Whether you are an app developer building cool apps or games for the mobile platform or a tech blogger who likes to review such apps, what you definitely want is a screencasting tool that will help you easily record movies of your mobile app.

Now there are tons of screencasting apps available for your Windows or Mac desktop but if you wish to capture the screen of your iPad or iPhone, the scene is very disappointing. A search for “screen recorder” or “screencasting” shows zero results in the iTunes app store.

That said, there are ways, or rather workarounds, by which you can capture the screen activity of your iPad or iPhone and convert that into a movie.  Let’s take a look:

Option 1. Create a Screencast Video using Screenshot Images

This is the quick solution. You can capture multiple screenshot images of an app (here’s how) and then stitch them together in one video either using Windows Live Movie Maker or iMovie on your Mac. This is how I created the following video screencast of an iPad.

If you would like to make your screencasting appear more natural, put all these different screenshot images in a PowerPoint slideshow, run it in Full-screen mode and then use Camtasia or any other screencasting software to record that slideshow. The advantage here is that the cursor will also be captured so people will find it easier to follow your video tours or game walkthroughs.

Option 2: Use Display Recorder to Capture your iPhone /iPad Screen

If you have jailbroken your iPad (or iPhone), you can use the Display Recorder utility to record the onscreen activity of your iOS device and save the video as an AVI or MP4 file. The app can also upload your recorded screencast to YouTube directly.

I haven’t tried this Cydia app myself but here’s a move of an iPad screen recorded using Display Recorder. The app doesn’t record system sounds though but you can run another app in parallel for that purpose.

Option 3: Create Screencasts using a Dedicated Video Capture Card

You can easily connect your iPhone or iPad to an external monitor – be it a TV screen or a computer monitor or a projector – using either the HDMI Adapter or the VGA Adapter.

Now instead of connecting the iOS device output directly to an external screen, you can connect it to a capture card and it will then automatically record your iPhone /iPad screen.

AverTV HD and Blackmagic Design are some of the available graphic capture cards that can be used in this kind of setup. The following video by Kelly Rush will walk you through the entire process of recording screencasts on tablets – Android, iPads or anything else – with the help of a capture card.

Also, if you do not wish to open to chassis of your computer to install an internal graphics card, there are other options like Epiphan and UltraStudio 3D. These are external capture devices though you would require a much higher budget for them.

Option 4: Record Screencasts using Whiteboard Apps

If you wish to create simple whiteboard style screencasts where your audio and all you activity on a whiteboard is recorded as a movie, you have some good options including Screenchomp, Explain Everything, ShowMe, Replay Note, Doodlecast Pro and Educreations.

ScreenChomp, Educreations and ShowMe are free apps for the iPad that will help you record Khan Academly style videos. You can create freehand drawings, write text, annotate pictures, and all your activity (including voice) will be recorded in one video.

Explain Everything goes one step further. It has a built-in web browser and anything you do inside that browser is also captured in the video so you be more creative here. You can also import PDF files, PowerPoint slides and other documents into Explain Everything through Dropbox, add voice narrations or annotations and publish them into a movie.

Option 5: Use a Digital Camera to Record App Demos

The trouble with all the above workarounds is that none of them would record your hand gestures.

To get around the problem, the developers of the Denso App recorded their interaction video with the iPad using the iPhone camera (see details). They placed the iPad on a white sheet of paper (picture), added enough lights to get rid of all the shadows and they also placed paper on the lamps to diffuse the harsh light.

It’s an easy setup and end result is much like the various iPad /iPhone demos that you see on Apple website. The following video from the DoodleCast team explains a similar setup that also uses an iPhone camera to record iPad videos – the key here is good lighting.

Option 6: Record Screencasts of your iPad or iPhone using AirPlay

I saved the best option for the last. If you have an Mac, just download the Reflection app and it will wirelessly mirror your iPhone or iPad screen  on your Mac desktop live. You don’t have to install any additional software on your iOS device, no cables are involved and there’s no jailbreaking required either.

Once the iPad or iPhone screen is beamed on your Mac desktop, you can use any of existing screencasting utilities – like Camtasia Studio, ScreenFlow  or Jing which is free – to automatically capture a video while you work on the iPhone or iPad. That’s easy and very convenient.

It’s time for a demo so here’s a screencast video of an iPad that I recorded using the Reflection app on Mac. This is what you have been waiting for!

Also see: How To Record your Comptuer Video Games

This story, How to Record Screencasts on your iPad or iPhone, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 02/03/2012 under IPad, IPhone, Screencasting, Software.

Windows 8 and Microsoft Account (or Windows Live ID)

Microsoft has made one important change in Windows 8 around user accounts. You can sign into Windows 8 using your online Microsoft Account (the new name for Windows Live ID) instead of creating a local user account. There are two advantages here:

1. If you work across multiple computers that are connected to the same Microsoft Account, your various Windows settings, themes, passwords and app purchases will automatically sync* across all these computers.
2. This is good from security point of view as well. When someone logs into a new Windows 8 computer using your Microsoft Account, the system will send you an instant email notification to confirm the same. You can easily disable that connection by following a a link available in the same email message.

[*] If you have used the Google Chrome browser that is connected to your Google Account, you know how the browser can sync your bookmarks, extensions and installed apps across multiple computers where you have logged in with the same Google Account. Microsoft is taking a similar approach but at the larger OS level.

Why Windows 8 thinks that your Password in Wrong?

I encountered a strange issue yesterday. I connected my Windows 8 machine to my Windows Live account but whenever I tried logging into the machine, the system would say that the password is wrong though I was entering the correct password (I could still sign-in to my Hotmail and SkyDrive account using the same Windows Live credentials).

It turned out that the problem was related to the length of the password that I was using with my Windows Live ID.

The password field on the Windows 8 login screen can only accept 15 characters so if you are using a long password, the system won’t let you in. It looks like a UI bug to me or they could have set 15-characters as the new maximum length of passwords in Windows 8.

In either case, if you have the habit of using “really” long passwords, you might have to visit your Windows Live profile and change your password to a shorter less-secure password to get inside Windows 8.

Also see: How to Install Windows 8 – Step by Step Guides

This story, Why Windows 8 says that your Password is Incorrect?, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 02/03/2012 under Password, Windows 8, Software.

I spent almost the entire day playing around with Windows 8 and finally installed it on all the three machines that I have – two of them were previously running Windows 7 while the third one is an iMac running Mac OS X Lion. Everything just worked without any issues.

The first Windows machine is sort of test machine and I therefore installed Windows 8 as the primary OS on that machine overwriting Windows 7. All my previous files, Windows settings and programs were preserved and it was quite an effortless installation.

The second Windows machine is my primary computer, the one that I am using to write this story inside Windows Live Writer, and I therefore installed Windows 8 on another partition (dual-boot setup). Thus my existing Windows 7 installation is not modified in any way while I can switch to Windows 8 anytime with a simple restart.

In the case of iMac, I created a new NTFS partition and installed Windows 8 using Boot Camp. The metro tiles of Windows 8 on the 27” iMac look absolutely gorgeous and the Apple keyboard and Magic Mouse also work inside Windows 8.

Finally, I installed Windows 8 as a Virtual Machine inside Windows 8 itself just for the purpose of recording the Windows 8 installation procedure.

Windows 8 Installation Guides

If you haven’t tried Windows 8 yet, you should consider doing that now because Windows 8 looks fresh, beautiful and definitely brings that “wow” effect. It’s a beta version but after using it for about a day, I found it stable though the new UI might involve a bit of learning curve.

The best part is that setting up Windows 8 is extremely easy and the installation procedure won’t take more than 15-20 minutes. Should you be interested, I have written several detailed guides that will walk you through the installation steps in either of the above scenarios – pick one that best fits your workflow and get going.

• How to Install Windows 8 as a Virtual Machine (using Oracle’s VirtualBox)
• How to Install Windows 8 on a Mac (using Apple’s Boot Camp)
• How to Install Windows 8 alongside an older version of Windows (Dual boot)
• How to Upgrade your Computer to Windows 8 (Overwrite mode)

This story, Windows 8 Installation Guides, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 01/03/2012 under Windows 8, Software.

If you have been following all the good press around Windows 8 and are waiting to try it on your own computer, here’s the good news. The consumer preview version of Windows 8 (just a fancy name for beta software) is now available for download and it is very likely that your existing system specs are good enough to run Windows 8.

The System Requirements for Windows 8

According to the Windows 8 FAQ, any machine equipped with 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of hard disk space and 1 GHz processor should be able to handle Windows 8. The minimum RAM requirements are 2 GB in case you would like to install the 64-bit version of Windows 8.

Should you download Windows 8 Setup or the ISO Image?

As you may have noticed on the Windows 8 download page, the installation of Windows 8 can be done in two ways.

1. You can either take the easiest route and download the Windows 8 Setup program – that’s also the default option.
2. Alternatively, you can download ISO Images of Windows 8.

If you are planning to install Windows 8 on your existing computer, either on a different partition (dual-boot) or just want to upgrade an older version of Windows to Windows 8, the default Setup program is a good choice.

Please note that that your installed software program will only be preserved if you are upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 8. If your planning to install Windows 8 on top of Windows XP or Vista, only the files will be preserved but not the various software programs that you may have on the disk.

The ISO image may be more handy in other situations like:

1. Your computer has an x64 processor but is running the 32-bit version of Windows. If you want to install the 64-bit version of Windows 8, download the 64-bit ISO.
2. You have an iMac or MacBook and want to install Windows 8 on the Mac using Boot Camp software.
3. You want to install Windows 8 on multiple computers. Download the ISO, create a bootable DVD and boot the other system using this Windows 8 disk.
4. You want to run Windows 8 as a Virtual Machine inside your existing copy of Windows.
5. You are running Windows XP.

The universal product key for Windows 8 is NF32V-Q9P3W-7DR7Y-JGWRW-JFCK8.

Will my software programs run inside Windows 8?

Before grabbing the ISO image of Windows 8, quickly run this setup utility and it will show a list of all software programs and hardware drivers on your system that are compatible with Windows 8. Else you can visit this page to see a list of all known software that are found to be working with Windows 7.

What route should you take?

You can have Windows 8 on your computer in three ways – you can install Windows 8 side-by-side (also known as dual-boot), as a virtual machine (so that it runs inside your existing Windows just like any other software) or Windows 8 can be your main OS (there’s no going back then).

If you just want to try out Windows 8  but without disturbing any of your existing set-up, the safest bet is to use a Virtual Machine. If you have a vacant partition or don’t mind creating one (it’s easy), go for the dual-boot option. Else, if you have a spare computer, you can consider upgrading to Windows 8 overwriting the previous installation of Windows. Good luck!

This story, Read this before you Download Windows 8, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 01/03/2012 under Windows 8, Software.

Windows re-imagined the market leading Windows OS and released Windows 8 Developers’ Preview back in September 2011 which was downloaded more than 3 million times. Going one step further, as scheduled, Microsoft has now announced the availability of Windows 8 Consumer Preview and can be downloaded here.

Windows 8 has been designed to work on a wide range of devices from smart phones to desktop computers and everything that lies in between, we have already analyzed the effect of OS unification. Windows 8 has been designed to allow users to access apps instantly and eliminate the time wasted in navigation.

Before upgrading your device to Windows 8 CP you should remember that this is a Beta version and Windows 8 is a work in progress, so errors and issues are expected and you should report them instead of going mad on Microsoft

Here are the minimum specs needed by Windows 8 Consumer Preview to run smoothly on your device:

• 1 GHz or faster processor
• 1 GB RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
• 1024 x 768 minimum screen resolution

Lets treat you with some snapshots of Windows 8:

Start Screen

Start Screen Tiles

Thumb Keyboard

Semantic Zoom

Internet Explorer

Search

Sharing

The good old desktop

Microsoft recently unveiled a new logo for Windows 8 that does away with the colorful flag, first introduced with Windows XP in 2001, and instead uses flat, tile-like shapes done in one solid blue color.

The exact typeface that was used to design the logo is unknown though a quick search did reveal that Windows 8 font is very similar to Freight Sans and the Segoe family of sans-serif fonts.

I am not qualified to dissect the design of the new Windows 8 logo but there’s an active logo-redesign contest happening at 99Designs where over 200 logo designers have submitted several hundred variations of the Windows logo. Some of them are interesting, others not so much but the common theme is that designers want Microsoft to preserve the colors of the original logo in the metro tiles.

On a related note, Web developer Vasiliy Zubach has created a web version of the Windows 8 logo that uses no images and is written in pure CSS and HTML. Vasiliy also using CSS3 animations to add some motion to the Windows tiles and the whole thing looks exactly like the real logo.

This is the underlying CSS code that does the trick.

<style type="text/css">
.windows_8_logo_container {
	padding: 100px 0;
	background: #fff;
	height: 150px;
	-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0,0,0,0.3) 0 1px 2px;
	-moz-box-shadow: rgba(0,0,0,0.3) 0 1px 2px;
	box-shadow: rgba(0,0,0,0.3) 0 1px 2px;
	-webkit-border-radius: 5px;
	-moz-border-radius: 5px;
	border-radius: 5px;
}
.window {
	position: relative;
	float: left;
	margin-left: 50px;
	width: 200px;
	height: 150px;
	background: #00adef;
	-webkit-transform: perspective(400px) rotateY(-25deg);
	-moz-transform: perspective(400px) rotateY(-25deg);
	-ms-transform: perspective(400px) rotateY(-25deg);
	-o-transform: perspective(400px) rotateY(-25deg);
	transform: perspective(400px) rotateY(-25deg);
	-webkit-animation: windows_animation 3s infinite;
	-moz-animation: windows_animation 5s infinite;
	-ms-animation: windows_animation 5s infinite;
}
.window::after, .window::before {
	content: '';
	background: #fff;
	height: 100%;
	width: 10px;
	left: 50%;
	margin-left:-5px;
	top:0;
	position: absolute;
}
.window::before {
	left: 0;
	top: 50%;
	margin-top: -5px;
	margin-left: 0;
	height: 10px;
	width: 100%;
	position: absolute;
}
.logo_text {
	color: #00adef;
	line-height: 150px;
	font-size: 130px;
	padding-left: 20px;
	float: left;
}
</style>
<div class="windows_8_logo_container">
 <div class="window"></div>
 <div class="logo_text">Windows 8</div>
</div>

This story, Windows 8 Logo Recreated in CSS, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 29/02/2012 under Css, Windows 8, Internet.

The long-running “Live” name Microsoft has placed on its many connected services (Mail, messenger, photos, etc) is coming to an end in Windows 8, as part of their ongoing, major brand rehaul. Zune, of course, has been on its way out for some time, but will receive the coup de grace in Windows 8.

Their main services are being rolled into bundled applications with a native Metro look and simpler names — Mail instead of Windows Live Mail, Photos instead of Windows Live Photo Gallery, and so on. The new apps will be tightly integrated, as we’ve seen in demos, and will retain much of the Live cross-service functionality. They’ll be unified by a single “Microsoft Account.”

But Live isn’t going away entirely: the name is too strong to take away from Xbox Live and its subsidiary components, and in fact Xbox Live may be coming to Windows as the main entertainment brand — for music, games, and video content. This will replace Zune, which Microsoft has been gradually sweeping under the rug over the past two years. Zune fans mustn’t despair, though: Zune pass functionality will remain intact, and chances are the old desktop player and Zune hardware will continue to be supported in some way. And the fact is that Zune has left an indelible mark on Microsoft’s operations, pioneering the look and feel found in Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8.

Smaller services, like Writer and Games for Windows Live, will likely be rolled into existing products. It’s in major brand shakedowns like this that one starts to realize just how many platforms and pieces of software Microsoft actually has and supports. This coalescence of services is probably coming as a huge relief to the company, though the labor involved in repurposing them is, naturally, Herculean.

Conspicuously absent from the lineup mentioned is Messenger, which may be seeing some integration with Skype. A multi-service messenger/video-chat app with Skype built in seems likely, though Skype would definitely have to have a discrete presence as well for power users.

No doubt they’ll leave behind many irate users who want things to remain the same — and indeed how Microsoft intends to accommodate these legacy users isn’t clear. Their new clean-break approach maroons many people on the old Windows XP/7 mainland, where they’ll likely remain until the launch quakes of Windows 8 clear away and the new land is safe for colonization.

Just like humans, computer have health too & if users don’t take good care of there PCs they usually slow down & start halting after regular interval. If users just follow a few basic guidelines and perform maintenance tasks regularly there PCs would stay healthy & chances of halting or slowing down would be reduces to great extent. Below are 6 maintenance tasks that you can perform weekly or monthly but regularly to keep your PC running smooth as silk.

Protection against Viruses, and Beware of Ad-ware/Spyware

Viruses put your PCs at great risk. They have the potential to corrupt all of your data or even damage your computer hardware which puts your personal or confidential data at a risk of loss. On the other hand, Ad-ware is a potentially unwanted program that without your permission starts displaying Ads from different publisher and sometimes it can also display unwanted Adult Ads, while Spyware steals your private information such as usernames & password without your permission hence protection against Viruses, Ad-wares and Spywares is necessary. There are a few really effective Antivirus in the market that you can buy & install to protect your PCs, top 3 recommended are given below:

1. Kaspersky
2. McAfee
3. Symmantec

Free up Disk space

Windows Disk Cleanup tool allows you clean your PC and removed all the unwanted files which slow down or take up your precious memory. You should use Disk Cleanup tool to remove:

• Temporary Internet Files
• Files in Recycle bin
• Optional Windows components that you don’t use
• Delete old unused restore points and shadow copies
• Temporary Windows files, such as error reports
• Downloaded program files such as ActiveX or Java applets
• Installed programs that you don’t use

Fast access to data

Fragmentation usually happens when a large number of files are copied or a new program or new version of Windows is installed. When a PC reads a files it has to collect its bits & pieces from different parts of the Hard disk which reduces the data access speed hence also slows down your PC. De-fragmentation is an easy solution to your problems, you can use the Windows Disk Defragmenter to Defragment your disk and place all parts of a files file in one place on the Hard disk so that your PC can easily and with fast access, access you data.

Detect & repair Disk errors

As you use your PC, Hard disks start developing bad sectors that make tasks such as reading & writing to Hard disk difficult or even sometimes impossible for the computer. To keep your computer healthy, you must also use Error Checking Utility with Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter to save your PC from data loss or unwanted halts. The more frequent you use your PC, the more regularly you must be running this utility.

Learn about Ready Boost

If your using Windows Vista or Windows 7, you can use the new innovation in Windows from Microsoft, called Ready Boost which allows you to use non-volatile memory such as a USB to be used as RAM without having to install any additional memory modules into your PC.

Upgrade to latest version of windows

Usually when new updates or versions of Windows come they are equipped with the latest technology, innovations, security patches, etc to improve your PC’s security, performance and ease of use — Hence whenever a new update or a new version of Windows is released you must instantly install it to keep your PC update to date and healthy.

via Microsoft

Under IBM’s Academic Initiative program, a three days training on DB2 Academic Associate Certification was conducted for the students of FAST NU Karachi (FAST: Foundation for Advancement of Science and Technology).

The DB2 certification program teaches relational database concepts while also providing students with critical, hands-on database skills on IBM’s DB2 9.7 and Data Studio software.

The basic idea behind this activity was to overcome skill shortage and to produce certified resources for IBM’s products. It’s a win-win situation through which students can increase their employability for IBM’s technology, while IBM wants to build the technical skills in order to bridge the gap between market demand and available resources.

Students were trained on practical usage of DB2. Candidates who passed the certification exam are allowed to submit their resume in IBM’s student opportunity system (SOS) database, which in turn allows IBM managers to search their resumes and gives the students more employability for the cutting edge technology.

This, free of cost, skill building classroom session, held on 31 December, 2011 was attended by 120 students.

This course is for undergraduate computer science or computer engineering students who have taken (or are concurrently taking) a relational database course. Graduate students in engineering or business who already have relational database knowledge and instructors who teach the course can also take this course and the certification exam.

FAST NU Karachi DB2 Certified Students with IBM’s Saadia Naz & Muhammad Shuja

This program is exclusively for the academic community and offers certification exams for those who attended the course. A video version of the course content is available at db2university.com.

DB2 database software offers industry leading performance, scale, and reliability on your choice of platform from Linux, Unix and Windows to z/OS. DB2 has a long history and is considered the first database product to use SQL (also developed by IBM). – PR

National University of Computer & Emerging Sciences.

© Pakistan Live News

Few days back, on of my friend contact me for a solution.
He has implemented MOSS 2007 with SQL Express.

He use his SharePoint site as a repository for uploading/ maintaining all the files, even very large files like of 1 GB.

While uploading more than 20 MB he started getting error, so wee increase the file quota from the Central Administration and make it to 2 GB. But the error remain same which was “Request timed out”.

Then we increased the request time out from IIS. But still error was there. We were able to upload 300 MB files though, but not able to upload 1 GB file.

Then finally we got help from the KB article. Error message when you try to upload a large file to a document library on a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 site: “Request timed out”

There we modify the web config under the layout folder location i.e. C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS

Here we search the upload.aspx, and modify it to

We just add executionTimeout=”999999″ and then it allow us to upload the 1 GB file even.

The problem was with the upload.aspx page execution, which processing timeout expires, so with this it easily allow us to upload files with greater size.

Most people have some data that they would rather not share with others – passwords, personal information, classified documents from work, financial records, self-written poems, the list continues.
Perhaps you have saved some of this information on your computer where it is conveniently at your reach, but when the time comes to remove the data from your hard disk, things get a bit more complicated and maintaining your privacy is not as simple as it may have seemed at first.
Your first thought may be that when you ‘delete’ the file, the data is gone. Not quite, when you delete a file, the operating system does not really remove the file from the disk; it only removes the reference of the file from the file system table. The file remains on the disk until another file is created over it, and even after that, it might be possible to recover data by studying the magnetic fields on the disk platter surface.
Before the file is overwritten, anyone can easily retrieve it with a disk maintenance or an undelete utility.
There are several problems in secure file removal, mostly caused by the use of write cache, construction of the hard disk and the use of data encoding. These problems have been taken into consideration when Eraser was designed, and because of this intuitive design and a simple user interface, you can safely and easily erase private data from your hard drive.

Eraser is an advanced security tool for Windows which allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns. Eraser is currently supported under Windows XP (with Service Pack 3), Windows Server 2003 (with Service Pack 2), Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

Download here :