Disabling customized ringtone in Whatsapp message notification

Recently, whenever a person in my Android phone's contact who I have set a customized ringtone sends a Whatsapp text message to me, my phone will play the ringtone as if the person is voice calling me.

This is very annoying and not a Whatsapp "feature" I want. Firstly, it really confused me as I always tought the person is calling me instead of sending Whatsapp message to me. Secondly, the ringtone MP3 is quite long to play. Imagine how frustrating to wait for it to stop everytime it plays just because a new Whatsapp message is received.

Luckily, I found the place to disable this annoyance.

To disable it in Whatsapp, go to Settings > Notifications and untick the checkbox of Contact Ringtone under Message Notifications.

This is another Contact Ringtone for Whatsapp calls which you can see when you scroll down the above screen, and I am OK with that.

If Whatsapp really want to put a feature for customized message tone, they should make use of the SMS tone instead of the call ringtone. I consider this as an annoying bug, and ought to be fixed in their next version release.

Updated my Samsung Galaxy Tab (GT-P1000) to Storm CyanogenMod 11 with Android 4.4.4 (Kitkat) from stock firmware of Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread)

My first generation 7" Samsung Galaxy Tab (GT-P1000) is aged, but is tough and still functioning well.

Although it only has a single core CPU, 512MB RAM and 16GB internal storage, it is still capable to handle most of the task as an Android tablet, especially with the newer firmware of Android Kitkat and above.

However, its official firmware by Samsung is stuck at the last generation Android version 2.3.3 (Gingerbread), last updated a few years ago.

Luckily, there are supporters and developers who keep working on its latest unofficial firmware. One of them is Storm31 who makes customized version of Cyanogenmod Android OS for this Samsung Galaxy Tab.

With this unofficial firmware using Android Kitkat, the Samsung Galaxy Tab runs even smoother,  more powerful and more feature rich than its latest stock Gingerbread firmware.

I have successfully updated my GT-P1000 from stock Android 2.3.3 to Storm CM11 Android 4.4.4, and I'll share with you how to do it.

First of all, backup all the data in your tab that you want to save to your PC or to its external SD card. Warning: this upgrade will wipe out everything and no user data will left behind in the tab. You better save all the data you want to save now.

Then, remove the external SD card from the tab. If you keep the SD card in the tab, the data in it might be wiped out too.

Download the following files:

• GB-Stock-Safe-v5.zip (287.91 MB)
• Samsung_GT-P1000_CyanogenMod_install_all_in_one.zip (192.24MB)
• cm-10.2-20131104-UNOFFICIAL-p1.zip (185.18 MB)
• cm-11-20150428-UNOFFICIAL-p1.zip (212.4MB)
• pa_gapps-modular-pico-4.4.4-20150308-signed.zip (99.2MB)

GB-Stock-Safe-v5.zip contains the latest official stock firmware for GT-P1000. You'll need this in case you bricked your tab along the upgrading process. This will restore your tab back to its original state with stock firmware of Android 2.3.3 (but without any user data).

Inside it you'll also find Samsung USB driver for Windows which you need to connect your computer to your tab in order to perform the upgrade. If you have already installed the Samsung USB driver in your computer before, then you don't need to install it again.

Inside it you can also find Odin 1.7, the firmware flashing tool to flash the firmware file(s) from your computer to your tab using the USB cable.

Samsung_GT-P1000_CyanogenMod_install_all_in_one.zip contains the ClockworkMod (CwM) Recovery, the CM 9.1 firmware, and a later version of Odin 1.85.

Note that you cannot upgrade your firmware from stock Android 2.3.3 directly to CM 11. You need to replace the stock firmware with CM 9.1 first, then update it to CM 10.2, then only to the latest CM 11 or upcoming CM 12.

You need to replace the stock Recovery in the tab's ROM with ClockworkMod Recovery in order to flash the CM firmware from the SD card (either internal or external) into the tab.

cm-10.2-20131104-UNOFFICIAL-p1.zip is the firmware flash file of CM 10.2.

cm-11-20150428-UNOFFICIAL-p1.zip is the firmware flash file of CM 11. If there is a newer version than this, you can use the newer version instead of this one.

CyanogenMod Android does not come with Google Play Store and Google Play Service, that's why you need pa-gapps-modular-pico-4.4.4-20150308-signed.zip to flash the Google Play Store and Google Play Service into your tab. Once you have the Google Play Store (previously known as Market) in your tab, you can use it to install more Google apps and Android apps into it.

After you have done backup of all the data you want to save from the tab to your PC, removed the SD card from the tab, charged the tab to at least 90% battery level, and installed the Samsung USB driver, you are ready to start this upgrade process.

Step 1: Unzip GB-Stock-Safe-v5.zip in your PC.

Step 2: Power off your tab. Then hold down its Volumn Down button, at the same time, long press the Power button. Your tab will go into Download mode with screen looks like below:

Step 3: Execute Odin3 v1.7.exe inside the Odin3_v1.7 folder.

Step 4: Connect your tab to your computer using its USB cable. You should see the first box in Odin's ID:COM section turns yellow.

Step 5: Click the PIT button and select the file gt-p1000_mr.pit.

Step 6: Click the PDA button and select the file GB_Stock_Safe_v5.tar.

Step 7: Click the PHONE button. If your tab is GSM-based (Asia/Europe/Middle East/Oceania/Africa/Rest of the world...), select modem.bin inside the folder JPZ Modem. If you are an American T-Mobile user, select modem.bin inside the folder T-Mobile Modem. If you are AT&T (USA), TelCel (Mexico) or Telstra (Australia) user, select modem.bin inside JK3 Modem instead.

Step 8: Click the Start button. The flashing process will begin. Let it run until you see a green PASS! box. Do not power off your PC or your tab, or disconnect the USB cable before you see the green PASS!.

In any event you bricked your tab, you can come here and perform Step 2 to Step 8 above to bring your tab to live again.

Step 9: Your tab should reboot. If not, reboot it. The Android initial setup screen will appear, don't bother to fill in any information, just tap on Next or Skip until you reach the home screen.

Step 10: Turn off your tab. Disconnect its USB cable from PC, and put it into Download mode again (Volumn Down + Power).

Step 11: Unzip Samsung_GT-P1000_CyanogenMod_install_all_in_one.zip in your PC.

Step 12: Now you can execute the newer Odin3 v1.85.exe inside the Samsung Odin3 v1.85 folder.

Step 13: Connect your tab to your computer using its USB cable.

Step 14: Click the PDA button and select the file CF-Root-TAB7_XX_OXA_JQ1-v3.3-CWM3RFS.tar inside ClockworkMod Recovery folder.

Step 15: Click the Start button to flash ClockworkMod Recovery into your tab.

Step 16: Power off your tab. Now you can plug back the external SD card to the tab if you want.

Step 17: Reboot your tab until you get back the Android home screen.

Step 18: Set your tab USB connection to Mass Storage Mode.

Step 19: Transfer the file cm-9.1.0-p1.zip inside CyanogenMod v9.1 for Galaxy Tab GT-P1000 folder to the tab's SD card (internal/external).

Step 20: Turn off your tab. Go into Recovery mode by holding Volumn Up button and at the same time long press the Power button.

Step 21: From the Recovery menu, select Install ZIP then Choose ZIP from SD Card. Locate and select the cm-9.1.0-p1.zip file, then confirm the selection. CM 9.1 will be flashed into your tab and replace the stock firmware. Wait for the process to finish. If there is any error, repeat this step again to reflash CM 9.1.

Step 22: Reboot your tab. The Android initial setup screen will appear, don't bother to fill in any information, just tap on Next or Skip until you reach the home screen.

Step 23: Repeat Step 18 until Step 21 for CM 10.2. The file to flash this round is cm-10.2-20131104-UNOFFICIAL-p1.zip. Note that updating from CM 9.1 to CM 10.2 might not be so smooth and might need to repeat Step 21 a few times before a final success.

Step 24: Reboot your tab. The Android initial setup screen will appear. This time, you can fill in your information, and connect to your local WiFi, until you reach the home screen.

Step 25: Repeat Step 18 until Step 21 again for CM 11. The file to flash this round is cm-11-20150428-UNOFFICIAL-p1.zip.

Step 26: Finally, flash the minimal Google apps. Repeat Step 18 until Step 21 again. The file to flash this round is pa-gapps-modular-pico-4.4.4-20150308-signed.zip.

Step 27: Reboot your tab. You will find the Google Play Store appears in your home screen.

Step 28: The keyboard that comes with CyanogenMod might be too basic and primitive. I replaced it with iFlytek Voice Input for Pad which you can install from Google Play Store.

Now, you can enjoy your GT-P1000 tab with new generation of Android and the CyanogenMod experience.

Check for Malaysia goods/services price reasonability with MyKira GST app

Just before Malaysia implement Goods and Services Tax (GST) on 1 April 2015, the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-Operatives and Consumerism Malaysia (a.k.a. Kementerian Perdagangan Dalam Negeri, Koperasi Dan Kepenggunaan, KPDNKK) has released an Android app called MyKira GST which enable us to check for the price reasonability of over 10,000 products and services in Malaysia.

The price is checked from the online database of KPDNKK and based on the location (parliament area) of selling.

To do the checking, you need to provide the name of the product/service, which has autocomplete search while key-in.

Then, specify the weight/size/packaging information, which is also having autocomplete search during key-in.

After that, key-in the price you see, and optionally its price before GST (old price) if you remember.

Then provide the information of the shop (premise) and area (parliament). There is a map showing your current location, which can help you in identifying the area you are in.

After that, tap on the submit button to do the checking. It will show you whether the price is within reasonable range, or too expensive (out of range) accordingly.

If the price is found to be out of range, you can tap on the e-Aduan button and immediately file a complaint to KPDNKK.

You can click here to download and install the MyKira GST app from Google Play Store to your Android phone or tablet.

Using SQLite Expert to develop and administer SQLite3 databases

SQLite is today's de facto database for mobile development, particularly as the local database used in Android and iOS apps. It is also widely used to handle data storage in embedded system.

In fact, SQLite is also a good choice for lightweight database to handle data storage and query for Windows / Linux / Mac applications. It is released in the public domain and free for use (compared with other non-free alternative such as MS Access database). It is serverless and doesn't need installation nor configuration of database system (compared with alternative such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc.)

Now come to the big question: how to create, develop and maintain the SQLite databases?

There are quite a number of tools available, some are free and some are non-free. I have chosen SQLite Expert for use in Windows development environment.

SQLite Expert comes in 2 editions: the free Personal Edition (free for both personal and commercial use), and the non-free Professional Edition with additional features. You can click here to find out the feature differences between the 2 SQLite Expert editions. The Personal Edition should be good enough for most SQLite application developers.

SQLite Expert is able to handle Unicode data, Views and Virtual Tables.

SQLite Expert has a nice and easy to use GUI. It even comes with Hex Editor (to edit fields with binary data) and Image Editor (to edit fields with image data).

It has a powerful visual editor for database table creation, restructuring and maintenance, which able to handle columns, indexes, foreign keys, triggers, unique and check constraints.

It also has a handy Data Definition Language (DDL) viewer to show the DDL of tables.

For the Professional Edition, you will also get a Visual SQL Query Builder, able to import and export data, Lua / Pascal scripting support, etc.

If you are in search for a good database tool for SQLite3, I strongly recommend this one to you.

Make your Windows PC into WiFi hotspot with open source Virtual Router

Have you been to a place (such as hotel room, meeting room, training room, etc.) where no WiFi service is available, and instead LAN connection is available for Internet access, and you need to connect a number of your gadgets (such as handphone, tablet, etc.) to the Internet?

With the Virtual WiFi and Wireless Hosted Network features introduced in MS Windows 7 (also available in its successor Windows 8 as well), you are able to make your laptop or PC with wireless network card into a WiFi hotspot to share its Internet access with other WiFi connected devices (computer, handphone, tablet, printer, camera, etc.)

Virtual Router by Chris Pietschmann is a small Windows application that make use of this Virtual WiFi and Wireless Hosted Network features in Windows 7 and above, to provide a very simple and fool proof way for you to make your laptop (or PC with wireless network card) to be the WiFi hotspot. It is open source and free for download and use under Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL).

With Virtual Router, you can wirelessly share any Internet connection (WiFi, LAN, Cable Modem, Dial-up, Cellular, etc.) of your computer with any WiFi device (Laptop, Smart Phone, iPod Touch, iPhone, Android Phone, Zune, Netbook, wireless printer, etc.) These devices connect to Virtual Router just like any other WiFi access point, and the connection is secured using WPA2 encryption.

This small application is so easy to use that, you just need to define your desired SSID and password, and select the network interface to share the Internet access, then click the Start Virtual Router button.

Connected devices will be shown in the Peers Connected panel.

The device will be connected with WPA2 data encryption, and get a DHCP assigned IP address.

Click here to go to the download webpage of Virtual Router.

Fixed Samsung Galaxy Note 8 battery fast draining problem

My Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is using Digi data plan to access the Internet.

Since last week, its battery was draining very fast. Battery Monitor Widget Pro showed that even when it is idle and not in use, it lost battery charge at the rate of around 3.5% per hour. Within half a day, 50% of its battery drained off from fully charged, even when not in use!

The Statistics screen in Battery Monitor Widget Pro told me that it was the Android System that drained a lot of battery, but I need more detail to nail down the root cause.

I finally found the culprit with Better Battery Stats. In its Kernel Wakelock screen, I discovered the ril-fd wakelock was keeping my tablet awake most of the time, and it hardly gone into Deep Sleep mode.

A search in the Internet told me this ril-fd wakelock is related to a feature called Fast Dormancy, and it seems that some sort of flaw in Digi base station network has caused this Fast Dormancy feature to drain off battery in my tablet.

Finally, I managed to turn Fast Dormancy off by using FastDormancy Toggle for i9300. Yes, my Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is N5100, but this app seems to work well with other Samsung mobile devices running on Android 4.x as well.

In order to use FastDormancy Toggle for i9300, your Samsung mobile device need to be rooted. After toggling the Fast Dormancy on/off, you need to restart the device and charge the battery up to 100%.

Now, My Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is back to normal, draining battery at the rate of around 0.27% per hour when not in use.

I am running on stock ROM with build number KOT49H.N5100XXDNJ2 (Android version 4.4.2). It is rooted, as I need to gain back full access to its SD card. Now, the root access also enables me to toggle the Fast Dormancy feature to get rid of battery draining problem.

Using Winmail Opener to open attachment in winmail.dat file

If somebody sent you email with attachment using the old MS Outlook 97 or 2000, the attachment might probably appear in your email client as a winmail.dat file.

You can use the free Winmail Opener utility to extract the email attachment from this winmail.dat file.

The process is pretty simple. Just drag-and-drop the winmail.dat file into Winmail Opener's window, its content will be shown. Alternatively, you can also click the "Open file..." link in Winmail Opener and select the winmail.dat file.

Then, just drag-and-drop the attachment from Winmail Opener to your Desktop.

Click here to download and install the free Winmail Opener utility. It is freeware for both commercial and personal use.

Restrict apps network access in Android smartphones with Firewall Plus

Do you want to block the mobile advertisement from appearing in the screen of your standalone (can work locally without network connection) apps or games?

Do you feel suspicious and insecure when you discovered there are network activities from some of the apps installed in your smartphone, even though you didn't open them, or the apps suppose to work locally without the need of connecting to the network?

Would you like to restrict certain apps that consume a lot of network data usage, such as e-Magazines, e-Newspapers, etc., so that they can only use WiFi connection to access the network, and not using your precious mobile data plan?

If you have already rooted your Android device, you can install the free Firewall Plus.

I found this Firewall Plus very straightforward and easy to use, and it has a very small file size of 239kb only.

It will list down all the apps in your Android device, which you can select to allow the apps to have WiFi access, or 3G/4G mobile access, or both, or none, respectively.

It has 2 modes, the Blacklist mode is useful when you want to allow majority of the apps to have full network access, and the Whitelist mode is useful when you want to disallow network access to all the apps by default.

Firewall Plus works on top of the built-in iptables firewall in Android.

If you haven't rooted your Android device, you can also try another app called NoRoot Firewall. NoRoot Firewall leverages on the VPN function of your Android device to perform its firewall function, which I think is less efficient than Firewall Plus.

By the way, if you have installed 3G Watchdog or its Pro version in your Android device to monitor your network usage, it is able to show you the usage by apps very clearly.

Of course, you can also make use of the Data Manager inside the Android Kitkat system to check for network usage by apps.

Reenabling external SD card access that is restricted in Android 4.4 (KitKat) with SDFix

If you have updated your Android smartphone to version 4.4.x (KitKat), you might find that access to your external SD card is now restricted by the system.

The system now comes with a file explorer that is having full read/write access to both your internal storage and external SD card storage. However, 3rd party file explorers lost the write access to the external SD card and can no longer create, move or edit files or folders in it.

Many apps can no longer save data and files in the external SD card, including your backup apps, multimedia apps, file transfer apps, etc.

This will bring problem to the operation of numerous apps. You might also face storage shortage if the internal storage of your phone is less than 32GB.

Luckily, you can reconfigure your Android smartphone to treat your external SD card the same way as before version 4.4, and let you get rid of the restriction that causes you hassle, trouble and problem.

There is only one condition: your Android smartphone must be rooted, as root access is required to change the affected system configuration file.

I use a free app called SDFix: KitKat Writable MicroSD by NextApp Inc. for my HTC One (M8) and Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (GT-N5100) after they've updated to Android 4.4.x. This app is simple, easy, and works like a charm.

You will need to reboot your phone for the change to take effect after the app changed the system configuration file. If the change is successful, you can proceed to uninstall the app as you only need to run it once.

Check TNB electricity bill payment status with myTNB app for Android and iOS

I just discovered that Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) has released a mobile app called myTNB for both Android and iOS smart mobile devices.

You need to register an account in order to use myTNB. After that, you can link all the electricity bills under your name to this myTNB account.

Then, you are able to check the billing status of each of the bills. This is particularly useful for residential property owners to check and ensure their tenants have paid for the electricity bill.

Beside that, you can also use myTNB to check for new electricity supply application status, Renewable Energy payment advice, report faulty street light, etc.

However, the report faulty street light is not done through the app itself, but still using traditional SMS method, which might cost you SMS charge for sending to 15454.

• Click here to install myTNB for your Android mobile device
• Click here to install myTNB for your iOS mobile device

Obtain read and write access to Linux ext4 partition from Windows using Paragon ExtFS

If you have an SD card or an external harddisk or any other storage which is formatted in Linux native ext2/ext3/ext4 partition, and you want to mount and have full read/write access to it from Windows, here is the solution! Better still, it is free for personal use!

Paragon ExtFS for Windows is a small utility that enable you to gain both the read and write access to ext2/ext3/ext4 file systems, which is not recognized nor accessible by stock Windows OS.

This is particularly useful when you want to use your Windows computer to read, write, delete, rename, move, or copy file in your SD card or external harddisk or any other storage that is formatted with the ext2/ext3/ext4 file system.

You can download Paragon ExtFS for Windows here.

You need to register on their website in order to obtain the Product Key and Serial Number required during installation. Don't worry, this product is free for personal use, and the information will be emailed to you without any charge.

When it is running, by can automatically detect the partition with the ext2/ext3/ext4 file system, and by default will auto-mount it as a storage drive.

The drive will be seamlessly accessible by Windows.

Note that Windows detected my 16GB SD Card with Ext4 file system and assigned it to Drive E. However, Drive E is inaccessible, and Windows will ask you to format it if you try to access to it, resulting in total data lost if you choose to format it to a Windows recognizable file system (FAT32/NTFS/exFAT).

Paragon ExtFS mounted it as Drive F, which is fully accessible just like other drives.

When you right click on Drive F and look into its Properties, you will notice that its file system is shown as DOKAN.

You can click here to learn more about the Dokan file system driver.

Enhance Windows 8.1 usability with Classic Shell 4.1.0

I have replaced the IObit Start Menu 8 in my Windows 8.1 PCs with Classic Shell 4.1.0.

Classic Shell 4.1.0 is more stable, and more feature rich than IObit Start Menu 8. The Classic Start Menu in Classic Shell 4.1.0 can also display properly in high screen resolution of 3200x1800, but the IObit Start Menu 8 appears tiny in such high resolution screen.

You can download Classic Shell for free here.

The key component of Classic Shell is Classic Start Menu, which brings back the Windows Start Menu in Windows 8/8.1 similar to IObit Start Menu 8.

There are many settings you can play around in Classic Start Menu 4.1.0.

Besides, Classic Shell also includes Classic Explorer which will add a handy toolbar to Windows Explorer.

This Classic Explorer toolbar is configurable too.

The 3rd component is Classic IE, which adds the following functions to Internet Explorer:

Adds a caption to the title bar so you can see the full title of the page

Shows the security zone in the status bar

Shows the loading progress in the status bar

Revive the gadgets functionality in Windows 8 / 8.1 with Windows Desktop Gadgets 2.0

Desktop gadgets was introduced in Windows 7 but removed from the subsequent Windows 8 and Windows 8.1.

I find desktop gadgets functionality pretty useful and handy in monitoring statuses and activities such as real time CPU usage, GPU usage, memory usage, network usage, hard disk usage, temperature readings, etc.

If you miss the fun of having desktop gadgets in Windows 8 / 8.1, you can get back that functionality by installing a 3rd party software called Windows Desktop Gadgets Revivied 2.0.

When it is up and running, you will get back the Gadgets option in Windows Desktop context menu and the Desktop Gadgets setting section in Control Panel's Appearance and Personalization. It behaves very similar to the desktop gadgets functionality in Windows 7. With it, you can now install those gadgets designed for Windows 7 into your Windows 8 / 8.1.

Get back the Start Menu in MS Windows 8.1 with the free IObit Start Menu 8

Microsoft has removed the Start Menu since version 8 of the Windows operating system. The Start button at the bottom-left corner of the screen now acts as a toggle between Windows Desktop and the Metro UI interface.

If you are using MS Windows 8.1 and you miss the Start Menu in previous versions of MS Windows, you can get it back with 3rd party software.

I use IObit Start Menu 8 to achieve this, as it is free, and very easy to customize and use.

This is what you can get with IObit Start Menu 8 installed in Windows 8.1:

The appearance of Start Menu can be configured to use the Default Theme, Classic Windows 7 Theme, or the Windows 8 Theme.

You can also select your favourite Start Button, as it is configurable.

Similar to the Start Menu in Windows 7, you can customize how the links, icons and menus look and behave on this Start Menu.

With this, you can get back your user experience in using Windows operating system the same style as before.

EPF i-Account Android app launched

The Employees Provident Fund (EPF, a.k.a. Kumpulan Wang Simpanan Pekerja, KWSP) has recently launched their Android mobile app called EPF i-Account, which is now freely available in Google Play Store.

You can click here to download the EPF i-Account app from Google Play Store.

It is an HTML5 based mobile app, which you can login your EPF i-Account with the same username and password which you've setup in the web-based EPF i-Account at https://secure.kwsp.gov.my/secured/member/login/

The EPF i-Account Android app enables us to view our EPF account status and the monthly contributions detail. The EPF statements for current year and previous year are also available.

We can also see our personal profile info stored with EPF.

Other features are listed as in the screenshot below.

Currently, the EPF i-Account Android app can only be used to view information. It doesn't have function to make withdrawal request or make change request.

This app is currently having Malay language user interface only.

So far, more than 10,000 people have already installed the app. Have you?

Youtube for Google TV that works with HiMedia Q5ii Mango Hi Q Android TV box

If you have a HiMedia Q5ii Android TV box with Mango Hi Q firmware and find that it doesn't work well with Youtube, I've found the solution for you.

If you install the Youtube app (for Android smartphones and tablets) from Google Play Store into your HiMedia Q5ii Android TV box, you might face the problem that the Youtube always showing a black screen without any video, while the audio can still be heard.

The solution is to install Youtube for Google TV version 1.7.3 and it should work fine.

Youtube for Google TV was once available in Google Play Store, but is now unavailable. Anyhow, you can still download its APK file from here to install into your Android TV box.

PDF Split and Merge (PDFsam), free tool to split, merge, extract, rotate, reorder pages in PDF files

If you want to extract a few pages from a PDF file to another PDF file, or you want to insert a few PDF pages (such as the cover page) into an existing PDF file, what tool will you use to accomplish that?

There are several commercial tools available, which require you to buy a license. There are also several shareware tools and online tools which imposed a lot of limitation to the PDF file, such as with an accepted maximum page of a small number only.

I am using a free tools with the open source GPL2 license to do this. It is called PDF Split and Merge (PDFsam) Basic, developed by an Italian guy Andrea Vacondio and his team.

PDF Split and Merge Basic is able to:

• Split your PDF documents (into chapters, single pages, etc.).
• Merge many PDF documents or subsections of them.
• Extract sections of your document into a single PDF document.
• Mix alternate pages taken from two PDF documents in straight or reverse order into a single document.
• Rotate pages of the selected PDF documents.
• Visually reorder pages of a selected PDF document.
• Visually compose a document dragging pages from selected PDF documents.
• Save and load your workspace to automate your recurrent jobs.
• Manage PDFsam settings and set a workspace to load at start up.

PDFsam is running on Java, and is cross-platform. You can run it on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and the developer has also created a trimmed down version called PDF Merge for Android.

It has a simple and clean user interface, making it pretty easy to use.

You can download PDFsam here: http://www.pdfsam.org/download/

There is also an Enhanced version of PDFsam, which the source code is available. The developer has requested for a donation of any amount, and he will provide you with the compiled executable file and installer.

The additional functions in PDFsam Enhanced version are:

• Encrypt your PDF files (RC40 bits, RC128 bits, AES128 bits) and set permissions on them.
• Add a PDF document as front page or addendum (or both) to your PDF documents.
• Mix alternate pages taken from two PDF documents in straight or reverse order into a single document.
• Extract attached files from a PDF document.
• Decrypt your PDF files.
• Set viewer options to tell the viewer application how should open the document.
• Set the metadata of a document (author, title, subject and keywords).

Pro features in Timely Alarm Clock App for Android set free by Google after they acquired Bitspin

It is officially announced that Google has recently acquired Bitspin, the small Switzerland company founded by some ETH Zurich's computer science graduates.

Source: http://www.bitspin.ch/google

Bitspin produces the famous beautiful Android app called Timely Alarm Clock, which has accumulated more than 1 million downloads within a year.

Timely is available for free in Google Play store, and now its in-app purchase features are also made free. Good news to all that haven't purchased the in-app features, and bad news for those who already spent some money on the app.

JuiceSSH the free SSH client for Android developed by Linux system admins

SSH client is an essential tool for us to have remote access to the command line console of Linux/Android/Unix system, be it a server or network device that we manage, or our own personal computer, or a TV box, etc.

In Windows system, most of us use PuTTY or similar SSH client to remotely connect to our Linux/Android/Unix system. Beside Windows, there are PuTTY for Symbian, Windows Mobile, iPhone, ... but where is the PuTTY for Android?

Nowadays we tend to carry a smartphone, perhaps together with a tablet with us, more often than carrying a laptop. In order to practically work on the text-based SSH terminal, the smartphone need to have a large screen, and smartphone that fulfil this requirement is very likely an Android phone. Perhaps the tablet that we carry with us is also an Android tablet. Therefore, the market demand for a good SSH client for Android is definitely there, and JuiceSSH that I'm going to introduce here is among the best I found so far.

With a good SSH client in our Android device, we can access to the server, network equipment or computer anytime, anywhere for emergency troubleshooting, configuration, administration, etc.

JuiceSSH is an all-in-one terminal client for Android. Beside Secure Shell (SSH), it also supports Mobile Shell (MOSH), Local Shell and the unencrypted Telnet. Support for file transfer with SCP and SFTP is in the pipeline. With Local Shell support, you can get into the command line console of your Android device.

JuiceSSH is developed by Paul Maddox (a Linux system architect) and Tom Maddox (a system administrator). Being frequent SSH users themselves, I believe they know well about what their users want. For example, JuiceSSH has a popup keyboard on top of the Android keyboard for the command line commonly used Esc key, arrow keys, PgUp, PgDown, etc.

JuiceSSH has a full colour terminal that supports UTF-8 characters (including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.). It also supports copy and paste within the session. It will open the web browser when an URL shown on its screen is tapped.

If you deal a lot with Linux/Android/Unix system, this is a good tool for you in your Android devices.

Fixed IE 10 unable to download, Windows Update not functioning, MS Excel web query broken problem

Recently, one of the harddisks in the RAID 1 storage of my PC had given out S.M.A.R.T warning, and I've replaced it with a new harddisk.

The RAID was successfully rebuilt with the new harddisk, but I noticed something was not functioning well:

• The download function of Internet Explorer 10 in my Windows 7 stopped to work. Whenever I tried to download something, all the options in the IE 10 download prompt greyed out, and I can choose none of open, save nor cancel. In addition, pressing Ctrl-J in IE 10 to view downloads had no respond at all.
• Windows Update also not functioning and unable to check for updates from Microsoft site.
• All the web query links in my MS Excel worksheets were broken and unable to refresh data from the web.

These problems were fixed after I downloaded and installed the latest version of Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST)  RAID Driver from Intel Download Center.

If you are also having the same problem after you made change to your PC storage (i.e. replace harddisk, add new harddisk, etc.), hopefully this solution is also workable for you.