TechSource: Best iTunes Radio Alternatives For Android

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Best iTunes Radio Alternatives For Android Posted: 27 Aug 2013 08:23 AM PDT iTunes Radio, which was announced in June at WWDC by Apple, is Cupertino's attempt at expanding its music services. The ad-supported service, which lets you listen to unlimited amount of songs for free, is expected to be available along with the much-awaited iOS 7. Furthermore, the service will also launch across Mac OS X Mavericks and Apple TV. Though the service looks good, it has many drawbacks. For example, iTunes Radio is only available in the United States. And, if you're using an Android phone, of course you won't be able to use the service. Don't fret though, our Google Android Play Stores offers a lot of amazing alternatives to Apple's streaming service that might pleasantly surprise you. So, if you're looking for some good Android-based alternatives to iTunes Radio, read on as we discuss the best of the lot: Pandora Pandora has been around for a long time now. Available only to residents of U.S, Australia, and New Zealand, the music streaming service is one of the most popular ones among audiophiles. Pandora boasts of a 70.8 million active listeners along with applications for almost all major mobile platforms. New users can begin listening to songs for free but the free account is only limited to 40 hours per month. If that doesn't whet your appetite, you can pay $3.99 per month for a Pandora One account, which gives you fewer interruptions and no ads. The only downside about Pandora is that you cannot listen to songs offline.    DOWNLOAD HERE Google Play Music Released in May 2013, Google's new streaming music service offers a lot of free stuff for new users. Not only can you upload 20,000 songs in your library for free, you can also listen to your songs offline. Though the basic service is free, a $9.99 a month account lets you listen to streaming radio and add any song to your library. You can then play those songs offline as well. One of the biggest drawbacks of this service is that it is not yet available on the iOS platform. That said, Linux users can rejoice at the fact that they can use an application like Nuvola Player and run Google Play Music service like a native application. DOWNLOAD HERE Spotify Spotify is an immensely popular music streaming service that is competing head to head with Pandora and iRadio. The most popular thing about this service is that it works across almost all platforms, including Linux. For your Android device, the app lets you use the service for 48 hours completely free. Then, if you like it, you can purchase a Spotify Premium subscription right from the app. Once you are a Spotify user, you'll be able to sync your playlists, listen to music offline, or stream anything you want from the Spotify library. The unlimited subscription costs $10 a month.  DOWNLOAD HERE Rdio Rdio is a service that allows you to stream unlimited music, for free, to your mobile phone. The service has over 20 million songs and it strongly relies on the social element of music listening. You can follow friends, listen to their favorite artists, and even collaborate with them to create an awesome party playlist. The service then syncs all your playlists and favorites across all of your devices. Rdio's subscription costs around $10 a month.  DOWNLOAD HERE Last.fm Last.fm is one of the veterans when it comes to Internet radio. Not only does the service lets you discover new tracks, it also lets you keep a record of what tracks you listen to. My personal favorite, last.fm allows you to 'scrobble' your listening habits to your profile so that later, you can get a good idea of your own listening habits. When it comes to streaming, you can listen to Last.fm radio from almost any device, be it on desktop, smartphone, or tablet.  DOWNLOAD HERE   Written by: Abhishek, a regular TechSource contributor and a long-time FOSS advocate.

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TechSource: 5 Pomodoro Apps For Linux Users

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5 Pomodoro Apps For Linux Users Posted: 22 Aug 2013 12:35 AM PDT In our earlier article, we talked about how procrastination can be useful for enhancing your productivity. The technique, though effective, is not enough if you need to do high-value tasks like working on reports and even writing a novel. Doing tasks like those requires you to go into a 'flow state'. According to Wikipedia, "Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. " This concept, proposed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, has gained a lot of attention recently. Personally, I've tried many methods on achieving that flow state; however, the one that I thought that works the best is setting a timer and working with full focus for a set period of time. A technique that aligns with this ideal is the Pomodoro Technique. The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method that insists on working in 25-minute focused intervals while taking 5-minute breaks in between. This not only ensures optimum productivity, but also ensures that you get enough rest in between tasks, thus avoid a burnout. Implementing this technique is really simple. All you need is a timer that is set to 25 minutes and then lets you have 5-minute breaks in between. Though you can always buy a Pomodoro Timer from the site, there's nothing better than having an application designed specifically for the purpose. On Linux too, you'll find such apps, though there aren't many of them. Here are 5 Pomodoro apps we found that let you be highly productive without losing your mind: Pomidor Pomidor is a paid application written in Python and GTK3 that is designed for Ubuntu and Elementary OS. The app sticks to the basics of the Pomodoro Technique by letting you work for 25 minutes straight and then giving you a 5-minute break. The application then rings a bell whenever your 25-minute work sprint is complete. Moreover, you also get a NotifyOSD notification once your break has started or finished. Though the app is simple and without any bells and whistles, it perfectly does what it says.  Zeegaree Lite Zeegaree Lite is a pretty-looking timer application for Ubuntu. Though not a dedicated Pomodoro application, Zeegaree does serve as a great timer as well as a stopwatch. The app lets you set timers and save them as favorites. You can then set a 25-minute timer and set it as your favorite so that you can work with the Pomodoro Technique. The app is beautifully designed and looks great on normal and touch-screen computers as well. In the Lite version, which is free, you don't get to save the timers. Those features are available in the paid version of the app, which too can be downloaded from the Ubuntu Software Center.    Gnome Clocks GNOME Clocks is GNOME's dedicated clock application. It features a simple timer that lets you work using the Pomodoro method. All you have to do is set the Pomodoro Timer to 25 minutes and then take 5-minute breaks once the task is over. GNOME clocks also shows notifications (using Notify OSD) once the timer is over. Pomodoro Pomodoro is a simple GNOME Shell extension that lets you use the Pomodoro technique on your GNOME desktop. The app shows as a countdown timer in the GNOME Shell top panel. Once you start the timer, the application hides any new notifications, thus letting you focus fully on the task. Furthermore, it also sets your Empathy (see: Free and Open Source Skype Replacements for Linux) status to busy so that none of your buddies will disturb you during this time. Once the task is over, you'll get a notification on your desktop reminding you to take a break.   Tomato.es Though not a dedicated Linux application, this is the best Pomodoro Timer you can get if you're using a web browser for work. Tomatoes is a simple timer that not only lets you work according to the Pomodoro Technique but also lets you compare your number of Pomodoros (number of 25-minute sprints) with other users. Furthermore, the web app can also notify you of breaks using desktop notifications if you allow it to do so.   Written by: Abhishek, a regular TechSource contributor and a long-time FOSS advocate.

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[HowtoForge] Newsletter 08/22/2013

HowtoForge Newsletter 08/22/2013
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*** Version 1.4 of the ISPConfig 3 Manual ***
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The next update of the ISPConfig 3 Manual is available in PDF format (version 1.4 for ISPConfig >= 3.0.5; Date: 02/22/2013).

Version 1.4 for ISPConfig >= 3.0.5 (Date: 02/22/2013)
Author: Falko Timme
373 pages

The manual can be downloaded from these two links:

http://www.ispconfig.org/ispconfig-3/ispconfig-3-manual/
http://www.howtoforge.com/download-the-ispconfig-3-manual


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ISPConfig Monitor App for Android Phones
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With the ISPConfig Monitor App, you can check your server status and find out if all services are running as expected. You can check TCP and UDP ports and ping your servers. In addition to that you can use this app to request details from servers that have ISPConfig installed; these details include everything you know from the Monitor module in the ISPConfig Control Panel (e.g. services, mail and system logs, mail queue, CPU and memory info, disk usage, quota, OS details, RKHunter log, etc.).

Download/Usage
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For download and usage instructions, please visit http://www.ispconfig.org/ispconfig-3/ispconfig-monitor-app-for-android/ .


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New HOWTOs:
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* Install openQRM 5.1 On Debian Wheezy
* Virtualization With KVM And openQRM 5.1 On Debian Wheezy
* Running CS-Cart On Nginx (LEMP) On Debian Wheezy/Ubuntu 13.04
* Running ProcessWire On Nginx (LEMP) On Debian Wheezy/Ubuntu 13.04
* How To Forward Ports To Your Ubuntu 12.04 LTS LAMP Server
* How To Share Your Photos For Free From Your Home Server Using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS And phpAlbum

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Install openQRM 5.1 On Debian Wheezy
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This HowTo is about how to install the openQRM Datacenter Management and Cloud Computing platform version 5.1 on Debian 7 aka Wheezy. It is the starting point for a set of openQRM HowTos explaining different Use-cases with the focus on virtualization, automation and cloud computing.

You can find the document here:
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http://www.howtoforge.com/install-openqrm-5.1-on-debian-wheezy




Virtualization With KVM And openQRM 5.1 On Debian Wheezy
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This HowTo is about how to create and manage KVM Virtual Machines on Debian 7 aka Wheezy with openQRM 5.1.

You can find the document here:
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http://www.howtoforge.com/virtualization-with-kvm-and-openqrm-5.1-on-debian-wheezy




Running CS-Cart On Nginx (LEMP) On Debian Wheezy/Ubuntu 13.04
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This tutorial shows how you can install and run CS-Cart on a Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu 13.04 system that has nginx installed instead of Apache (LEMP = Linux + nginx (pronounced "engine x") + MySQL + PHP). nginx is a HTTP server that uses much less resources than Apache and delivers pages a lot of faster, especially static files.

You can find the document here:
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http://www.howtoforge.com/running-cs-cart-on-nginx-lemp-on-debian-wheezy-ubuntu-13.04




Running ProcessWire On Nginx (LEMP) On Debian Wheezy/Ubuntu 13.04
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This tutorial shows how you can install and run ProcessWire on a Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu 13.04 system that has nginx installed instead of Apache (LEMP = Linux + nginx (pronounced "engine x") + MySQL + PHP). nginx is a HTTP server that uses much less resources than Apache and delivers pages a lot of faster, especially static files.

You can find the document here:
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http://www.howtoforge.com/running-processwire-on-nginx-lemp-on-debian-wheezy-ubuntu-13.04




How To Forward Ports To Your Ubuntu 12.04 LTS LAMP Server
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This how-to is a wrapper for the fantastic portforwarding help site www.portforward.com
To support, and make it very easy for, those who want to set up a home server on an ubuntu 12.04 LTS server running LAMP. I will assume you have installed ubuntu 12.04 LTS with LAMP and are trying to setup a webserver and need to do a port forward for port 80. While we're at it we'll choose a setup to do port 443 as well so we could potentially host websites on https later. Once you've gone through the process you can repeat it for any ports you may require as defined by the service you are trying to serve to the internet.

You can find the document here:
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http://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-forward-ports-to-your-ubuntu-12.04-lts-lamp-server




How To Share Your Photos For Free From Your Home Server Using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS And phpAlbum
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If you would like to share your photos with family and friends from your own home server rather than posting onto some social networking site then perhaps this is the how-to for you. phpAlbum is an easy to use photosharing website that you can host yourself and use it to easily manage, view and selectively share your own photo collection with freinds, family, and the world. It's all free and you retain full ownership over the whole system.

You can find the document here:
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http://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-share-your-photos-for-free-from-your-home-server-using-ubuntu-12.04-lts-and-phpalbum


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TechSource: Best Android Apps for Learning Foreign Languages

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Best Android Apps for Learning Foreign Languages Posted: 20 Aug 2013 02:38 AM PDT Many of us have 'learn a foreign language' written on our bucket list somewhere. Be it French, Spanish, or even Swahili, learning a new language not only makes you multilingual, but also introduces to another culture. That said, despite the fact that most of us want to learn a new language, only few of us succeed in doing so. The main reason for this is that learning a language takes a lot of self-discipline, and more importantly, immersion. Immersion means you have to keep in touch with the language many times over. You have to revise the vocabulary and practice the conjugations and many other aspects of the languages almost every day. Now, if you're busy or just lazy, doing this isn't always possible. You pick up a book, learn a few words, and then forget about it. So, how do you ensure immersion and constant practice throughout the day or week? There must obviously some way. Yes there is. Our beloved Google Play Store for Android houses a number of useful applications that let you learn foreign languages with a lot of ease. All you have to do is install these applications and start practicing. That's all. So, if you're looking to learn a new tongue, here are a few Android applications that will help you do just that:  50 languages 50 languages, as the name suggests, is an application that lets you learn 50 new languages for free. The application contains as many as 100 lessons that teach you the basic vocabulary of these languages. Aimed at beginners, the application is perfect for learning the basics that correspond to the levels A1 and A2 as designated by Common European Framework (CEF). The application comprises 100 lessons that help you use the language in various situations like a restaurant, shopping mall, and a doctor. There are also audio files you can download that help you with listening comprehension. You can practice using those downloaded files while you're on the go.  DOWNLOAD HERE Memrise The best way to remember something is to repeat it over and over. Based on this idea, the next application Memrise was developed. Memrise is a free application that lets you learn new languages in a fun, imaginative way. Not only can you learn new languages, but also geography, history, science, and pop culture using crowd-sourced learning materials. Memrise relies on crowd-sourced mems that help you learn various aspects of any learning material. These mems can be anything from a picture of an elephant that helps you learn vocabulary or an audio file that helps you identify a song. Memrise can help you learn many of the popular languages including Chinese, English, French, Italian, Japanese, and more. The app is 100% free and integrates well with your Memrise.com account. The only drawback with this application is that one cannot rely 100% on the accuracy of the crowd-sourced material.  DOWNLOAD HERE Duolingo One of the best applications on the list, Duolingo is a 100% fee application designed specially to help you learn new languages. Designed with a beautiful interface, Duolingo relies on gamification to help learning a language much more interesting and rewarding. Once installed, you'll be given tutorials followed by tests. The better you score in a test, the more your skill strengths would increase. What separates this application from other learning materials is that it gives you interactive tests that rely on pictures and sounds so that you learn much more easily. The app has no ads and fees whatsoever and it serves as a perfect learning companion even if you are going to a language-learning class. DOWNLOAD HERE Tourist language learn and speak If you're traveling to another country, this app is your best bet. Designed specially for tourists, it teaches you basics of a language thus helping you use phrases in situations like restaurants, hospitals, airplanes, and police stations. The app comprises of pre-translated phrases along with phonetic pronunciations that help you use or learn that language in no time. Though not suited for learning a language in the long term, this app pretty much does the job if you are looking for an application that you can use while traveling to a foreign country. DOWNLOAD HERE You may also check out: 5 Handy Translation Apps for Android

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TechSource: Top Google Now Alternatives For Android Users

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Top Google Now Alternatives For Android Users Posted: 14 Aug 2013 08:05 PM PDT Google Now, which was launched as a competitor to Siri, has become one of Android's most popular features. Not only does Google Now lets you search by voice, it also gives you detailed information about your next transit, the weather, your undelivered consignments, flight details and more. Google Now, by using all the information about yourself, serves as a useful assistant who helps you at the right moment and at the right time. As cool as Google Now is, there are many people who aren't comfortable with using the app. The reason for this is that, the feature, despite being extremely useful, collects a lot of personal data. The app checks everything from your mail to your last visited location. Not everyone is comfortable with sharing that amount of personal data. If you are one of those people who abstain from Google's latest voice-enabled offering, you won't have to miss out on much. There are plenty of voice-enabled Google Now alternatives in the Play Store that let you find the right information from anywhere you want.  Assistant Speaktoit Assistant is a virtual assistant for Android. The app, when launched, shows an animated image of a secretary who is ready to answer any of your questions. Though the app looks a bit cheesy at first, it does, however, do a great job at recognizing voice commands. Not only does Assistant recognize your voice correctly (it uses Google's voice engine), it also remembers which are your favorite places and shows the information when you need it. Much like Google Now, Assistant also proactively shows you relevant information when needed. Furthermore, it also fetches information from Google, Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Evernote, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Wikipedia, Chacha, IMDB, Eventful, News360, and many other sources, making it much more versatile than any other apps on the list.  DOWNLOAD HERE Skyvi  Skyvi is a simple,voice-enabled search application that is designed to compete with Siri. Though it doesn't offer as many features as Google Now, it does serve as quite a good alternative if you are looking for something simple. The application fetches data from Wolfram Alpha, Twitter, and Wikipedia and it can let you voice text, call contacts, play music, update Facebook (using voice), and more.  DOWNLOAD HERE Maluuba Maluuba is another solid alternative for Google Now. Loaded with interesting features, Maluuba can be used when you need to search for restaurants, directions, and even make local queries like 'where can I practice yoga?'. The app, though designed to be a Siri alternative, serves as a great Google Now replacement. Much like Google's offering, here too you can set reminders, ask for movie showtimes/ratings, and ask general knowledge questions. The application also connects with your Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare feeds making it even more interesting. DOWNLOAD HERE Dragon Mobile Assistant Dragon Assistant, much like the other voice-enabled apps, lets you find relevant information just by speaking into your smartphone. Though the application doesn't offer anything unique compared to Google Now, it does, however, stand out for its conversational-mode style speech-to-text commands. If you're looking for an app that's solid in voice-to-text search, this is something to rely on.  DOWNLOAD HERE Sherpa Sherpa is an app that comes with a multiknowledge system that helps the app understand you better. Though still in beta, the app is capable of answering common questions like 'who is Obama' and more. Also, you can ask for information ranging from dining restaurants to flight timings. One of the most noteworthy features about this application is that it lets you make PayPal transactions by simply using your voice. So, for doing that, you can simply say, 'Transfer $50 on PayPal' and the app will do it for you, provided that you've configured it properly. Another cool feature, which I personally love, is that the application also lets you interact with WhatsApp, something that most popular apps in this category don't provide. It is definitely worth a try. DOWNLOAD HERE Written by: Abhishek, a regular TechSource contributor and a long-time FOSS advocate.

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TechSource: 5 Android Apps That Can Help You Shoot Videos Like A Pro

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5 Android Apps That Can Help You Shoot Videos Like A Pro Posted: 12 Aug 2013 08:33 PM PDT A few years ago, shooting a movie required a lot of talent and money. You needed a good camera, a nice screenplay, and a top-notch movie-editing tool. Moreover, there were plenty of factors to be considered while shooting a video. However, these days, thanks to the rapid advancement in technology, almost anyone can shoot a video, upload it on YouTube, and become famous for it. However, with little tweaks here and there, you can turn an amateur video into a professional one in a matter of seconds. To do that, all you need is a few applications and a good smartphone or tablet. The following is a list of 5 Android applications that will help you produce videos like a seasoned professional. Magisto Magisto is one of the most popular video editors for Android. With automatic video stabilization, this free application lets you polish your videos to the max. There is also facial recognition feature that makes it even easier to edit scenes where people are included. The application has over 7 million users and has been rated as one of the best applications on the Google Play Store. Magisto lets you upload videos either from your Gallery or from your camera. You can then edit the videos, add filters, and even add Instagram photos to them. Once you're done, you can share those videos on Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. If you don't have a good backing audio for your video, you can choose a track from Magisto's library of licensed music. The videos can also be exported so that they can be played from multiple computers. Overall, Magisto serves as a perfect application for shooting, editing, and uploading your videos like a pro.  DOWNLOAD HERE VideoFX If you wanted to create your own music video but never had the resources to do so, here's your best bet. VideoFX is a free application that lets you create videos for your favorite music. The app comes loaded with numerous effects like Film, Ghost, Cartoon, Timeshake, and more. You can then select a song for the video or you can record it from your smartphone's mic. Once you are done, you can then export the video to your Media Gallery and then upload it to YouTube. Overall, this is a great app if you want to create quick music videos. DOWNLOAD HERE WeVideo This free application lets you record videos and then edit them. You can apply various funky filters to a video and then upload it to the cloud. The app can also share videos to YouTube and Facebook. One of the best features about this app is that it gives you almost all the main features you need from a video-editing application. Though not a replacement for a professional video editor, this app is your best bet if you want to trim, edit, and stylize a video completely on the go. This is especially useful for people who upload YouTube videos regularly.  DOWNLOAD HERE Vine Vine is an application that started a trend of short videos. Built by Twitter, Vine lets you shoot 6-second videos that can be shared or embedded on Twitter or Facebook. In just two months after its release, Vine has become the most used video-sharing application in the market. One of the biggest draws of Vine is its ability to create beautiful, looping stop-motion videos. This feature has engendered a new trend among Vine users to post artistic six-second videos. DOWNLOAD HERE Instagram Though traditionally an app meant for photos, Instagram, thanks to competition from apps like Vine, has evolved into a video capture application. Once installed, Instagram lets you shoot short videos with the same filters the original app achieved widespread popularity for. The application has thirteen filters that are built specifically for videos along with the ability to choose a favorite scene.  DOWNLOAD HERE Written by: Abhishek, a regular TechSource contributor and a long-time FOSS advocate.

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