it's worth your money considering that you can now permanently block ads on iOS, including that on Facebook and YouTube ads. (Download Wipr)

Instantly Withdraw PayPal Funds to Philippines Bank Account In MINUTES, Even During Weekend

If you've been working online as an independent contractor providing remote services such as content writing, web development or digital marketing, you know exactly how indispensable PayPal can be. PayPal makes it easy for your clients anywhere in the globe to send money for your freelancing services.

And if you're based in the Philippines, it's nearly impossible to do some online gigs without relying to PayPal. In fact, clients would require you to get it as it makes their lives easier as well.

Getting a PayPal account is free and fast. And transferring PayPal funds to another PayPal account is equally fast. However, moving your PayPal funds to your bank account can take as much as 2-5 business days, understandably because of destination bank account's verifications and additional checks.

Waiting for 2-5 business days is fine to be honest, especially if you don't immediately need the cash. But what if there's an emergency and you want an immediate cold cash in hand? Read on as I'll show you how I withdraw PayPal funds to my bank account in minutes even during weekends and holidays.

Transfer PayPal Funds to Bank Account in REALTIME, FAST

The trick is easy: move your PayPal funds to GCash and from GCash transfer it to your bank account via InstaPay.

PayPal has this partnership with GCash allowing GCash users to immediately cash-in using PayPal balance. And the nice thing about GCash is that it partnered with the country's banking institutions such as UnionBank, BPI, BDO, and more, making it even a lot easier to move funds between bank accounts via InstaPay.

I had a GCash account before (like 3-5 years ago) but I ditched the service because there's not much going on about it aside from making it easy to buy prepaid loads and pay to partner merchants. But I checked out GCash last week and truth be told: they've upped their game making it hard to ignore.

Here's how I instantly moved PayPal funds to my bank account in action:

Just swipe to the left/right

Select 'Cash In'

Payment Partners > PayPal

Enter amount to widthdraw

PayPal confirmation

Click 'Send Money'

Click 'Send to Bank'

Select destination bank account

Enter amount

Money successfully sent to UnionBank

Note: your GCash account needs to be verified first so you can link your PayPal to GCash via Menu > My Linked Accounts (on iOS).

Create Single Multilingual Google Form and Display Questions Based on Selected Language

Google Forms, without a doubt, is still the best polls creation tool available to date. It's a free service from Google packed with all the essential features that make it tad easy to create quizzes or surveys on the fly.

While Google Form has all the components needed to create surveys real quick, it can be disappointing to note that the platform lacks the ability to collect users' inputs using the latter's language of choice. Google Form doesn't have multilingual support yet. However, as what the popular adage goes, there's always a way out.

In this article, we'll show you how you can easily create a single multilingual Google Form that prompts users their preferred language before finally asking survey questions. This is not a perfect solution but offers a neat workaround to collect users' info using their preferred language.

If you know a much better way, please buzz us off.

How To Create Single Multilingual Google Form

For the sake of this tutorial, we'll be re-creating this Demo Multilingual Google Form I previously built. Notice how it prompts you with preferred language before finally asking actual questions.

1. First off, you'll need to go and create your first Google Form. Give your form a sensible name.

2. Let's create your first question. Your first question should be of Multiple Choice type that asks users their preferred language. You can add as many language as you can.

   

3. Let's add at least three sections. In this tutorial, we'll be supporting three languages, hence, the three sections. Google Form's section works like a group that lets you separate your poll questions.

   

4. Each of this section holds the initial poll question from each supported language. So your three sections may look like these:

   

   

   

5. Now, scroll up and navigate back to your first question (Preferred Language prompt). Click any of the options to bring the destination selection box. At this point, you can now instruct Google Form to jump to English section when English option is selected, Go to section X (Spanish) if Spanish is selected, and so on and so forth.

   

If you wish to create additional questions for each supported language, just add another three sections and redo steps three to five above.

All responses will be automatically stored in a Google Sheet, and each question and answer gets its own column in that sheet.

Extensis Fonts Lets You Access, Use Google Fonts In Your Google Documents

Creating a multilingual Google Form may not be as straight-forward as you might think. Until Google rolls out an update to their poll-creation platform, we can take refuge at the above method to add a multi-language support to Google Forms.

How To: Browse, Extract Contents Inside Zipped Files in Google Drive

You probably have noticed that while inside Google Drive, one cannot easily extract nor preview zipped files straight from Drive's interface. Google Drive is still deprived of that native functionality and one has to manually download the entire archived file to obtain its contents.

I've been using Google Drive since its initial rollout. Although not my main virtual drive for backups, I use it primarily to store personal documents and some work-related files. And Google Drive being developed by Google gives you tight integrations with other G Apps.

And for occasions when you need to recover a file inside a large compressed ZIP file hosted on Google Drive, you better skip the hassle of manually downloading it yourself and just browse it on-the-fly.

Use Mover.io To Copy, Move Files From FTP To Google Drive, DropBox, SkyDrive and Vice Versa

Here we will show you a smarter way to unzip archived files and browse extracted straight from Google Drive.

Browse Contents Inside Zipped Files On Google Drive

The trick is easy. While you're on your Drive's folder, just right-click any zipped file and click on Connect more apps. Just search for “Zip Extractor”.

Once installed, refresh your Drive's page. You can right-click again the zip file and Google Drive now gives you the option to open it with Zip Extractor.

Zip Extractor will prompt you a one-time authorization request so it can do its thing. After that, you can unzip and browse zipped files with its neat interface. You can also selectively extract specific files inside a zipped file. Just uncheck

Another decent Drive app is Zip, Unzip App. Just like Zip Extractor, it lets you preview and browse zip files straight from Google Drive. What I like about Zip, Unzip App is that it quickly gives you a unique URL for each file found inside your zip file. The UI may need attention though but for a simple task of obtaining a specific file inside a ZIP file on Google Drive? I would go for Zip, Unzip App.

Conclusion

There you go! Google Drive definitely needs a lot of catching up when it comes to dealing with common file types like ZIP files. Being able to preview what's inside a zipped file is already a built-in feature in DropBox, but not in Google Drive.

How To: Prevent WhatsApp from Automatically Downloading Photos, Videos

Unless you're on an unlimited data plan and your phone still has gigabytes of extra space at your disposal, you can skip this guide now. However, if you are a heavy WhatsApp user under a throttled, capped data plan and notice that sudden drop of available phone storage space, then, this guide is for you.

In this article, we will show you how you can save precious data and free up some space on your iPhone or Android by restricting WhatsApp from automatically downloading shared photos, videos, and documents on your phone. WhatsApp by default automatically downloads photos or videos being shared within the app so you get the best possible user experience. But if that UX feature means exhausting our data plan fast while shrinking our storage space, then, we don't want that.

Save Data and Space - Restrict WhatsApp from Automatically Downloading Photos and Videos

The process is easy, you just need to go to WhatsApp Settings tab and just fiddle around those toggles and checkboxes.

For Android:

• Navigate to Settings > Data and storage usage.

  

• Just scroll down and under Media auto-download, tap on When using mobile data. It should bring you a dialog. Just uncheck Photos, Audio, Videos, and Documents.

  

• Do the same process for When connected on Wi-Fi and When Roaming options.

For iOS

• Go to Settings > Data and Storage Usage

• Tap Photos and select Never option to stop downloading photos automatically

  

• Do the same for Audio, Videos, and Documents

You're done!

WhatsApp Web Now Lets You Watch Shared YouTube, Facebook Videos Within the App

Restricting WhatsApp from automatically downloading photos or videos is one simple action that can save you both space and data.

Easiest Way To Play YouTube in the Background on iPhone, iPad + Auto Play While Keeping Other Apps Opened

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you needed to play that awesome YouTube channels containing your favorite music covers straight from your iPhone or iPad? Well, probably, not once.

While consuming those eargasmic treats and performances from your favorite artists is a straight-out simple to do on YouTube's official iOS app, you'll be forced to keep the YouTube app opened or else video playback will stop as soon as you exit or open another app.

How To: Download Specific Parts, Portions Of YouTube Videos

YouTube makes money through ads. So it just makes sense for them to disallow video playback in the background on iPhone or Android to maintain the ad impression count. In the current YouTube iOS app, there's no background playback support and it's always impossible to continuously enjoy YouTube videos while you're busy browsing Safari or chatting a friend on Messenger.

However, if you really need to play YouTube in the background on your iPhone or iPad while giving you the freedom to open other apps, here's a simple trick.

How to add background playback support to YouTube on iPhone, iPad

The quickest way to continuously play YouTube in the background on iOS is to play it in Opera Mini.

Once you have Opera Mini installed, just launch that browser and go to youtube.com and search for your video or you can simply paste the video URL in the address bar.

As soon as your YouTube video begins to play, click the iPhone's home button to exit the app, which normally pauses the media playback. Next, bring in iOS' Control Center and hit on the Play button to continue YouTube's media playback.

You should be able to continue to audio-stream that YouTube video, as seen below:

This trick works well even if your lock screen is active or you open other apps. And the best part? It can auto-play succeeding videos as long as you enabled auto-play in the video player and iPhone's Background Refresh is turned on.

How To: Watch YouTube, Netflix on Sticky, Floating Window While Keeping Other Apps Opened

YouTube, being the second largest search engine in the world, hosts a staggering 5+ billion of videos as of 2018, ranging from user-generated tutorials, guides, music videos, movie trailers and more. With that figure, it's easy to see why the video platform snags a whooping 500+ millions of views daily on smartphones alone.

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.

How To: Watch YouTube, Netflix on Sticky, Floating Window While Keeping Other Apps Opened

Ever wanted to watch your favourite movies and TV shows on Netflix or YouTube while opening other work-related apps? Well now, you can continue to look busy and pretend working while enjoying your guilty pleasure movies on Netflix and YouTube.

Being able to dock YouTube or Netflix videos on a nice, overlay window that floats over other opened apps is one great feature Google Chrome and Firefox could introduce to its core. Sadly though, that picture-in-picture (PiP) feature is currently not supported in their recent version for both Windows and Mac. So we are all left in the dark, given the classic option of staying within the browser to continue watching your favorite stuff.

But, someone decided to change that.

A Chrome extension called Picture in Picture for YouTube & Other adds an unofficial PiP support for Chrome that works well with YouTube, Facebook and Netflix. Which means, you can pop out virtually any active playing video into a small, draggable mini-mode window that sits nicely on top of other opened apps.

Watch Netflix, YouTube in Foreground While Keeping Other Windows Opened

Picture in Picture for YouTube & Other promises to give you the best viewing experience (and distractions) on popular sites like YouTube, Netflix and Facebook. Essentially, it lets you watch Netflix or YouTube videos on overlay mini-window that floats over other opened windows.

Here's How to Watch Netflix In Floating, Resizable Windows

1. Launch Google Chrome and install Picture in Picture for YouTube & Other. Installation should take no more than a minute. Once installed, you should see this icon:

   

2. Now, go to Netflix or YouTube and play a video of interest.
3. Once a video begins to load, click on that tiny PiP icon. Netflix or YouTube video player should automatically dock at the bottom right of your screen as an overlay. Feel free to drag or resize it.
4. Now, head back to whatever it is you're working and continue juggling emails or pretend you're busy writing stuff, etc.

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The really nice thing about this Chrome add-on is that it continues to play your Netflix or YouTube videos in a nice resizable floating overlay even if you're opening other apps like office apps, CRMs, code editor, and just about anything. Just make sure the video is actively playing in a tab.

Here's me watching Polar on Netflix while opening my code editor.

Here's yours truly listening to TED Talks on YouTube

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How To Text Blast in iOS - This Shortcut Lets You SMS Bomb Any Number from iPhone

DISCLAIMER: This is my first Shortcuts created for the sole purpose of demonstrating how powerful Shortcuts is. With the right mix of macros, it is now possible to text blast any phone number using your iPhone. Please use it at your own risk.

Have you ever thought of pranking your friends by SMS bombing them with unlimited number of text messages? Or you constantly receive text scams and you just wanted to return the favour by text blasting them?

Send Automated, Scheduled Message on iPhone - No Jailbreak and Third-Party Apps Required

Whatever your motivation is, it's now possible to text blast straight from your iPhone with ease.And no need to jailbreak or install a risky, third-party app.

Here's what you need for SMS Flooder for iPhone

• A Shortcuts app by Apple (requires iOS 12.0 or later)
• An unlimited SMS subscription from your telco

Here's how to text blast on iPhone - a free SMS bomber for iOS

1. Add this SMS Blast / Bomber Shortcut

2. To text blast a phone number, simply go to Shortcuts app library and click on SMS Blast / Bomber

   Clicking on that Shortcut prompts you to add recipient

3. Add total number of SMS to send

   

4. Add your custom text message

   

Now let the Shortcut do its thing in the background. Go get some popcorn and binge watch on Netflix while you pester that nasty spammer in the background! :D

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I'll probably go to hell for creating such Shortcut, but I find it fun to prank those spammers who keep on sending unsolicited messages.

Send Automated, Scheduled iMessage, SMS on iPhone - No Jailbreak and Third-Party Apps Required

Probably one of the most requested features on iOS is the ability to schedule text message to be sent at specific date and time. Being able to automatically send an SMS at future date and time is prove useful especially for those people who want to plan in advance.

We've previously talked about SMS scheduler options before to send a timed message but that list is now too outdated and requires a third-party app to work.

Now, the BEST SMS scheduler for iPhone is here. This method probably is the easiest and quickest way to send SMS on iPhone at specific date and time WITHOUT a third-party app

Here's how to schedule a text message on iPhone without jailbreaking or third-party app

1. Be sure you're on iOS 12.1.3 or later
2. Download and install Siri Shortcuts by Apple. It's coded by Apple so it's 100% safe.

3. Once installed, grab this Send delayed text Siri Shortcuts. This is the magic sauce to make auto-sending of iMessage a breeze.

   

4. Now to schedule text message, go to Siri Shortcuts app and from Shortcuts' library tap Send delayed text

   

5. Select contact to whom you want to send a scheduled message

6. Write your Message

   

7. Select predefined Date & Time you want your scheduled message to be sent

   

And you're done! Your message will be automatically sent at predefined date and time.

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So there. We're basically exploiting Siri's Shortcuts capability to send schedule text message at later time.

Final Verdict

The introduction of Siri Shortcuts from iOS 12.0+ and later truly brings a surprising level of extensibility in the walled garden of iOS. Go, give Shortcuts a try and explore the pre-made Shortcuts to get things done fast!