5 Drawbacks Of Google Hangouts!

  Google Hangouts is an excellent communication tool, no doubt, but it has its own limitations too. For several years now, Google Hangouts has been trying and failing repeatedly to allow staff meetings with remote users. Video-conferencing expert Christopher Null from PCWorld was asked by CiteWorld to cure five of the most prominent headaches of Google Hangouts which make its users' lives hell. Here are those five drawbacks which have affected Google Hangouts a lot:

1. Hangouts doesn’t work in Internet Explorer from the Windows 8 Start screen:

If you are using Windows 8 and trying to launch Internet Explorer from its Start screen, then you will notice that Hangouts doesn't work. It happens because Hangouts requires a plug-in to operate on Internet Explorer and plug-ins are not allowed on full-screen version of IE. If you face this problem you have two choices. You can run IE in desktop mode instead of running it from the Start screen and then install Hangouts. Or just opt for another Hangouts-supporting browser.

2. Hangouts causes alert overload on multiple devices simultaneously: 

If Hangouts is logged in on both your desktop and smartphone at the same time, notifications arrive in both devices. It's an annoying issue with Hangouts. While some users find it disturbing, others handle it in a different way. To avoid this annoyance, there are some solutions too. You can sign out of Hangouts on any of the devices which you are not using presently. Android devices have some more options too. Go to Menu>>Snooze notifications and suspend alerts on the device. You can suspend notifications for an indefinite time by selecting the gear icon in the Hangout window and unchecking the Notifications box.

3. Portrait mode photos automatically turn into landscape mode: 

This issue has been found on select Android phones when pictures are sent through MMS. If you clear application data from the Android Applications Manager it might help at least for some time. You should not use the camera within Hangouts to click pictures. Do take pictures separately by the standard Android camera.

4. Complicated video-calling: 

In the Chrome browser it's not required to have a plug-in for Hangouts to work if Google Apps is not being uses which means you have to install Hangouts plug-in to make video calls. You can also install the Hangouts Chrome app by adding Hangouts to the Chrome App Launcher and initiate a new video call. Hangouts has also a list of supported webcams, which means every webcam, microphone and audio devices are not supported by Hangouts. You should make sure you have selected the correct audio gear within Hangout's settings menu. Initiate a new video call and click on the gear icon. If there is a video-related problem, you can also restart your browser or computer to resolve the issue.

5. Problem with Hangouts Browser plug-in: 

If you are running 64-bit Internet Explorer then the Hangouts plug-in is not supported at all. If you are using Chrome, the check Chrome://plugins/ to see if the Google Talk plug-in is already installed and enabled or not. Well, Hangouts app is different from Hangouts plug-in. In case the Hangouts app gets uninstalled, you can always download it again from the Chrome web store.

Courtesy: CiteWorld 

6 Things You Should Strictly Avoid Doing On Twitter

Social media never follows any rule, at least not the hard and fast ones. You can make out of social media platform anything as you wish and there is no right or wrong way how you should use it. Social networking platforms are better used for certain activities and not everything. The micro-blogging platform Twitter has over 288 million monthly users who actively post around 500 million tweets each and every day.

Twitter is out there for around eight years now and many people are there who have not a clear idea how to use the platform. Twitter is a global forum and you can accept it in your own way. Sometimes Twitter seems terrible while at other times Twitter seems highly helpful. Here are six things which you should seriously avoid doing on Twitter:

1. Avoid creating Tweetstorms: 

It's a new feature on Twitter which is created by academicians, billionaires and people who are just in love of tweeting. Twitter messages have a certain limit of 140 characters and brevity is the buzzword of a tweet. It's not easy to write down an though in just 140 characters but that's the actual fun. There are so many things which cannot be said in just 140 characters. But if you can't say it in 140 characters, avoid talking about the topic on Twitter anyhow. Don't go ahead with a series of related tweets which create tweetstorms and become irrelevant after some time.

2. Don't retweet and don't involve in @reply things: 

Sometimes Twitter users do very strange things. They tend to retweet every semi-clever tweet which appears on the feed. Be selective with your retweets as they show up in your followers' feeds too. Reply only to those tweets which have some real value in this world.

3. Stop retweeting old tweets: 

Sometimes you compose a brilliant tweet, at least you think so, and you send it to the Twitterverse with expectations that it will go trending among your followers. But nothing of that sort happens actually. You may feel depressed with such a poor response throughout the day. But it doesn't mean you should repost your old tweet once again. Twitter is all about the present and what has happened a day or a few hours ago. So just move on wishing that better luck next time.

4. Keep Twitter away from other social networks: 

You should not consider Twitter as the repository of everything you do on other social media platforms. You may have uploaded a picture on Facebook, but it doesn't mean you always have to repost it on Twitter too. There are several platforms for posting photos only or checking in kind of activities. So let Twitter be at its best and don't mingle it with Facebook and Instagram.

5. Use emoticons and hashtags sensibly: 

There are very rare moments when a funny emoticon or a well-placed hashtag actually fits a Twitter post. So you should take extra caution when you are using hashtags and emoticons, so that they shouldn't look needless. For a tweet, one emoticon is enough, while hashtags should also be applied with special purposes only.

6. Stay away from Twitter trolls: 

Twitter is all about meaningful dialogues. But if you find some conversation turning to negativity, hate speeches and slander, it's better you sign off at that very moment to stay away from any controversy. If any @reply enrages you, don't react. You should always remember that you don't deserve to engage in trolls.

Courtesy: CiteWorld 

Samsung Galaxy Grand 3 May Launch Exclusively On Snapdeal!

 Earlier, we had reported that Samsung is set to launch the next Galaxy Grand, which possibly would be Samsung Galaxy Grand 3, in India soon. The next we hear from the company is that the device will be exclusively launched via online retailer Snapdeal.com. The information was revealed in a teaser sent out by Samsung to the media. 

As per the new teaser, “Samsung to launch the new Grand series smartphone exclusively on Snapdeal.com. The slim and stylish device is already making waves internationally.” Samsung touts the upcoming Galaxy as the “Grnadest Galaxy Ever.” The teaser of the invite reads, “The Grandest Ever, Coming Soon,” and shows the partial image of the smartphone. The photo shown in the invite is pretty similar to the leaks we have seen for Samsung Galaxy Grand 3. The Galaxy Grand 3, which is the successor of Galaxy Grand 2, will be a thinner and a lighter smartphone with dimensions of 146×74.8×7.95mm, weighing 140 grams. The Samsung Galaxy Grand 2, measured 146.8×75.3×8.9mm, and weighed 163 grams.

The 'Grandest Ever' Galaxy will reportedly sport a 13.3-cm (5.25-inch) display screen and a 1.2 GHz 64-bit Snapdragon 410 quad-core processor. The smartphone will have 1.5GB of RAM, along with a 13-megapixel rear camera, 5-megapixel front-facing shooter and 16GB internal storage. The Galaxy Grand 3 will reportedly run on Android 4.4.4 KitKat.

On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 comes with a 13.3-cm (5.25-inch) and packs a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor, along with 1.5GB of RAM, and 8GB expandable memory. It features an 8-megapixel rear camera, 1.9-megapixel front facing camera, 2,600mAh battery, and runs on Android Jelly Bean. The smartphone was launched in India at a price of Rs 22,999, but is now available at Rs 16,000 on e-commerce portals. 

Yahoo Handing Over Pink Slips To Employees: Sources

  It has been reported by several sources that several Yahoo employees are losing their jobs. The termination process has been explained by the management as part of a usual restructuring of the organisation and it's not a general layoff.

It's not yet clear how many people have been fired as of now but it's believed the job cuts have taken place across several divisions. A source close to the latest development as well as Yahoo employees has said that people are in great shock. It has also been learnt that some of the layoffs have also been reported in Mike Kern's group as well. Kern is the senior VP for product homepage and verticals.

Though engineers are not in the hit-list, but product managers, designers and program managers are the affected ones. A source, in close contact with Yahoo employees, has reported to Business Insider that dismissed employees have been given two months' advance payment, but the bonuses for 2014 end have been withheld. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer was heavily pressurised for cost-cutting initiatives even before she took up the charge of the company in 2012.

Mayer didn't opt for deploying broad layoffs but she favoured a system which ranked employees based on performance and dismissed the employees who have got poor scores. Hence this firing process has been termed as a routine job in the organisational restructuring system. This ranking system is not liked by most of the employees though.