How to Keep your Google Contacts Up-to-date

<div dir="ltr"> <p>You have several incomplete entries in your Google Contacts. Some contact are missing phone numbers, others don't have any mailing address associated with them while in the case of close friends and family members, you don't even have a record of their birthdays.</p> <p>How do you get this missing information from contacts and complete your address book?</p> <p>You can always send them an email or make a phone call and fill-in the missing details manually or there's a new and better alternative – you can request your contacts to update their own records in your Google Contacts themselves.</p> <h2>Your Contacts Can Update your Google Address Book</h2> <p>It works something like this. Your selected contacts are sent a simple web form via your Gmail account. They can fill-in the missing contact information, press the Submit button and all that data is directly added to your Google Contacts. Simple.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">To get started, go to your Google Contacts and create a new group (say <em>Personal</em>). Now put one or more contacts into this new group – all these contacts in the group will get an automatic email from you requesting them to update their own records in your Google address book..</p> <ol start="1" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style><a href="https://script.google.com/d/1_QKPker133cjq2ashl4M6fedWZeleQv1mZaTrvol0rr6MO5nkfwtZaLS/edit?newcopy=true" target="_blank">Click here</a> to create a copy of the contacts app in your own Google Drive.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Update the values of NAME and GROUP variables with your own name and the name of your Google Contacts group respectively.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Go to Publish -> Deploy as Web App an click the "Save New Version" button. Next choose "Anyone, even Anonymous" under "Who can access the app" and click the Deploy button.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Go to Run -> Initialize to authorize and run the script.</li></ol> <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">That's it. All your contacts who are part of that particular Google Contacts group will now receive an email from you (screenshot A). When any of these contacts update their details through the form (screenshot B), you will be notified of the change via email.<br><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZCw3l6rM2BvoZqljHFtjdb_ab6OYhUwbkyqxOBpIKHfDIWJnSxuyPMH67_Dg3lrVCywgv-qnLUHqw3RmYmy3kyiaO_NHJzkqVGZgNJd_977_ovPJcGrVHS4T4Zahro2eZyHYPsl9q9A_K/s1600/update-google-contacts-726328.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5952135876154364914" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZCw3l6rM2BvoZqljHFtjdb_ab6OYhUwbkyqxOBpIKHfDIWJnSxuyPMH67_Dg3lrVCywgv-qnLUHqw3RmYmy3kyiaO_NHJzkqVGZgNJd_977_ovPJcGrVHS4T4Zahro2eZyHYPsl9q9A_K/s320/update-google-contacts-726328.png" /></a><br></span>Screenshot A: Your friend gets an email requesting them to update their contact information.<br> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjReamXlZDQySDuKXl7CZBfwNJPWQY1mR19aNzm4Nxa7xzAeNS4-KxU7KsGANFehhJK1Z2_RyziA4HA0V0nmBUmovYkynAE28qz2Zt9q6Z4WPpZc_hn8h8lBAneciQIBskkTY2hEmP9pw_-/s1600/google-contacts-form-732557.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5952135899902000562" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjReamXlZDQySDuKXl7CZBfwNJPWQY1mR19aNzm4Nxa7xzAeNS4-KxU7KsGANFehhJK1Z2_RyziA4HA0V0nmBUmovYkynAE28qz2Zt9q6Z4WPpZc_hn8h8lBAneciQIBskkTY2hEmP9pw_-/s320/google-contacts-form-732557.png" /></a><br> <p class="">Screenshot B: They can fill the form and their details are added directly into your Google Contacts.</p> <p>The project is created using Google Scripts and the source code is available on the <a href="http://ctrlq.org">ctrlq.org</a>. If you ever wish to disable the Google Contacts form, open the same Google Script in your Google Drive and unpublish the web app (under Publish -> Deploy as web app).</p> <p>Also, this version of the project requests essential contact details like Mailing Address, Mobile Number, Skype ID, Twitter ID, etc. but you can easily extend the script /web form to include additional fields like Anniversary date, Company name and so on. </p> <br></div>

How to Keep your Google Contacts Up-to-date

You have several incomplete entries in your Google Contacts. Some contact are missing phone numbers, others don't have any mailing ...

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How to Keep your Google Contacts Up-to-date

<div dir="ltr"> <p>You have several incomplete entries in your Google Contacts. Some contact are missing phone numbers, others don't have any mailing address associated with them while in the case of close friends and family members, you don't even have a record of their birthdays.</p> <p>How do you get this missing information from contacts and complete your address book?</p> <p>You can always send them an email or make a phone call and fill-in the missing details manually or there's a new and better alternative – you can request your contacts to update their own records in your Google Contacts themselves.</p> <h2>Your Contacts Can Update your Google Address Book</h2> <p>It works something like this. Your selected contacts are sent a simple web form via your Gmail account. They can fill-in the missing contact information, press the Submit button and all that data is directly added to your Google Contacts. Simple.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">To get started, go to your Google Contacts and create a new group (say <em>Personal</em>). Now put one or more contacts into this new group – all these contacts in the group will get an automatic email from you requesting them to update their own records in your Google address book..</p> <ol start="1" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style><a href="https://script.google.com/d/1_QKPker133cjq2ashl4M6fedWZeleQv1mZaTrvol0rr6MO5nkfwtZaLS/edit?newcopy=true" target="_blank">Click here</a> to create a copy of the contacts app in your own Google Drive.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Update the values of NAME and GROUP variables with your own name and the name of your Google Contacts group respectively.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Go to Publish -> Deploy as Web App an click the "Save New Version" button. Next choose "Anyone, even Anonymous" under "Who can access the app" and click the Deploy button.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Go to Run -> Initialize to authorize and run the script.</li></ol> <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">That's it. All your contacts who are part of that particular Google Contacts group will now receive an email from you (screenshot A). When any of these contacts update their details through the form (screenshot B), you will be notified of the change via email.<br><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZCw3l6rM2BvoZqljHFtjdb_ab6OYhUwbkyqxOBpIKHfDIWJnSxuyPMH67_Dg3lrVCywgv-qnLUHqw3RmYmy3kyiaO_NHJzkqVGZgNJd_977_ovPJcGrVHS4T4Zahro2eZyHYPsl9q9A_K/s1600/update-google-contacts-726328.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5952135876154364914" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZCw3l6rM2BvoZqljHFtjdb_ab6OYhUwbkyqxOBpIKHfDIWJnSxuyPMH67_Dg3lrVCywgv-qnLUHqw3RmYmy3kyiaO_NHJzkqVGZgNJd_977_ovPJcGrVHS4T4Zahro2eZyHYPsl9q9A_K/s320/update-google-contacts-726328.png" /></a><br></span>Screenshot A: Your friend gets an email requesting them to update their contact information.<br> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjReamXlZDQySDuKXl7CZBfwNJPWQY1mR19aNzm4Nxa7xzAeNS4-KxU7KsGANFehhJK1Z2_RyziA4HA0V0nmBUmovYkynAE28qz2Zt9q6Z4WPpZc_hn8h8lBAneciQIBskkTY2hEmP9pw_-/s1600/google-contacts-form-732557.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5952135899902000562" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjReamXlZDQySDuKXl7CZBfwNJPWQY1mR19aNzm4Nxa7xzAeNS4-KxU7KsGANFehhJK1Z2_RyziA4HA0V0nmBUmovYkynAE28qz2Zt9q6Z4WPpZc_hn8h8lBAneciQIBskkTY2hEmP9pw_-/s320/google-contacts-form-732557.png" /></a><br> <p class="">Screenshot B: They can fill the form and their details are added directly into your Google Contacts.</p> <p>The project is created using Google Scripts and the source code is available on the <a href="http://ctrlq.org">ctrlq.org</a>. If you ever wish to disable the Google Contacts form, open the same Google Script in your Google Drive and unpublish the web app (under Publish -> Deploy as web app).</p> <p>Also, this version of the project requests essential contact details like Mailing Address, Mobile Number, Skype ID, Twitter ID, etc. but you can easily extend the script /web form to include additional fields like Anniversary date, Company name and so on. </p> <br></div>

How to Keep your Google Contacts Up-to-date

You have several incomplete entries in your Google Contacts. Some contact are missing phone numbers, others don't have any mailing ...

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How to Setup your own Proxy Server for Free

<div dir="ltr"> <p>Do a Google search like "proxy servers" and you'll find dozens of PHP proxy scripts on the Internet that will help you create your own proxy servers in minutes for free. The only limitation with PHP based proxies is that they require a web server (to host and run the proxy scripts) and you also need a domain name that will act as an address for your proxy site.</p> <p>If you don't have a web domain or haven't rented any server space, you can still create a personal proxy server for free and that too without requiring any technical knowledge.</p> <h2>Create a Free Proxy Server with Google App Engine</h2> <p>Here's one such <a href="http://labnol-proxy-server.appspot.com/" target="_blank">proxy site</a> that you can build for your friends in China or even for your personal use (say for accessing blocked sites from office). This is created using Google App Engine and, contrary to what you may think, the setup is quite simple.</p> <ol start="1" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style>Go to <a href="https://appengine.google.com/" target="_blank">appengine.google.com</a> and sign-in using your Google Account.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Click the "Create an Application" button. Since this is your first time, Google will send a verification code via SMS to your mobile phone number. Type the code and you're all set to create apps with Google App Engine.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Pick an Application Identifier and it becomes the sub-domain* of your proxy server. Give your app a title (say Proxy Server), set the Authentication Option as "Open to all users", agree to the terms and create the application. (<a href="http://img.labnol.org/di/app-engine-application.png" rel="prettyPhoto[12890]" target="_blank" title="Create App Engine Application">screenshot</a>)</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style>OK, now that we have reserved the APP ID, it's time to create and upload the proxy server application to Google App Engine. Go to <a href="http://www.python.org/getit/releases/2.7/#download" target="_blank">python.org</a>, download the 2.7 Installer and install Python. If you are on Mac, Python 2.7 is already installed on your computer.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Download this <a href="https://github.com/labnol/google-proxy/archive/v1.0.zip" target="_blank">zip file</a> and extract it to your desktop. The zip file contains a couple of HTML, YAML and Python (.py) files that you can view inside WordPad.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Go to <a href="http://code.google.com/appengine/downloads.html#Google_App_Engine_SDK_for_Python" target="_blank">code.google.com</a>, download the Google App Engine SDK for Python and follow the wizard to install the SDK on your computer. When the installation wizard has finished, click the "Run Launcher" button to open the App Engine Program.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Choose Edit -> Preferences inside the Google App Engine Launcher program from the desktop and set the correct values (<a href="http://img.labnol.org/di/app-engine-sdk-preferences.png" rel="prettyPhoto[12890]" target="_blank" title="App Engine SDK Preferences">see screenshot</a>) for the Python Path, App Engine SDK and the Text Editor (set this is as WordPad or write.exe and not notepad.exe).</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Click File – > Add Existing Application under the Google App Launcher program and browse to the folder that contain the index.yaml and other files that you extracted in Step 5. Once the project is added to App Engine, select the project and click Edit to replace "YOUR_APP_ID" with your App ID (<a href="http://img.labnol.org/di/configuration-file.png" rel="prettyPhoto[12890]" target="_blank" title="App Engine Configuration File">screenshot</a>). Save and close the file.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Click Deploy, enter you Google account credentials and, within a minute or two, your online proxy server will be deployed and become ready for use (<a href="http://img.labnol.org/di/app-engine-deployed.png" rel="prettyPhoto[12890]" target="_blank" title="App Engine Application Deployed">screenshot</a>). The public URL (or web address) of your new proxy server will be <a href="http://your_app_id.appspot.com">your_app_id.appspot.com</a> (replace your_app_id with your App Engine Identifier).</li></ol> <p class="MsoNormal">[*] The sub-domain or the App ID will uniquely identify your App Engine application. For this example, we'll use <em>labnol-proxy-server</em> as the Application Identifier though you are free to choose any other unique name.</p> <h3>Next Steps – Setting up a Free Proxy with Google</h3> <p>You can edit the main.html file to change the appearance of your proxy website. You can even add code for Google Analytics and Google AdSense code to monetize your proxy server.</p> <p>The proxy server is public on the web (open to everyone) but you can add a layer of authentication so that only Google Account users who are logged-in can use your proxy server.</p> <p>If you have made any changes to your HTML files, you can upload the latest version to Google App Engine either by clicking the "Deploy" button again or use the following command – <code><span style="font-size:10pt">appcfg.py update </span></code><em><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New""><app-directory></span></em></p> <ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style>This proxy works with Flash videos (like YouTube and ABC News) though not with Hulu.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>As some of you have suggested, web domains with the word "proxy" or "proxies" are banned at workplaces so you may avoid using them in your <a href="http://appspot.com">appspot.com</a> proxy address.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Though there exist proxy servers for accessing secure (https) sites, this is a basic proxy server that won't work with sites that require logins (like Gmail).</li></ul> </div>

How to Setup your own Proxy Server for Free

Do a Google search like "proxy servers" and you'll find dozens of PHP proxy scripts on the Internet that will help you cr...

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How to Setup your own Proxy Server for Free

<div dir="ltr"> <p>Do a Google search like "proxy servers" and you'll find dozens of PHP proxy scripts on the Internet that will help you create your own proxy servers in minutes for free. The only limitation with PHP based proxies is that they require a web server (to host and run the proxy scripts) and you also need a domain name that will act as an address for your proxy site.</p> <p>If you don't have a web domain or haven't rented any server space, you can still create a personal proxy server for free and that too without requiring any technical knowledge.</p> <h2>Create a Free Proxy Server with Google App Engine</h2> <p>Here's one such <a href="http://labnol-proxy-server.appspot.com/" target="_blank">proxy site</a> that you can build for your friends in China or even for your personal use (say for accessing blocked sites from office). This is created using Google App Engine and, contrary to what you may think, the setup is quite simple.</p> <ol start="1" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style>Go to <a href="https://appengine.google.com/" target="_blank">appengine.google.com</a> and sign-in using your Google Account.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Click the "Create an Application" button. Since this is your first time, Google will send a verification code via SMS to your mobile phone number. Type the code and you're all set to create apps with Google App Engine.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Pick an Application Identifier and it becomes the sub-domain* of your proxy server. Give your app a title (say Proxy Server), set the Authentication Option as "Open to all users", agree to the terms and create the application. (<a href="http://img.labnol.org/di/app-engine-application.png" rel="prettyPhoto[12890]" target="_blank" title="Create App Engine Application">screenshot</a>)</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style>OK, now that we have reserved the APP ID, it's time to create and upload the proxy server application to Google App Engine. Go to <a href="http://www.python.org/getit/releases/2.7/#download" target="_blank">python.org</a>, download the 2.7 Installer and install Python. If you are on Mac, Python 2.7 is already installed on your computer.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Download this <a href="https://github.com/labnol/google-proxy/archive/v1.0.zip" target="_blank">zip file</a> and extract it to your desktop. The zip file contains a couple of HTML, YAML and Python (.py) files that you can view inside WordPad.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Go to <a href="http://code.google.com/appengine/downloads.html#Google_App_Engine_SDK_for_Python" target="_blank">code.google.com</a>, download the Google App Engine SDK for Python and follow the wizard to install the SDK on your computer. When the installation wizard has finished, click the "Run Launcher" button to open the App Engine Program.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Choose Edit -> Preferences inside the Google App Engine Launcher program from the desktop and set the correct values (<a href="http://img.labnol.org/di/app-engine-sdk-preferences.png" rel="prettyPhoto[12890]" target="_blank" title="App Engine SDK Preferences">see screenshot</a>) for the Python Path, App Engine SDK and the Text Editor (set this is as WordPad or write.exe and not notepad.exe).</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Click File – > Add Existing Application under the Google App Launcher program and browse to the folder that contain the index.yaml and other files that you extracted in Step 5. Once the project is added to App Engine, select the project and click Edit to replace "YOUR_APP_ID" with your App ID (<a href="http://img.labnol.org/di/configuration-file.png" rel="prettyPhoto[12890]" target="_blank" title="App Engine Configuration File">screenshot</a>). Save and close the file.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Click Deploy, enter you Google account credentials and, within a minute or two, your online proxy server will be deployed and become ready for use (<a href="http://img.labnol.org/di/app-engine-deployed.png" rel="prettyPhoto[12890]" target="_blank" title="App Engine Application Deployed">screenshot</a>). The public URL (or web address) of your new proxy server will be <a href="http://your_app_id.appspot.com">your_app_id.appspot.com</a> (replace your_app_id with your App Engine Identifier).</li></ol> <p class="MsoNormal">[*] The sub-domain or the App ID will uniquely identify your App Engine application. For this example, we'll use <em>labnol-proxy-server</em> as the Application Identifier though you are free to choose any other unique name.</p> <h3>Next Steps – Setting up a Free Proxy with Google</h3> <p>You can edit the main.html file to change the appearance of your proxy website. You can even add code for Google Analytics and Google AdSense code to monetize your proxy server.</p> <p>The proxy server is public on the web (open to everyone) but you can add a layer of authentication so that only Google Account users who are logged-in can use your proxy server.</p> <p>If you have made any changes to your HTML files, you can upload the latest version to Google App Engine either by clicking the "Deploy" button again or use the following command – <code><span style="font-size:10pt">appcfg.py update </span></code><em><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New""><app-directory></span></em></p> <ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style>This proxy works with Flash videos (like YouTube and ABC News) though not with Hulu.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>As some of you have suggested, web domains with the word "proxy" or "proxies" are banned at workplaces so you may avoid using them in your <a href="http://appspot.com">appspot.com</a> proxy address.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Though there exist proxy servers for accessing secure (https) sites, this is a basic proxy server that won't work with sites that require logins (like Gmail).</li></ul> </div>

How to Setup your own Proxy Server for Free

Do a Google search like "proxy servers" and you'll find dozens of PHP proxy scripts on the Internet that will help you cr...

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Use Google Docs to Monitor Availability of iPhone and iPads in Apple Stores

<div dir="ltr"> <p>You are looking to buy an iPhone 5S (or the iPad Air or the upcoming iPad Mini Retina) but the model you want is neither available on the Apple website nor at the local Apple Store. Apple will not notify you when they have stock so you manually check the Apple's online store, multiple times a day, to know if that product has become available or not.</p> <p>A website called Apple-Tracker.com (now offline) made that task slightly less cumbersome as it allowed users to quickly check availability of Apple products in stores in their locality. You could choose an Apple product, enter your zip code and it would tell you if that product was available for pickup at any of the Apple stores in your locality.</p><p><br></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifHQIj3aKeS8INa9tETu_AAvIu0xhfWO4xNGLc_hyphenhyphenFv8yishwqkPoXgHJkkVyxsRgBlL6YYMmxZmFSqafmgb5iJIzO7m_ytYPjQ1MJ9FJhjG2NGXLoCzcMceQUa4Sb3iN51s8xKkycMxUF/s1600/apple-store-pickup-790212.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5952133571435479234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifHQIj3aKeS8INa9tETu_AAvIu0xhfWO4xNGLc_hyphenhyphenFv8yishwqkPoXgHJkkVyxsRgBlL6YYMmxZmFSqafmgb5iJIzO7m_ytYPjQ1MJ9FJhjG2NGXLoCzcMceQUa4Sb3iN51s8xKkycMxUF/s320/apple-store-pickup-790212.png" /></a><br></p><p> </p><p>The website is however no longer available but the developer has uploaded the code on <a href="https://github.com/tekay/apple-tracker/blob/3eb6d4540b82e40e78787b02437cc1ee6c87a5e8/README.md" target="_blank">Github</a> should you be interested in running a private copy of the Apple Tracker. This is a Node.JS based app and implementation does need some technical know-how.</p> <p>There's however a simpler Google Script based version of the Apple Tracker tool available as well that you can run privately in your own Google Drive. This version will send email alerts (sample alert) as soon as it finds that an item in your watchlist is available at a nearby Apple store. You can track stocks of iPad Air, iPad Mini with Retina Display and the iPhone 5S.</p> <p>Here's how you can use the Google Script based Apple Tracker tool for automatically tracking Apple inventory at various Apple Stores in your locality:</p> <ol start="1" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style>Click here to make a copy of the Apple Tracker script in your Google Drive.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>You'll have a sheet with a list of all available models of the iPhone 5S, iPad Air and the upcoming iPad Mini with Retina. Put "Y" against items that you wish to track.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Go to the Apple Tracker menu in the sheet and choose Initialize. Then click "Accept" at the authorization dialog. The <a href="http://ctrlq.org/code/19571-apple-tracker" target="_blank">script is open-source</a> and none of your data leaves your Drive.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Choose Start Tracking under the Apple Tracker menu. Enter your zip code (U.S. only) and your email address where you wish to receive product availability alerts. Click the Start Tracking button and exit the Google sheet.</li></ol> <p>That's it. The Google Script will check the inventory of all Apple Stores in the specified zip code every hour and will send email alerts if it finds a store where your Apple product is available for pick up. The email alert will also include the Apple store's address and phone number.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">If you would like to disable tracking, just open your Google sheet copy and add "N" against all the product items that you no longer wish to track. Alternatively, you may choose the Uninstall option under the Apple Track menu.</p> </div>

Use Google Docs to Monitor Availability of iPhone and iPads in Apple Stores

You are looking to buy an iPhone 5S (or the iPad Air or the upcoming iPad Mini Retina) but the model you want is neither available on t...

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Use Google Docs to Monitor Availability of iPhone and iPads in Apple Stores

<div dir="ltr"> <p>You are looking to buy an iPhone 5S (or the iPad Air or the upcoming iPad Mini Retina) but the model you want is neither available on the Apple website nor at the local Apple Store. Apple will not notify you when they have stock so you manually check the Apple's online store, multiple times a day, to know if that product has become available or not.</p> <p>A website called Apple-Tracker.com (now offline) made that task slightly less cumbersome as it allowed users to quickly check availability of Apple products in stores in their locality. You could choose an Apple product, enter your zip code and it would tell you if that product was available for pickup at any of the Apple stores in your locality.</p><p><br></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifHQIj3aKeS8INa9tETu_AAvIu0xhfWO4xNGLc_hyphenhyphenFv8yishwqkPoXgHJkkVyxsRgBlL6YYMmxZmFSqafmgb5iJIzO7m_ytYPjQ1MJ9FJhjG2NGXLoCzcMceQUa4Sb3iN51s8xKkycMxUF/s1600/apple-store-pickup-790212.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5952133571435479234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifHQIj3aKeS8INa9tETu_AAvIu0xhfWO4xNGLc_hyphenhyphenFv8yishwqkPoXgHJkkVyxsRgBlL6YYMmxZmFSqafmgb5iJIzO7m_ytYPjQ1MJ9FJhjG2NGXLoCzcMceQUa4Sb3iN51s8xKkycMxUF/s320/apple-store-pickup-790212.png" /></a><br></p><p> </p><p>The website is however no longer available but the developer has uploaded the code on <a href="https://github.com/tekay/apple-tracker/blob/3eb6d4540b82e40e78787b02437cc1ee6c87a5e8/README.md" target="_blank">Github</a> should you be interested in running a private copy of the Apple Tracker. This is a Node.JS based app and implementation does need some technical know-how.</p> <p>There's however a simpler Google Script based version of the Apple Tracker tool available as well that you can run privately in your own Google Drive. This version will send email alerts (sample alert) as soon as it finds that an item in your watchlist is available at a nearby Apple store. You can track stocks of iPad Air, iPad Mini with Retina Display and the iPhone 5S.</p> <p>Here's how you can use the Google Script based Apple Tracker tool for automatically tracking Apple inventory at various Apple Stores in your locality:</p> <ol start="1" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style>Click here to make a copy of the Apple Tracker script in your Google Drive.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>You'll have a sheet with a list of all available models of the iPhone 5S, iPad Air and the upcoming iPad Mini with Retina. Put "Y" against items that you wish to track.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Go to the Apple Tracker menu in the sheet and choose Initialize. Then click "Accept" at the authorization dialog. The <a href="http://ctrlq.org/code/19571-apple-tracker" target="_blank">script is open-source</a> and none of your data leaves your Drive.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style>Choose Start Tracking under the Apple Tracker menu. Enter your zip code (U.S. only) and your email address where you wish to receive product availability alerts. Click the Start Tracking button and exit the Google sheet.</li></ol> <p>That's it. The Google Script will check the inventory of all Apple Stores in the specified zip code every hour and will send email alerts if it finds a store where your Apple product is available for pick up. The email alert will also include the Apple store's address and phone number.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">If you would like to disable tracking, just open your Google sheet copy and add "N" against all the product items that you no longer wish to track. Alternatively, you may choose the Uninstall option under the Apple Track menu.</p> </div>

Use Google Docs to Monitor Availability of iPhone and iPads in Apple Stores

You are looking to buy an iPhone 5S (or the iPad Air or the upcoming iPad Mini Retina) but the model you want is neither available on t...

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A Simple Way to Create RSS Feeds for Twitter

<div dir="ltr"> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">Twitter has dropped support for RSS Feeds but there does exist a solution, slightly complicated though, that you may use to generate feeds for your various Twitter streams including Twitter search results, user timelines and even Twitter lists.</span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">Without RSS feeds, it is difficult to use your Twitter data elsewhere. For instance, you can no longer create recipes in IFTTT that get triggered when you post a new tweet. You cannot import your Twitter timeline automatically into your blog. You cannot track Twitter search results for certain keywords in your RSS reader.</span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">If you are also missing RSS Feeds in Twitter, here's a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXLYIw-IU8I" target="_blank" title="RSS Feeds in Twitter - Video Tutorial">new workaround</a> that is much easier to  implement (you can get a Twitter RSS feed in two minutes) and more reliable as well.</span></p> <h2 style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">How to Create RSS Feeds in Twitter</span></h2> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">The trick is simple. Twitter offers widgets to help you embed user timelines into your website.  The new workaround simply transforms these Twitter widgets into regular RSS Feeds with the help of a simple <a href="http://ctrlq.org/code/19491-embed-twitter-rss" target="_blank">Google Script</a>. Here're the instructions:</span></p> <ol start="1" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">From your Twitter homepage, go to <em><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">Settings -> Widgets</span></em> (<a href="https://twitter.com/settings/widgets" target="_blank">link</a>) and create a new widget. You can create widgets for user timelines, favorites, Twitter list and search results.</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">Once the new widget is published, make a note of the widget ID which you can find in the the URL of the widget.</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style""><a href="https://script.google.com/d/1jqSKEakAlz_1uo9MWXqveuUUFzuRnH16bWzgMOq602Syh88IJyeUmFlm/edit?newcopy=true" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Click here</a> to make a copy of the Google Script and choose <em><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">Run -> Twitter_RSS</span></em> to initialize and authorize the script. You've to do this only once.</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">Go to <em><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">Publish -> Deploy as Web App</span></em> and click the "Save New Version" button. Set <em><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">Anyone, including Anonymous</span></em> under <em><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">Who has access to the app</span></em> and hit Deploy.</span></li></ol> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">Google Script will now create a unique URL for your RSS web app that will look something like <em><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style""><a href="https://script.google.com/macros/s/ABCD/exec">https://script.google.com/macros/s/ABCD/exec</a></span></em>. Just append the Twitter Widget ID (created in Step 2) to this URL and your RSS feed for Twitter is ready.</span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">For instance, if the Twitter widget ID is <em><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">123456</span></em>, your RSS Feed URL would be:</span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style";color:rgb(51,102,255)"><a href="https://script.google.com/macros/s/ABCD/exec">https://script.google.com/macros/s/ABCD/exec</a></span><strong><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">?<span style="color:red">123456</span></span></strong><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style""> </span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">Should you wish to create another RSS Feed for Twitter, just add another widget and use that new widget's ID with your Google Script URL. [<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXLYIw-IU8I" target="_blank">Video Tutorial</a> <a href="http://img.labnol.org/videos/twitter-rss-feeds.mp4">↓</a>] </span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">You can subscribe to the Twitter RSS feed inside Feedly or use it as for an IFTTT recipe. However, FeedBurner is unable to parse RSS feeds generated through Google Scripts.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">[</span><strong><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">11/15/2013</span></strong><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">] The new version of the Twitter RSS Feed generator now supports custom timelines in Twitter as well.</span></p> </div>

A Simple Way to Create RSS Feeds for Twitter

Twitter has dropped support for RSS Feeds but there does exist a solution, slightly complicated though, that you may use to generate f...

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A Simple Way to Create RSS Feeds for Twitter

<div dir="ltr"> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">Twitter has dropped support for RSS Feeds but there does exist a solution, slightly complicated though, that you may use to generate feeds for your various Twitter streams including Twitter search results, user timelines and even Twitter lists.</span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">Without RSS feeds, it is difficult to use your Twitter data elsewhere. For instance, you can no longer create recipes in IFTTT that get triggered when you post a new tweet. You cannot import your Twitter timeline automatically into your blog. You cannot track Twitter search results for certain keywords in your RSS reader.</span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">If you are also missing RSS Feeds in Twitter, here's a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXLYIw-IU8I" target="_blank" title="RSS Feeds in Twitter - Video Tutorial">new workaround</a> that is much easier to  implement (you can get a Twitter RSS feed in two minutes) and more reliable as well.</span></p> <h2 style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">How to Create RSS Feeds in Twitter</span></h2> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">The trick is simple. Twitter offers widgets to help you embed user timelines into your website.  The new workaround simply transforms these Twitter widgets into regular RSS Feeds with the help of a simple <a href="http://ctrlq.org/code/19491-embed-twitter-rss" target="_blank">Google Script</a>. Here're the instructions:</span></p> <ol start="1" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">From your Twitter homepage, go to <em><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">Settings -> Widgets</span></em> (<a href="https://twitter.com/settings/widgets" target="_blank">link</a>) and create a new widget. You can create widgets for user timelines, favorites, Twitter list and search results.</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">Once the new widget is published, make a note of the widget ID which you can find in the the URL of the widget.</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style""><a href="https://script.google.com/d/1jqSKEakAlz_1uo9MWXqveuUUFzuRnH16bWzgMOq602Syh88IJyeUmFlm/edit?newcopy=true" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Click here</a> to make a copy of the Google Script and choose <em><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">Run -> Twitter_RSS</span></em> to initialize and authorize the script. You've to do this only once.</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">Go to <em><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">Publish -> Deploy as Web App</span></em> and click the "Save New Version" button. Set <em><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">Anyone, including Anonymous</span></em> under <em><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">Who has access to the app</span></em> and hit Deploy.</span></li></ol> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">Google Script will now create a unique URL for your RSS web app that will look something like <em><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style""><a href="https://script.google.com/macros/s/ABCD/exec">https://script.google.com/macros/s/ABCD/exec</a></span></em>. Just append the Twitter Widget ID (created in Step 2) to this URL and your RSS feed for Twitter is ready.</span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">For instance, if the Twitter widget ID is <em><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">123456</span></em>, your RSS Feed URL would be:</span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style";color:rgb(51,102,255)"><a href="https://script.google.com/macros/s/ABCD/exec">https://script.google.com/macros/s/ABCD/exec</a></span><strong><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">?<span style="color:red">123456</span></span></strong><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style""> </span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">Should you wish to create another RSS Feed for Twitter, just add another widget and use that new widget's ID with your Google Script URL. [<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXLYIw-IU8I" target="_blank">Video Tutorial</a> <a href="http://img.labnol.org/videos/twitter-rss-feeds.mp4">↓</a>] </span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">You can subscribe to the Twitter RSS feed inside Feedly or use it as for an IFTTT recipe. However, FeedBurner is unable to parse RSS feeds generated through Google Scripts.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">[</span><strong><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">11/15/2013</span></strong><span style="font-family:"Bookman Old Style"">] The new version of the Twitter RSS Feed generator now supports custom timelines in Twitter as well.</span></p> </div>

A Simple Way to Create RSS Feeds for Twitter

Twitter has dropped support for RSS Feeds but there does exist a solution, slightly complicated though, that you may use to generate f...

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Protect your Android Phone with these Security Apps

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><h1 class="post-title entry-title"></h1><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <br />Your mobile phone is probably your most important digital possession that holds your contacts, emails, text messages, personal photos and other confidential stuff that you would not like anyone else to see. Yet, it is so easy to lose one as you are carrying it everywhere you go.<br />There are a plethora of security apps in the Google Play store that help you safeguard your Android phone and offer options that increase your chances of locating your lost (or stolen) device. The Lookout app was the most popular choice for determining the location of a lost phone but with Google's own Android Device Manager available, Lookout can be skipped (unless your phone is running an older version of Android).<br />The Android Device Manager shows a list of all Android phones and tablets that are connected to your Google Account and helps you locate them on a Google Map. You can ring your phone (in case it is hiding beneath the pillow) from the browser, lock the device with a custom PIN or perform a factory reset which permanently deletes all the data on your phone.<br />Android Device Manager requires that the device is online – connected to mobile data or Wi-Fi – for you to remotely ring, lock or erase the phone. There're however apps like Prey and Where's my Droid app that let you remotely send commands to your phone via text messages.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7855539908230927445" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHZUAXzXFbCh1mBuD40Hh23t_F4uP3yjXImXY30Oba8lxkFGu5Rewsnjh-IJpVsUIQu8hZ50uFyKrE0Fq4J908CE23Q4PvRaTy_QA9rVvMxa_aZ3J5vMtP7Lqfa70pu1DGWmPW-5Odg1Fu/s1600/android-security-apps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHZUAXzXFbCh1mBuD40Hh23t_F4uP3yjXImXY30Oba8lxkFGu5Rewsnjh-IJpVsUIQu8hZ50uFyKrE0Fq4J908CE23Q4PvRaTy_QA9rVvMxa_aZ3J5vMtP7Lqfa70pu1DGWmPW-5Odg1Fu/s400/android-security-apps.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <br />For instance, an SMS command like "GO PREY" to your lost phone from any other mobile phone will ring the phone, record its geo-location and also captures a picture with the front camera. You can also lock your phone, erase the data, show a system notification or take a picture on-demand through <a href="http://preyproject.com/blog/2013/10/command-your-phone-via-sms-with-the-new-prey-for-android" target="_blank">commands</a> sent via text messages.<br />Both Prey and Where's My Droid can be configured to send SMS alerts to another number should someone try to change the existing SIM card of your phone. That said, you should also activate the SIM lock on your Android phone (Settings -> Security -> Setup SIM Card lock) and the device will require a password whenever it is powered on.<br />When you are charging your cell phone at a public station, you either have to watch the device all the time or you can activate the <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ralok.antitheftalarm&hl=en" target="_blank">Anti-Theft Alarm</a> app and relax a bit. The app will trigger a siren sound when someone disconnects the charger and your phone screen will flash continuously until the correct pin is entered. You can go a step further and configure the app to trigger an alert when someone moves the phone even a few inches from the original position.<br />Another Android App <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bloketech.lockwatch&hl=en" target="_blank">LockWatch</a> records the phone's location and captures a picture with a front camera when someone attempts to unlock the phone but enters a wrong PIN or password. This information is send to your email address and it happen silently so the intruder would never know that their activity has been recorded.<br />If the device gets lost or stolen, it is important that you report the matter to your carrier and the police and they are likely to ask for details like the device's IMEI number, IMSI, SIM number, etc. It helps if you can keep a record of this information somewhere outside your phone. You can find the IMEI number by dialing *#06# or get the <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jaemin.simreader&hl=en" target="_blank">SIM reader</a> app and it will instantly extract the SIM and Device info that you can save to your email account.<br />One more thing. You have protected your Android phone with a numeric PIN or a more complex alphanumeric password but these are obviously inconvenient as you have type the string every time you turn on the screen. A free app called <a href="http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?s=bb36e4e45874593b4c404f9dd711bdfc&p=47365929&postcount=1" target="_blank">SkipLock</a> makes you life a bit easier. <br /><div class="MsoNormal">The app will basically remove the lock when you are connected to one of the recognized Wi-Fi networks and restores the lock as soon as you are on 3G or a non-recognized Wi-Fi network. Thus, the phone stays unlocked when you are home but as soon as you step out, the lock becomes active. Since the SkipLock app isn't in the Google Play Store, you'll have to enable Unknown Sources to install the APK file on your phone.</div><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://sigads.rediff.com/RealMedia/ads/click_nx.ads/www.rediffmail.com/signatureline.htm@Middle?" target="_blank"><img src="http://sigads.rediff.com/RealMedia/ads/adstream_nx.ads/www.rediffmail.com/signatureline.htm@Middle" /></a><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="height: 20px; width: 1px;"><tbody><tr><td valign="top"><br /></td><td valign="top"><br /></td></tr><tr><td><br /></td><td><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></div>

Protect your Android Phone with these Security Apps

Your mobile phone is probably your most important digital possession that holds your contacts, emails, text messages, personal photos a...

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