Archive for 2013

It Turn You Into A Witch - Google's Halloween Doodle

By : Sachin Kumar Sahu
It's already Halloween in some countries, which means there's a new Google doodle.
Already live in Australia (and soon elsewhere) is a new doodle for the holiday, which lets users become a witch and create a witch's brew.
Users can combine various ingredients to play mini games, from whack-a-mole with the undead, to a shell game where your goal is to find a mummy in a coffin. There are several others, which can be found with experimentation.
That's about all you can do with this one, so if you're looking for an ending, it's a bit of a cliff-hanger.
Last year's Halloween doodle was similarly interactive, with a row of houses that contained various interactive elements.
Adorning Google's home page with decorative, and increasingly interactive alternatives to its normal multi-color logo has been a tradition for the company since 1998. There's a team of people at Google who create the doodles, though the company occasionally allows outsiders to make them too.

 Click here to see actual doodle with all functionality.
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Camera Zoom Extreme - High Quality Photos - iOS app

By : Sachin Kumar Sahu

Download This AppCamera Zoom Extreme would be just another fairly redundant camera app if not for a couple of very useful features included by the developers. Even with those features, it doesn't do a lot to make it more useful than the standard app that comes with every iPhone; but it is free -- and for those that need those added features, it works quite well.

When you open the app, you'll be given a very short overview of how it works. The app is free and there is an upgrade to include a 30x digital zoom, but you'll never feel like it's necessary to enjoy the basic features that come with the app as is. From here you can start taking photos. The interface is easy to use with everything on screen including a nice flash button at the top that toggles the flash on and off quickly. There is also a zoom monitor to show you exactly how much you've zoomed in at any point, and our favorite feature -- the level bars so you can see if the image is squared up in the camera lens.

If you want a camera app that is fast to use and has a decent zoom function and a very useful level bar so your photos stay level, then the free version of Camera Zoom Extreme is a good download. It doesn't do much more that other free apps or the built-in iOS camera already don't, but it is effective for what it promises and the upgrade is not necessary for most features.

Publisher's Description From iTunes
SPECIAL LAUNCH PRICE 
FREE!!! 
BUY NOW BEFORE THE PRICE GOES UP! 

Easily extremely zoom your camera, take a picture and share it!

Now you can easily super-zoom (This version is limited to 3x zoom, you can use 30x zoom only on Full Version) using your iDevice. Just reverse-pinch/pinch to zoom in or out, use the special buttons, easily take a great photo of the zoomed picture and share it with friends and even on Instagram. 

This is the best zoom camera app you'll ever use, See screenshots and try it out! 

Features of this version: 
- Easily zoom from 1x to 3x using pinch or special buttons 
- Works fully on every iDevice camera: Use it as zoom camera or as a zoom-mirror 
- easily take a photo of the zoomed picture 
- Slick and easy to use design, See screenshots. 
- You can also use the built-in flashlight 
- Share your photos on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SMS, email etc. directly and easily from the app itself!
- Universal app, Works perfectly on iPod,iPhone and iPad!

On FULL version you can also zoom to 30x magnification! 

ATTENTION - PHOTOS PERMISSION : If you accidentally didn't granted permission to access your photos please go to your settings app -> privacy -> photos -> then find the app name and grant access to photos. 

If you have any issues with this app please contact us from the app store link. That's the only way we can contact you to solve it out. Leaving an issue as a review doesn't help us solve it.
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Run Windows 8.1 For Free For 90 Days

By : Sachin Kumar Sahu

For Windows 8 users, the decision to upgrade to 8.1 is virtually a no brainer. The new version offers a host of benefits and improvements over its predecessor. And it's free. So, there's little reason not to upgrade. Windows 8 users can easily download and install the Windows 8.1 update through the Windows store.

 But those of you running previous versions of Windows would have to shell out $120 for Windows 8.1 or $200 for Windows 8.1 Pro. Instead, you can install the Enterprise evaluation edition first to see if 8.1 is worth your hard-earned money. Here's how:

  • Choose a PC on which you wish to install the Windows 8.1 evaluation software.
  • Tip : You can use a spare PC, create a dual-boot setup on your existing PC, or configure a virtual machine.
  • Whichever drive you choose, make sure you have at least 30GB worth of free space for the OS and whatever apps you want to install.
  • After you've chosen a home for Windows 8.1, go to Microsoft's TechNet Evaluation Center Web site to download the Windows8.1 ISO file.
  •  At the drop-down window to select a version, pick either the 32-bit or 64-bit edition and then click the button to Get Started Now.
  • To download the file, you'll need to set up a Microsoft account if you don't already have one. You'll also need to fill out a profile with some basic information. Microsoft then prompts you to install an Akamai Net-session Interface utility in order to download the ISO file. After you've installed the Akamai utility, click on the green Downloading files button to download the ISO. The ISO file is around 3.7GB, so the download will take awhile. meanwhile you can have a cup of coffee :).
  • Now you have the ISO file you can now BURN it in DVD or make a bootable pendrive with tool like RUFUS or want to have a tool which can do both try POWERISO.
  • After bootup, you'll see the initial Windows 8.1 setup screen. Confirm the settings and click Next. At the second setup screen, click Install now. At the License terms screen, click on the check box for I accept the license terms and then click Next. At the screen asking which type of installation you want, select the second option for Custom: Install Windows only (advanced). At the screen asking where you want to install Windows, select the partition you wish to use to store the OS. Click Next. The installation kicks off.
Following the installation, you're deposited at the Personalization screen where you choose a background style, PC name, and other settings for Windows. After the Personalization process, you finally arrive at the familiar Start screen.
And that's it. You now have 90 days to live with your new OS.
The Windows 8.1 Enterprise evaluation edition is a full working version. It has all of the features of Windows 8.1 Pro and then some. The Enterprise edition is aimed at IT administrators, developers, and other tech professionals. But anyone can run it before deciding if Windows 8.1 is worth a permanent commitment.
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VLC 2.1 "Rincewind" New Feature & Review

By : Sachin Kumar Sahu

Whats New

With a new audio core, hardware decoding and encoding, port to mobile platforms, preparation for Ultra-HD video and a special care to support more formats, 2.1 is a major upgrade for VLC.
Rincewind has a new rendering pipeline for audio, with better efficiency, volume and device management, to improve VLC audio support.
It supports many new devices inputs, formats, metadata and improves most of the current ones, preparing for the next-gen codecs.
Rincewind fixes around a thousand bugs, in more than 7000 commits from 140 volunteers.

Review

Version 2.1 "Rincewind" is out for Mac and Windows both, but I tested the Windows version only. VLC 2.1 is somewhat better with video than previous iterations, especially WMV and FLV files. I still saw the occasional undrawn frames (which could exist for up to 5 seconds in previous versions) when seeking, but they weren't as common as they had been, and they disappeared more quickly. Loading times seemed faster as well.
VLC is also great for playing audio and supports everything, including surround up to 7.1 channels. Well, almost everything. It didn't play my ancient VQF file, but I've yet to find the player that can. VideoLan rewrote VLC 2.1's audio core, and I'd love to say I could hear a difference...but I couldn't. It was darn good already and the new core makes it perfect :).
VLC is my default player for audio when I'm on a system with DTS or Dolby augmentation. But it has no psychoacoustic FX such as Trubass or iTunes Sound Enhancer, so when the sound requires it, I switch to Window Media Player. I'm addicted to that sort of stuff when I'm listening for pleasure as opposed to checking a mix. The compression, equalizer, and Spatializer available in VLC cut too much volume at default settings and are too complicated for most users.
A lot of what's changed in VLC is support for hardware decoding on Mac and Android systems, as well as being ported to later versions of the latter. But there's also down-mixing from 6.1 to 5.1 or stereo in the FLAC codec, as well as better AVI and MKV recording. There's a new subtitles menu on the main page for quicker access and the volume display now only goes to 125% (formerly 200%, which is still the actual maximum volume), but those are the only cosmetic changes I could spot. There's also vague but intriguing mention of "preparation for Ultra-HD video," which won't affect most of us—have you turned up any 4K video lately?—but could be important in the future.
Those are only a few highlights.There is more to it.

Features

AUDIO

  • Rewritten audio core, allowing better volume and device management.
  • Rewrite of the audio modules, to adapt to the new core.
  • Correct support for multi-channel layouts in all formats: 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1
  • New audio outputs for Windows Vista, Android, iOS, OpenBSD and OSSv4.
  • New remapping, gain, stereo widening, downmixing effects.
  • Higher samplerate, precision, live configuration in the core.
  • Numerous new audio metadata format supported.

VIDEO

  • Port the OpenGL output to OpenGL ES.
  • Support color conversion shaders in glsl on Android and iOS.
  • New outputs for OpenMax IL on mobile and Decklink Blackmagic.
  • New video outputs for iOS using OpenGL ES2.
  • Support for deinterlacing for higher bit depth and XYZ colorspace.
  • New anaglyph filter for side-by-side 3D.
  • 4K-ready :)

CODECS

  • Add hardware decoding for OS X using VDADecoder.
  • Add hardware decoding for Android using MediaCodec.
  • Add hardware decoding for GNU/Linux using VDPAU.
  • Add hardware encoding for Windows using Intel QuickSyncVideo.
  • Support for G2M4, MSS1, MSS2, TSCC2, CDXL, Ut, VBLE video codecs.
  • Support for Ulead DV audio, Indeo Audio Coder, RealAudio Lossless audio.
  • Support for SCTE-27 and complete EIA-608 subtitles.

FORMATS

  • Support for fragmented MP4, Wave/RF64 files.
  • Extended metadata tags and cover art support in Ogg, AVI, MP4 and MKV.
  • Support FLAC, Atrac, ADPCM, DV Type 1, 12bits DV audio in AVI.
  • Extended support for AVI, MKV and MJPEG streams.
  • Better recording of AVI and MKV format.
  • Audio fingerprinting using AcoustID.

INPUT AND DEVICES

  • Support for screen input on OSX Lion and later.
  • Support for Microsoft Smooth Streaming, developed by Viotech.net
  • New RTMP input module, using libavformat!
  • Support for VNC/rfb and Remote Desktop view-only modes.
  • Important improvements on Blu-Ray, Dash, v4l2 and HTTP inputs.
  • New AVFoundation OS X and shm framebuffer inputs.

FOR ANIME FANS

  • New 6.1 downmixer to 5.1 and Stereo from MKV/Flac 6.1.
  • Correct YUV->RGB color matrix in the OpenGL shaders.
  • Improved MKV support for seeking, and resiliancy.
  • Editions support in MKV.
  • Better subtitles and metadata support from MKV.
  • Various ASS subtitles improvements.

FOR MOBILE

  • Port to Android, from 2.1 to 4.3, on ARMv6, ARMv7, x86 and MIPS.
  • New port to iOS, from iOS 5 to 7, on all iPads and iPhones after 3GS.
  • Partial port to WinRT, for Windows 8, 8.1 and WP8.
  • OpenGL ES optimized outputs.
  • Improvements of OpenMAX IL decoders, encoders and renderers.
  • New audio, video outputs and interfaces for mobiles.

FOR DEVELOPERS

  • libVLC and most modules are now LGPLv2.1+.
  • libVLC media framework can now be used in all types of applications.
  • libVLC SDK packages now exists, in addition to more examples.
  • Improved libVLC API, for better control.
  • VLC's web plugins now support windowless mode, for smoother integration with HTML elements.
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Why your PC should have a SSD - Solid State Drive

By : Sachin Kumar Sahu

For those who do not already have a Solid State Drive installed do not worry. Here is all you shall need to know or maybe your on the fence about SSD, not sure if it is worth it? Lay your fears to rest right here
A Solid State Drive by name is a drive that can hold data when there is no power but also has no mechanical moving parts. It uses interfaces which are purely electronic but it still uses the same I/O as normal hard drives so no worries about compatibility.
The lack of moving and mechanical parts means more physical stability and faster access to the data stored hence they tend to be more expensive per GB.

How will an SSD improve my gaming?

In terms of multiplayer games e.g. Starcraft 2, League of Legends and shooters like Battlefield 3 will load any files stored on your computer slightly faster like maps for example and so much quicker than a standard HDD, the rest after that is up to your internet connection.
Single player games get a clear bonus when using an SSD with fast access to the information needed to render what you want to see. So for example your playing The Witcher 2 which has high graphical demand, now you may be asking what has an SSD got to do with graphics? Well if the information that the graphics need, in order to know what to process is received faster then you get a better and smoother experience the rest of course is taken care of by your graphics card.

What about these HDD SSD combination hybrids I keep hearing about?


There are drives coming to market from manufacturers like Seagate for example, who are providing a combination with traditional HDD containing an SSD. At the moment these drives tend to have a smaller amount of SSD storage. This will change soon enough with more space and abilities added to the SSD.
These drives are more HDD than SSD the latter portion is giving the drive quicker access to the information stored in the main storage. An advantage is it also manages to retain data after power has gone down for example a power cut on rebooting you would not be likely to lose anything. In summary it is an advanced HDD with quicker access to data than other claimed to be fast HDDs.

There isn’t much storage on SSDs though?


With SSDs like they are at the moment they easily have enough room for an OS (Operating System) and some applications depending on the size of both those items collectively. Another way you should look at an SSD purchase is not as a storage upgrade but as a performance upgrade, the performance boost you get will make up for lack of storage.

What about price?


This depends on the size, make and type of SSD you choose. Ranging from £40 - £600 there are a number of factors involved in this the first of course is SATA II and SATA III does your board support SATA III? If so we would recommend you start here. From there most of the lower priced SSDs available have a lower read/write speed than more expensive drives.

My rig is older and I can't afford to upgrade to a new rig right now what about me?


This depends on the age and type of hardware you are currently using. Some rigs as old as 2005 can be greatly improved in terms of performance by the installation of an SSD. Check what your rig can handle before you purchase or seek some advice from us.

What other advantages can an SSD give me?


There is a significant advantage especially for laptops because an SSD will typically consume less energy. Along side this there is little to no sound involved with SSDs because of their lack of moving parts, so if a whirring hard drive bothers you then an SSD is a must.

Any downsides?

As with any tech these days everything has a lifespan, with SSDs due to their high performance in comparison to HDDs their lifespan tends to be shorter. On the flip side of this most people are now replacing their rigs every 2-3 years to keep up with new developments in the industry.
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Malwarebytes Anti-Malware-Anti Virus

By : Sachin Kumar Sahu
The Malwarebytes Free edition offers users the option of installing a trial version of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Pro

The bottom line: A lack of recent substantive updates haven't prevented Malwarebytes Anti-Malware from staying on top of the on-demand malware-killing mountain.

Review:
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is a surprisingly effective anti-malware tool given that it hasn't received any major updates in the past few years. Sure, the scans are a bit faster and the installation is definitely smoother, but overall the product remains unaltered.

Installation
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, or MBAM as it's often abbreviated, has a rapid installation process that simultaneously loads the program onto your computer and updates its detection engine when you run the installer. The whole process took under 5 minutes on our computer.

Interface
MBAM is no paragon of design aesthetics, but it is usable. It opens directly to its Scanner tab, and offers eight other tabs in a horizontal row. Few options per tab keep down the clutter.
What it lacks in visual pop it makes up for in utility. The rest of the tabs let you access the updater, quarantine, scan logs, the ignore list, program settings, and the FileAssassin tool for deleting locked files. The About tab tells you relevant program information, such as version number, while the Protection tab provides access to the real-time protection features. If you're in the freeware version, Protection provides a near-instantaneous, one-click path to upgrade to the trial.
However useful MBAM is, the text-heavy interface clearly identifies it as a tool for power users, although there are more complicated malware removal tools out there. Considering that the program's major function is to scan, and that's generally a one-click process, we'd like to see a more accessible interface in the future.

Features and support
Malwarebytes' primary feature is to scan your computer for the bad guys, and on that level it's quite successful. It offers a quick scan, a full scan, and a flash scan to analyze memory and autorun objects. It comes with Malwarebytes' proprietary Chameleon technology, which lets the program install on many infected computers even when the malware blocks other detection tools.
MBAM supports multiple drive scanning including networked drives, context menu options including a scan-on-demand function for individual files, and the FileAssassin option under the More Tools section for removing locked files.
In the premium version, the Protection controls block zero-day infections from malicious sites and files, along with the scheduler. We'd prefer one or the other be available in the free version, since many full security suites offer both in their paid versions.
MBAM has built its reputation as one of the pre-eminent malware removers over the years on a nearly entirely word-of-mouth campaign. Extra features are lacking, historically. This is only marginally more than a one-function wonder, but it's so good at what it does that it's practically required for you to have it.

Performance
Malwarebytes is a relatively speedy malware remover, with the quick scan taking about 7 minutes and 30 seconds to finish even with other high-resource programs running. The heuristics engine proved on multiple computers during empirical testing that it was capable of determining the difference between false positives and dangerous apps.
Surprisingly, the premium Protection component didn't slow down startup times, even when it's configured to start with Windows.

Conclusions
Overall, though, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is a responsive malware remover that does what it says it will, and with a minimum of fuss. The cost of the premium upgrade is a bit steep given what the free version can do, but it's a fair price if you feel more comfortable paying for your computer security. 

Personal Review

Pros

Quick install, runs great and fast, catches stuff others miss.

Cons

No real time protection in the free version. But not really a major thing.

Summary

Great piece of software I've been using for months. Runs great and can even be installed on infected machines when other programs can't! A definite must have for me and all of my friends.
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Google’s 5-minute outage kills 40% of Internet traffic

By : Sachin Kumar Sahu
Google Down For Five Min - IMAGINARY PICTURE
SAN FRANCISCO — An outage seemingly affecting all of Google’s services last Friday left many users lost, according to reports.
The disruption started around 4.37pm Pacific Time (7.37am, Saturday, Singapore time) and lasted between one and five minutes, according the Google Apps dashboard. Online tech website The Register said all services were back online by 4.48pm.
The blackout affected Google’s services simultaneously, including Google Drive, Search, YouTube and Gmail.
Internet traffic across the globe plunged in the wake of Google’s services failure, reported India’s Hindustan Times.
According to the report by Web analytics firm GoSquared, global Internet numbers fell 40 per cent, an indication of the tech giant’s hold over global Internet services.
GoSquared developer Simon Tabor told the Sky News television channel: “That’s huge. It’s also of note that page views spiked shortly afterwards, as users managed to get to destinations.”
Digital expert Phil Dearson, Head of Strategy for integrated marketing agency Tribal Worldwide, said the disruption cost Google an estimated US$500,000 (S$637,000) in the few minutes that it was down.
“This is completely unprecedented, I’ve never heard of anything like this before,” he said.
However, tech news website Tech News Plus said it is a drop in the ocean for Google. It said Google generates US$40 billion in annual revenue and that the spike in traffic when services resumed would have adjusted for the initial loss.
Google has acknowledged and addressed the outage on its Google App Status dashboard but did not offer a reason behind the failure.
Industry experts Tech News Plus spoke to are confident it was not the result of any hacking activity. They also said the downtime was an isolated incident and the tech giant did not suffer any meaningful damage.
Quoting Sterling Market Intelligence’s researcher Greg Sterling, The Financial Times said: “This individual outage doesn’t matter. The idea that Google could go down is unsettling to people but it doesn’t create a problem for the company unless it starts to happen more frequently.”
Mr Sterling later joked that “somebody in Mountain View probably unplugged something, then plugged it back in”.
The last time Google experienced such an outage was in 2009.
The Finance Post e-magazine said the outage sparked panic on Twitter as afflicted users rushed to the microblog to get details from other users.
According to Twitter, there was a sudden and very drastic spike in the volume of tweets during those five minutes. Other online users also took to other social networks to air concern over the outage. AGENCIES
Source - http://www.informationweek.com
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Top 15 blogging and publishing platforms on the Internet today. Which one suits you best?

By : Sachin Kumar Sahu
Reading the signs a couple of years ago it was easy to assume that the art of blogging was set to die a painful death at the hands of social networks like Facebook and Twitter and others. While social has changed how we communicate online, blogging remains a core part of things.
In fact, the truth is that there’s never been a better time to blog. Social networks help build audiences and deliver content to readers, and more established blogs and websites often link to or aggregate smaller sites, sending swarms of viewers to read articles —The Daily Mail aside(from the www.thenextweb.com).
So, whether you’re a blogger returning from a break, seeking a new home or are looking to write online for the first time, here’s our guide to what blogging platforms are out there.

WordPress: WordPress.com and WordPress.org

WordPress has two options: a freemium hosted service that provides .wordpress.com domains — e.g. jonrussell.wordpress.com (but you can still pay to use your own domain) — and includes limited customization. Or the completey free .org version which allows for you to host WordPress on your own servers with much more control, edit themes to your hearts content, hack code and add as many WordPress plugins as you wish.
It is, in simple terms, the daddy of blogging. The platform powers almost 19 percent of the Web and has been downloaded more than 45 million times.
One of the platform’s core strengths is its community of creatives, who have produced thousands of customizations and tweaks allowing WordPress users to add sophisticated and powerful plug-ins (features) to their blogs, or dress it up in a new layout or design.
Pros: Customization, customization, customization!
Cons: Vast array of options can be complicated for less-experienced users — tread carefully.
Verdict: Still the best option out there. WordPress is especially useful for companies or those looking to develop (or have someone else develop) a sophisticated website.

Blogger: Blogger.com

Google’s take on blogging is Blogger, an easy-to-use and free platform that requires only a Gmail/Google account to get started.
Blogger blogs can be customized with new backgrounds and layouts easily. Unsurprisingly, the platform is hardwired into Google’s AdSense advertising program (which might make the average blogger enough money for a cup of coffee each month) and other Google services like Google+ (for comments) and Feedburner (for RSS distribution) are easily configured.
Pros: Easy to use and get started.
Cons: Not particularly sophisticated and tied to Google — which killed off Google Reader, lest we forget.
Verdict: Less popular in this era, but Blogger is often the place where many, including this author, began writing online. Its customization options pale in comparison compared to others, and the layout looks a little dated when held against newer platforms.

Tumblr: Tumblr.com

The cool kid on the blogging block, Tumblr was arguably the first mainstream service to combine blogging and social media…leading eventually to Yahoo stumping up $1.1 billion to buy it.
Tumblr has a strong community of users, much like Twitter or Facebook, thanks to the ease in which other users’ content can be reblogged to your Tumblr account. That makes it a different kind of platform to the likes of WordPress, and users — particularly of the younger generation — tend to turn to Tumblr blogs to curate items that they like rather than produce their own content.
More benefits: Tumblr supports custom domain names and is ludicrously easy to use from mobile, including photo uploads.
Pros: Owned by Yahoo — Tumblr was almost out of money when Yahoo swooped in to buy it.
Cons: Owned by Yahoo — Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has hinted that ads could make their way to Tumblr blogs.
Verdict: More of a social network than a blog, but a good option if you seek something quick and easy. Indeed, we’re noticing increasing numbers of companies that keep Tumblr blogs, often separately to their main blogs.

Medium: Medium.com

If blogs were bars, Medium is probably the hippest place to be seen at right now. Not only was it started by Twitter founders Ev Williams and Biz Stone, but has a ‘social layer’ — which includes a feature letting users edit and annotate other people’s work, while it obviously integrates well with Twitter.
Medium is cool but there are some key differences compared to other platforms. For one thing, its features are rigid while the way it links to other content on its network can frustrate writers enough to leave. Twitter has been called the global town square and, in that context, Medium a side room away from the 140-character shouting and chaos where people try to work over interesting topics in more detail.
The service isn’t yet open to all, but Medium has long been seeding invites and existing users can ask friends to contribute, which signs them up to the service. The company also appears to also dish out invites based on conversations it sees on Twitter.
Pros: A great place to showcase your content to a (potentially) large audience.
Cons: Lack of customization and some content discovery issues, for writers.
Verdict: Medium is well worth trying, but many of the folks that write there use it as a secondary or tertiary blog.

Svbtle: Svbtle.com

The blogging platform from designer Dustin Curtis has, in my opinion, the slickest user experience of any blogging platform out there. (Speaking as someone who has a Svbtle blog.)
The user interface feels like a doodle pad or to-do list, making it a place where I can easily jot down thoughts and come up/develop ideas, while it runs in Markdown.
Just looking at the layout that readers see shows the elegance and thought behind the site. Svbtle does allow prospective users to apply to join, you can make your case via the email address listed on the site.
Pros: Beautifully designed.
Cons: Open to a selective number of users. Interestingly, it doesn’t include a commenting system — perhaps a pro and con.
Verdict: A delightful blogging platform that is only available for a few at this point, though the Svbtle website says it will be open to all soon.

Quora: Quora.com

You might be surprised to see popular question and answer site Quora feature here, but it added user blogs back in January 2012.
As a platform for showcasing knowledge, bloggers that are seeking to tell stories or impart wisdom about particular topics may find Quora useful. Posts can be categorized using Quora tags — to make them searchable — and, with a little luck and the right content, they can become visible and widely shared.
However, there’s no personalization and Quora is very much a place to showcase writing and knowledge rather than be your ‘home’ on the Web.
Pros: Strong community that soaks up new and interesting content.
Cons: Lacks personalization and ‘homely’ feel of a personal blog.
Verdict: Quora blogs are interesting for influencers, those seeking to elevate their status or others wanting to tap into the Quora community. That makes it better suited as a secondary of tertiary blog.

Postach.io: Postach.io

Popular note-taking app Evernote lets you share content written within its platform, but it’s not really a blog. That’s where Postach.io comes into play.
The blogging service slots into Evernote, allowing you to write posts right from the service using a dedicated notebook and set keywords like ‘published’, ‘page’ or ‘avatar’. More than just writing content from Evernote, Postach.io hooks into comment engine Disqus, supports Google Analytics, allows for custom domains, social sharing and — interestingly — Markdown.
The service is currently in beta but those features, plus a decent selection of customizable themes, gives Postach.io a Posterous-like, easy-blogging feel.
Pros: Light-weight and easy to use.
Con: Limited customization.
Verdict: A relatively new arrival on the blogging scene, courtesy of Evernote’s community of third-party apps and services, this is worth considering for jotting down quick thoughts or multimedia-rich posts.

Google+: Plus.google.com


Is Google+ a social network? Well, Google says it isn’t — the company believes it’s somewhat broader than that — and a range of the service’s top users write blog like content there, often generating seeing impressive engagement. TNW contributor Robert Scoble has, for example, cut back on his blog in favor of“betting my future” on Google+.
Ultimately Google+ is not a blog, but it is a place where you can blog if you want to tap into a community to drive engagement. These days most content is shared to social media, so why not start it on social media? That’s up to you.
Pros: Google+ has a strong community, despite the reports.
Cons: Not a blog platform so no customization or other features.
Verdict: Good enough for some people, so not to be dismissed as an option.

Facebook Notes: Facebook.com/notes

At the risk of treating all social networks as blogs, something we’ve no intention of doing here, Facebook has been added because its Notes feature is, essentially, a blog platform.
Connected to the world’s largest social network, Facebook Notes allows you to pen posts with all the basic features, such as images, URLs, block quotes, etc. While it won’t win awards for design and sophistication, it’s a simple way to get the message out — especially if you’re a person with an established following on Facebook.
Pros: 1.1 billion people user Facebook each month.
Cons: There’s a lot more to the Web than just Facebook.
Verdict: We’ve got enough of Facebook already, particularly when there are a plethora of services dedicated to providing a dedicated blogging experience, rather than adding it as a mere feature.

SETT: Sett.com

SETT is a new, community-focused blogging platform that promises engagement. Similar in style to Medium and Svbtle, it claims it can help writers get 98 percent more comments — on average — and a lot more attention, just based on its community of users.
The platform allows readers to follow blogs, find similar posts and bloggers, communicate with each other — there’s even a ‘room’ where readers can discuss topics from a blog. The site is clearly focused on engagement, promising to help cultivate an audience and community for its bloggers.
Pros: Boasts impressive engagement and opportunities to find audiences.
Cons: Still in its early days, and without the features of other platforms.
Verdict: This promising platform may be worth investigating as a means to help establish an audience, but we can’t help but feel that there’s only so many guarantees you can make for engagement. Ultimately, good content drives readers and audiences.

Ghost: Tryghost.org


Ghost is an open-sourced blogging platform that successfully graduated from Kickstarter in May 2013 having raising near $200,000 — well above its modest $25,000 goal.
For now, the service is only open to those who backed it on Kickstarter, but the company says it will be available to the public “around the end of summer 2013,” which is not too long to wait.
The platform has garnered much praise across the Web for its elegance and its team promises to “inspire” bloggers with a fully customizable system, including “the full Ghost software with all bells, whistles, themes, plugins, and some extras that are only available with us,” responsive design, “revolutionary” dashboard, and more.
Pros: Brings a fresh style and new approach.
Cons: Not available right now, while finer details — including price — are still be to communicated.
Verdict: Ghost has rightly got a lot of people excited and it promises to bring new impetus to blogging. We’ll have to wait for more details, however.

SquareSpace: SquareSpace.com

SquareSpace is a blogging platform that is popular with business users. Developing and hosting blogs is just one part, and it can be used to create and manage a range of websites, such as e-commerce sites.
Unlike most of the others, there is no free option, bar a 14-day trial, with sites priced upwards of $8 per month via an annual plan. That plan encompasses all elements of your blog or website, however, including cloud-based hosting and maintenance.
Pros: Wholly comprehensive set of features and services, gorgeously designed.
Cons: Pricey and perhaps better suited to creating a business website, than anything specifically blog focused
Verdict: A must-consider if you’re a business, but other options will be better if you’re setting up a blog or site on a smaller scale.

Typepad: Typepad.com

Another blogging old-timer, TypePad has been about since the word ‘blog’ began. Today, a blog on Typepad costs upwards upwards of $8.95 per month, which includes a set of designs, unlimited storage and customer service.
Typepad emphasizes its reliability, and certainly the platform has always been a more ‘out-of-the-box’ service that is easier to use, but less customizable and powerful than WordPress.
Pros: Easy to set up and use.
Cons: Not free and contains limitations.
Verdict: Typepad still has its users, including cult blogger Seth Godin, but other options have greater freedom, including your own custom domain name.

Posthaven: Posthaven.com

Posthaven arose from the shutdown of Posterous, which finally disappeared off the Web this year under the ownership of Twitter.
The service costs $5 per month and essentially replicates the Posterous ‘light-blogging’ experience, allowing posts and multimedia to be easily and quickly published. The Posthaven team promises it will never be acquired or go offline, two things that hit users of Posterous hard.
Pros: Not in danger of going offline.
Cons: Still in its infancy and adding some features other services already offer.
Verdict: A good option for those who loved Posterous and are prepared to invest in their blogging, in the knowledge that paying for a service provides security for the future.
UPDATE — We’ve added LinkedIn

LinkedIn Influencers: Linkedin.com/today/influencers

The Web’s top business social networking service launched blogs for ‘Influencers’ back in October 2012, signing up 150 prominent business leaders, including the likes of Richard Branson and President Obama.
Unfortunately, the chances are that those reading this almost certainly don’t qualify for a LinkedIn blog — this is for the real Internet 1 percenters. Given the way that LinkedIn is increasingly turning its social network into a communication platform for users and businesses, it remains entirely possible that blogs could become available to rest of us in time. But don’t count on it.
Pro: Platform for a few privileged few.
Cons: Platform for a few privileged few.
Verdict: Not an option for the regular Internet Joe just yet.
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Finally, let’s pour one out for the fallen heroes of the blogging revolution.
Posterous: Posterous’ days always seemed numbered when it was acquired by Twitter in March 2012 in a deal that appeared to have been done to get hold of the developer talent behind the site. That fateful day confirming its closurecame in February, and Posterous left the Internet on April 30 2013.
Xanga: One-time blogging pioneer Xanga remains on life-support after a campaign to raise $60,000 just passed the target. The company is collecting contributions until the end of August, after which it will relaunch. Perhaps our obituary is a little premature?
LiveJournal: Not dead just yet, but this former blockbuster is now a community-based social network owned by a Russian media company.
– –
Over to you: Did we miss one from our list? Which blogging platform is your favorite and why?
Source - www.thenextweb.com
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