So let’s take a look at some of the gadgets and products that can help you work smarter, faster and better.

A Gaming Mouse

Woah, you may be immediately asking – why are we talking about a gaming mouse – I thought this was an office productivity post. Ok – hear me out first.

You see all those buttons on the side of your mouse? Well, each of those 12 buttons can be customised to a specific hotkey, which allows you to immediately send type in a complicated command or even run a program instantly. For example, I have one button set to open up an empty excel file. Another button allows me to take a screenshot with a custom selection area. Another button opens up the browser to my mail. You can do so much with those 12 options, which when you really put them to use and get the hang of, can seriously reduce the time you spend on triggering actions that you do very open.

A Secondary Monitor

Nothing drags down your time when you have a couple of different windows and you get another email that pops up and then now you’ve got 3 windows and then you’re buried with a few dozen windows and the only way out is to close them out and start fresh. Restart?

Ok, our diagnosis on this is, just get an extra monitor. You can find good quality ones that easily pay themselves in usage.

Bonus feature: if you’re doing a lot of vertical scrolling, you can also turn your screen to 90 degrees so you get a long view of a document. Stop scrolling up and down and glance at what you need. Ah, so much time saved.

Tile Tracker

How many times have you spent minutes if not hours searching for your keys – either at office, or at home, only for them to suddenly turn up in the coffee room or in a convenient hiding spot between your screen and desk? Well, let’s bring that wasted time down to Zero using a mini bluetooth tracker. The best in the business is from Tile, which attaches to your keys or slips into you bag. You can also get super slim wallet size tiles (thickness of 3 credit cards). I’ve stopped searching for my keys at home as I know it will always be there. In case you misplace your keys, wallet, or whatever you tagged your tile to, you can quickly find it by having the tile beep loudly from a distance of 10m. If the tile is further than that, it will tell you with exact GPS locations where it last saw it. And, the best part is, even if you aren’t near by, if someone else also having Tile installed on their phone walks past, the location of your device will get sent to your anonymously so you can quick go and retrieve it. No more time wasted trying to find something.

Bonus Feature: If you’re not able to find your phone, you can quickly click on the tile middle button which will then trigger your phone to sound a loud alert – allowing you to quickly find it again. Never waste precious time trying to find your phone again when you need to rush out of the office.

A Windows Hello Compatible Webcam

You probably get up from your desk and then sit down multiple times during the day – and every single time you sit down, you’re probably typing in your password. Well, stop doing that. Depending on your options to configure your login at work, see if you can get a Windows Hello compatible webcam. Windows Hello is a window based system that allows biometric authentication, including the super convenient facial recognition. So as soon as you get to your desk and sit down, it logs you in and boom you’re back to work. And bonus: you can set it to give updates when someone you aren’t expecting tries to sit down at your desk (depends on the model you purchase).

If you’re not keen for a webcam, you can get a usb finger print scanner that does the same function.

USB Fingerprint Reader

You can connect the USB fingerprint reader to your laptop (if it doesn’t have one), or on top of your desktop usb hub.

USB Extension Cable

If you’re always poking around for where that usb slot is (usually round the back) or even when you want to charge your phone and are stuck with a pitiful 1 m cable, get yourself a high quality USB 3.0 extension cable. This cable is also great for connecting by the side of your bed – trust me on this – after experiencing a long cable, you’ll never go back to a 1m cable.

Conclusion

With all of the above gadgets and putting them to use, save yourself hours per day and impress those around you on how fast and efficiently you work. The best part is a more relaxed and smoother work (and home) experience which will reduce your stress level as well.

Well, that’s all we have for you today. Comment on what you use to help save time and let us know what you thought of our tips above.

iPhone 8

Apple has a lot riding on this year’s release of the iPhone – as it would be the 10th year of the original iPhone release. Now, it may not mean much to Apple, but consumers’ expectations are certainly peaked since iPhone 7’s most innovative feature was.. well.. another camera.

But this year promises to be worth the wait. Check out this rendering of the possible iPhone 8, based on what we know so far.

Key Features to look for:

• No physical home button: we are finally starting to see advancements in screen technology that allow the fingerprint scanner to be integrated into the display itself, and be cleaner. No one loves reducing the number of buttons more than Apple, so this would be a win
• Smaller Bezel: with no home button, the screen can now be larger, even if the phone size remains the same.
• Brighter Screen: Apple may be looking to integrate in OLED displays – the ones used by Samsung to deliver simply stunning visuals. iPhone screens are, by today’s standards, nice – but OLED would make it stunning.

Samsung Galaxy 8

Samsung normally launches their phones at the Mobile World Congress (usually Feb/March). However, given the recently Note 7 debacle, they are likely looking to start fresh. Samsung has two flagship devices – the Galaxy and the Note, with the Galaxy usually launching in the first half of the year and Note launching in the second half of the year. This should give a good opportunity to start fresh with a positive Galaxy launch.

Key Features of Galaxy 8 to look out for:

• Smaller Bezel, Brighter Screen, OLED: Samsung is a large organization, and one of their business units is a major manufacturer of displays as well. This teaser from their display division is a good hint of what to expect: larger, brighter screens and similar to the upcoming iPhone, no home button.

• Dual Display: Samsung may be looking at breaking the mould with a radical redesign, and may include a dual display. There were rumors that the upcoming Note 8 may include Dual display, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see a smaller implementation in the Galaxy series itself. This video from 2013 CES by Samsung is a good prelude to what they have intended:

• Smart Artificial Intelligence Assistant: 2017 appears to the year of AI, with everything from cars to toothbrushes now having AI. With the popularity of Siri, and Amazon Alexa, Samsung will now be pushing heavily on AI to provide a wide array of Smart features from taking better pictures to payments. Samsung’s AI expected to be called Bixby, and would effectively push out Google’s own assistant.

Dare to think beyond 2017?

• Longer Battery Life: While we expect manufacturers, including Apple, to optimize the software and hardware to maximize the use of the battery so that it lasts longer, we haven’t seen any fundamental breakthroughs being committed to. Now we know there are emerging technologies that promise 100% charge in a few minutes, lasting for days (remember when we had Nokia’s that would last a week). We keenly await when smartphones last more than 48 hours.
• Wireless Charging: At the Consumer Electronics Show 2017, several companies, including Energous (video below) showed their advancements in wireless charging. Eventually we should be able to charge all of our devices by simply being in the room (similar to how WiFi works now), which will forever change how we think of electronics.

• Better Ecosystem: Having a smart phone in your pocket capable of running new apps is hardly an game changer in 2017, but rather how it fits into your life as part of multiple devices. Apple has Apple Home, which allows you to turn on and off lights at home, Amazon Alexa devices to order products online with your voice, and Google has the Nest products of home thermostat, cameras, etc. We expect to hear about how your Smartphone now works as a gateway to other devices to enable to live a better life.

Now we focused on Apple and Samsung for the key features, but we also expect to see new innovative features from the likes of Xaomi, Huawei and Oppo, and perhaps the best of them eventually brought into true mainstream by Apple and Samsung.

Let us know your thoughts about this article, and which features are you most keen to see in 2017 in the comments below.

Here comes a boon for us – “The gift card”.

A gift card is a prepaid card which we can top-up with cash and just handover the card to the person u want to gift. This saves our time and effort on choosing what and where to buy and the receiver is free to spend the money on whatever he/she likes which seems to be a win-win situation J

Most of the retail stores, e-commerce sites, top brands and banks provide an option to purchase gift cards.

Here are a few top e-commerce sites which provide gift cards:

Amazon

Flipkart

The receiver can use this card to buy products on the specific e-commerce site. Generally these cards have a validity for a year and you can do multiple transactions with the gift card amount. If the product you purchase is costlier than the amount in the gift card, you can pay the remaining amount using any bank card / other payment method.

Similarly, many banks do provide the gift cards. These cards from banks provide the receiver with the flexibility to swipe these cards in multiple places and multiple transactions till the validity expires. But they do charge some amount for the card, ranging from 200 to 500.

That is it for now. Enjoy Gifting!!!

-Thanks to Swaroopa for the content

…

Click here to get a heavily discounted high quality training material.

Most web sites, are providing their own payments / wallets, which means we need to add cash to our website’s account and then we can use it to pay for the products we buy / services we use. what we actually gain from these is that its an easy and quick way for doing payments online.

Few websites provide payment gateways, through which we use this cash to buy  on other web portals like using Airtel Money on Grofers.  As part of promoting their services most portals are providing promotional offers by providing discounts for using them on specific purchase. So, why don’t we make use of it and get the benefits?

Below are few of the promotional activities happening now.

Amazon Pay:

Probably the best time to buy anything on Amazon is Right Now and hurry up as it ending shortly!! This offer does not require any special credit card. you can use below link to check the offer in detail and avail the offer.



Airtel Money
Airtel provides 5% cash back on payments made through Airtel Money. This is widely being used in recharges, bill payments.



Flipkart PhonePe

[Image: ActionFraud Police UK] Time to get shopping!

#10 Portable Accessories Carry Bag

There’s nothing that says Pro than having a zipped up, strapped up, neatly organized holder for all sorts of odds and ends (Multiple SD cards, odd cables, cameras, adapters, and what not.

Check out

#9 Power Bank

Unless you don’t have Facebook or Whatsapp installed on your phone, the chances are very high that the smartphone in your hand won’t last you the entire day. The preferred solution for now is a portable battery pack. Don’t settle for the cheap ones that then to fizzle off soon, or look like they have been assembled by unpaid labor. Mi makes the best looking and most durable power banks. Check out:

#8 Bluetooth Headsets

Wires are so.. 1999. With Apple making the new iPhone 7 and on without headsets, what are you doing trying to untangle the mess of wires. Get used to a strangle free experience with a wireless bluetooth headset – freeing up your work and hands while you get things done.

#7 Sun protecting gloves

Fashionable innovation we call it. Avoid sunburn on your hands while driving, and every time else.

#6 Phone Case

Protect your phone And look good – of course you need a snazzy phone case. Our pick is something that speaks of elegance and beauty, rather than a cheesy pink case.

#5 Pepper Spray

Wouldn’t it be great if you had a weapon, something that could bring down a heavily built man within seconds on his knees crying his eyes out. Well, did you know a Pepper Spray could do that. Kind of obvious come to think of it, but do stock up on these in every spare bag you have:

#4 Mosquito Repellant

Ah, Mosquitos – you can’t live with them, you can’t live withou——- wait a second, what am I saying. In light of the recent Zika global epidemic, and recent scares on Chikungunya, and of course good old Malaria, well, I’m pretty sure we can live quite happily without them. Looking at the current products in the market though, you are stuck with either really stinky sprays or ineffective electric repellants (do Not buy these). Our pick is a highly rated product that’s an easy roll on without being offensively strong.

#3 Anti Theft / Loss GPS Tracker

If you have never lost your keys, a phone, or a wallet ever in life, then you can skip this section. If you are are like the rest of us, then you should consider getting one of these, a mini tracker that locks onto your phone and gives you a warning when you are getting out of range. This basic functionality can recover about 95% of all ‘oh shoot I left my wallet in the movie hall’ kind of cases. It will more than make up for its costs when it saves your first ‘loss’.

#2 Portable Hard Drive

While cloud storage is amazing, and getting cheaper by the day, never underestimate the speed of a hard disk in motion. Our pick is an extremely classy looking product from Seagate.

#1 Smart Phone

If you don’t have a smart phone yet, then I am most pleased that you still stumbled on this blog for gadgets. Which also means that you are in the right point to get the best possible bang for your buck. Never before have phones been so far, smooth, and lower cost than before.  Our pick for the best phone in the market, with an attractive price, is the One Plus 3. It has an excellent screen, long battery life, and fantastic storage. Did I mention brilliant camera? Pick it up from the below.

#0 SOS Alert Pendant

Ok, a bit of serious stuff (when are we not serious?). It’s a pretty risky place out there, and in the moment of things, often the best course of action is to get a message out that something could be going wrong. But how long does it take – taking out the phone, unlocking with the pin, searching for the Messaging app, oh wait, opening the Maps app, finding out where you are, then clicking the messaging app again, typing in the address, and sending the message. I hate to say it, but by the time you’re done all of this, its likely the phone will be stolen off by then.
Presenting the SOS Alert Pendant, which can send out an alert SMS with just two clicks of the button behind the pendant, along with a link of your Live location. This is one brilliant tech that I hope, you’ll never need to use.

Well, that was the list from us. Please like, comment and share this article if you liked it, and do let us know if you think any other gadgets should be on this list. We’d love to hear from you.

Bonus:

Check out some hot fashion recommended from our avid readers:

So let’s start fresh and go through the 5 essential shoes that you need to create an impression and get through life, with oh so comfortable feet. Keep in mind that there are wide range of shoes, from thousands of copy cat brands and non brands, to really the best products (for a very reasonable price, mind you). Also get used the concept of buying good quality products that last long (as you take care of them), rather than cheaper ones that wear out quickly and need replacements very often, increasing your overall costs and lowering your satisfaction and peace of mind.

With that, let’s start with our list, what say?

#5 Running Shoes

Let’s face it, growing up in college, any shoe that looked like had a wanna-be Niki, Badidas, or Puuma, was a great shoe to run with. Even a Bata shoe did everything you asked for until it got so worn that it became a breathable pair of shoes. How can I put it without hurting your feelings: Grow up.

What you need is what seasoned runners knew all along: not all shoes are created equal. And Real running shoes are created by companies who spend research and development funds into creating technologically advanced products – not copycat by looks.

Our Pick: Nike Free 5.0

#4 The Loafers/Moccassins

So you have a car now – congratulations, way to go. But did you know, that there are specific shoes meant to be work while driving? Introducing, the Moccassins. A very similar range are Loafers, which also represent amazing comfort slip on and make you look classy as heck. Did someone say Bollywood was calling?  Check out my pick from Louis Phillip.

#3 The Boots

When it comes to boots that refuse to cry or break a sweat while going through the worst of mud, storms, sunshine and whatnot, look no further than Woodland. Come monsoon, tie up these beasts and conquer … the road to work…or you know, whatever.

#2 Smart Casuals

Lee Cooper makes the finest shoes that go well with denim jeans, which look like a polished man who knows what works well and what does. Lee Cooper pairs up quality leather along with the light trim at the bottom that marks these as well made shoes.

Check out:

#1 The Blacks. 

Our favorite quality brand is Ruosh, made from quality materials with very good ethos and processes. Our pick is the Ruosh take on the classy Black formal shoes here:

Bonus

#0 The Party Shoes

There’s functional shoes, each of the above that has a specific purpose. This is no exception. For those who need to add a bit of jazz and swing to their lives, consider keeping a dedicated party shoe as well. These should be conversation starters and look like no other.

#10 Wireless Mouse

Using a wired mouse at work basically tells people that you lack the creativity and the burning need to do things better, and have decided to stay with the old of days (did someone says this mouse has a ball?). What you need to drive the first level of Awesomeness factor is a wireless mouse. Both our picks for Best Value and Editors Choice are from the Logitech line. One key benefit of using Logitech is their unified receiver which works seamlessly across different Logitech gadgets.

Let’s begin (Best Value)

Give me something new (BC Choice)

#9 Wired USB Headset

Ok – hear me out: I know you weren’t expecting a ‘Wired’ gadget following a ‘Wireless’ gadget, but true audiophiles know that if you want the crisp clarity and the smoothest connections without any lag, your best bet with audio is a wired line. Our top pick is from the seasoned Plantronics range, offering the best ‘I know what I’m doing’ factor balanced by and good price and quality. As you go up the ranks, you’ll find more advanced features including active noise cancelling, and mic wind noise reduction. Unless you’re a heavy breather, you’ll be fine without.

Let’s Begin (Best Value)

#8 Bluetooth Headset

Ah-ha – see, we didn’t go All the way back to wired. So what gives, do you ask? The best balance is to have a wired headset permanently set up near your main work station, and a bluetooth one synced to your phone and to you laptop for when you need the freedom. I cannot count the numerous times when I’ve had my bluetooth headset handy when I had to quickly pocket my phone and

#7 Smartwatch

#6 Fitness Tracker

#5 Device Locator

#4 Tablet

#3 Mobile Phone

#2 Portable Battery

With all of the above devices, what you need most critically is a Battery strategy. You know what I mean – how you are going to have your smart devices last the bare 8 hours that you have on with you.

#1 A Good Pen

Because, you belong to a class above all else, when it comes down to it, nothing beats the impression of carrying The Right Pen, just when you need it. Whether it be asking your client for a signature, or taking notes in front of your boss, the fact that you own a quality pen speaks more volumes about your taste than every other battery powered gizmo in your now overstuffed bag.

Bonus Gadgets:

#3 Snap on Chargers

#2 Wireless Chargers

#1

To understand how to create it, lets create one sample document (Employee Offer Letter) using this feature.

I’m implementing this example in Sharepoint 2010. We need Design rights on SharePoint site and also Sharepoint Designer, MS Word  are needed for this example.

Step 1: Create a Document library to generate and store the Offer letter documents in the  site. Create the columns that are dynamically need to be updated in the document, eg: Name, salary etc. The columns in Library acts as properties for a document, which can be added directly in the word document. In this example I added 4 such fields

1. Employee Name
2. Salary
3. Designation
4. Proposed Joining Date

Step 2: For every Document library we will have a default file template for that library. This can be word document too. To edit it, go to Settings > Advanced Settings . Document template will be available, click on ‘Edit Template’. This opens up MS Word with the standard template file (.dotx)

Step 3: Now, writeup the standard content that to be there in the Offer letter and in the places where data to be filled dynamically i.e. Employee name, salary etc. insert the Document Properties that we created in above steps. To add a document property, Select ‘Insert’ in word ribbon and Go to Quick Parts > Document Properties. All the above created columns are displayed along with default ones. Select corresponding property.

Step 4: Once added , click on Save as and change the format from ‘.dotx’ to ‘.docx’ ( this step is needed to automate document generation, we can’t update a ‘.dotx’ from back-end.) Now the document looks as in below screen.

With above step, we are ready with document library and if we create a new document in this library, it will automatically fill in all the corresponding placeholders and our document is ready.

Step 5: Now, create a document to test it. If you click on ‘New Document’ in the document library, a word document with previously created template opens. Also, a form with all the new fields we created will be displayed on top.

Step 6: If we fill-in the corresponding details,  the place holders will be automatically updated and once you save it, a new document with these details is created in the document library. A sample document will appear as in below screen after filling all details.

To, create this document dynamically, we need to create new item through back end in the library, by filling all the properties we created. This can be achieved in multiple ways. 

I created a list with same details and using a workflow on the list, when a new list item created,  it will create a new item in the document library by filling all corresponding properties in library.

To do this, follow below steps. 

Step 7: Create a Sharepoint list with the same columns we created for library.

Step 8: Open Sharepoint designer and Go to the list we created and click on New workflow. Fill in the Workflow Name, description

Step 9: Select action ‘Create List Item‘ from Actions tab in ribbon

Step 10: Click on ‘this list’ and choose the document library we created.

Step 11: Using ‘Add’ option, choose each column and fill it with the current item corresponding column data. Also, modify default field ‘Path and Name’ with the convention you prefer.

Step 12: Once all the fields are mapped. Save the workflow. And, select the option to ‘Start workflow automatically when item created’ and publish it. I also added another step to send email with the newly created document link.

With these steps we completed our configuration / development process for the functionality.

To test it, create a new item in the list with  all the details. Then, open our document library to see the newly created document with the details.

This feature not only automates document creation, but also helps us in logging the details in online system which will be helpful for future references / audit purposes.

For any queries – Leave them in the comments below. And if you found this useful – let us know how.

-Laxmi

So, to start with a basic extension, lets go with below example,

For a Chrome extension, manifest file is mandatory. It provides information about the extension. It acts as a configuration file for our extension. Its in JSON format. There are lots of options / fields available, to understand each check out at Google site  . In our sample we used 5  fields as in below code.

{  
  "name": "SampleExtension",  
  "manifest_version":2,  
  "version": "0.1.1",  
  "description": "Sample extension, changes title and main image in a wiki article",  
  "content_scripts": [  
   {  
    // list websites in whcih you want to execute this extension
    "matches": ["http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/*"], 
    //CSS and javascript resources we use 
    "css": ["styles.css"],  
    "js": [ "jquery.min.js","contentscript.js"]  
   }  
  ]  
 } 

Lets understand each field we used in above code

• Name: this is the name of the extension and it comes in Extensions list once installed
• Manifest-Version: this is the manifest file format version. and it should be 2 as 1 is deprecated
• Version: version of our extension
• Description: Description about the extension
• Content_scripts: This provides core functionality information of the extension
  • matches: List all the websites in which our extension should execute
  • css: CSS files if we are using any
  • js: JS resource files if we are using in our extension

#firstHeading span  
 {  
      color:red;  
 }

And, code for ‘contentscript.js’ is,

 $(document).ready(function(){  
 $('#firstHeading span').html('My Custom Name using Extension');  
 $('.infobox.vcard img').first().attr('src','http://cdns2.freepik.com/free-photo/boy-face-cartoon-clip-art_430749.jpg');  
 });

Don’t forget to add the other Jquery file which you find on google.

Now our extension is ready. To, test it in you local machine,

1. Go to Extensions of Chrome which is available in settings
2. Check ‘Developer Mode’ select box available on top.
3. Once you check, ‘Load Unpackaged Extension..’ button will be displayed.
   
4. Click on it and provide the folder which has above 4 files
5.  Now the extension is loaded and enabled as in below image
   
6. To test it open wiki page of any person or any article. you will see the title changed and also the article main image(if available) is changed
   

-LN

Comment below if you have any ideas or get stuck anywhere.