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How to remove the blue lines in forwarded emails – Microsoft Outlook, Windows Live Mail

Jul 102012

Have you ever tried to forward a really interesting or funny email, just to have the forward appear terribly formatted because of a ton of weird, blue vertical lines running down the left side of your email? Well grab a pen and sign up to the club because you are most definitely not alone.

A strange inconsistency created by some email clients/services when a message is forwarded, these vertical lines are not only irritating, but make the email illegible in some cases and are also a huge pain in the butt to get rid of as well.

Luckily, there are a few ways that you can speed up the process of removing these annoying lines without have to use a third part email cleaner program. So here are the top three methods to remove vertical lines in some of most common email software programs and services.

Microsoft Outlook:

Even though it arguably has the most options for formatting email of any other email program or service out there, Microsoft Outlook has, surprisingly, the simplest method of removing vertical lines from forwarded emails.

1. Open the email you want to forward, and then select the content directly in front or to the right of your vertical lines in the body of the email message. Press Ctrl+C to copy the highlighted contents to your clipboard.

2. Compose a new blank email message.

3. Paste your copied email into the new email message. If any vertical lines remain, simply copy any text and images with said vertical lines still attached, and paste the copied content into the same e-mail just above the content you just copied. Repeat until all vertical lines are gone.

4. Remove any duplicated content beneath the cleaned up email, and then send. No problem!

Windows Live Mail:

If you need to remove those pesky lines in the latest Microsoft mail service, Windows Live Mail lets gives you the perfect, simple option.

1. Choose your email message and then press the forward button to open it in the standard editor.

2. Put your mouse cursor directly in front of the vertical lines you want to delete.

3. At the top of the editor, select the message tab if it’s not already selected by default. You’ll then see a variety of formatting options.

4. Select the Clear Formatting button just next to the Font size and style fields. The vertical lines will then be deleted.

5. Once all vertical lines have been cleared, you will likely be left with a bit of margin space to the right of your email content. To remove this, simply select the message content you wish to forward, then copy and paste it at the beginning of your message. Delete the old content beneath your freshly formatted message and you’re good to go!

MOBOTO: Give your iPod, iPhone and iPad Some Personality

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Jul 062012

Designer Mark Solomon has created a unique character dock for an iPhone, iPad or iTouch called the Moboto. The Moboto comes with a number of fittings that allow you to customize your dock to your liking. In addition, the Moboto incorporates a number of iOS personas that allows you to choose the look and personality of your Moboto.

“Moboto is a new and unique physical and digital experience for mobile devices. When your device docks with Moboto, Moboto comes to life and show his personality through a combination of apps, phone sensors and interactive features. We call them APPersonas.”

These “APPersonas” constantly gather information from phone sensors and web data and communicates visually or verbally to you through an array of fun images and behaviors. It also interacts with its surroundings through its sensors to make it a fun, yet informational experience.

Mark designed the different elements of the display to subtly show information such as the time, the battery percentage, or the weather. Moboto also can talk to you or lip-sync to a song if you want.

This is operated in the form of a Moboto App. You can download the Moboto App for free on the App Store. It will provide personas for the Eye/Mouth, Flower and Face moving images you can see in the video.

Future updates will continue to provide free and paid personas and features.

The Moboto also features a swivel connector that will allow most iPhone cases to fit perfectly. Moboto comes with USB Micro to USB A cord to plug into wall or computer to charge as well as a Line Out for Audio.

“Moboto is modular by design. This allows for a variety of interlocking bases, attachments such as arms, and other accessories to be easily interchanged, providing customization and personalization.”

You can customize various skins, as well as the actual dock itself, which comes apart into two separate pieces.

The Moboto is designed so that it’s easy to swap parts to customize the product to your liking.

These interchangeable parts–the base of the dock and the top portion that connects to your iPhone–use a simple twist-to-lock design.

Solomon plans to release the CAD files required to recreate the twist-to-lock mechanism to the community, so if you have your own 3D printer, you’ll be able to print your own bases for the Moboto. They are also looking to release after launch tools to create some of your own personas and other software features.

Solomon wants to bring this product to the iPhone, iPad, and iTouch with the initial launch, but eventually to the Android and Windows smartphones as well.

As of right now, you can get one of these cool persona docks for a $35 pledge to Solomon’s kickstarter page, but there are a huge range of rewards for different pledge levels.

So if you think it is something you could benefit from, jump over to the Kickstarter website now to make a pledge and help it become a reality.

Bosch robotic lawn mower cuts the grass while you relax

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Jul 052012

With their new robotic lawn mower, Bosch wants you to put your feet up while a small, green robot does all the hard yard work.

The German multinational engineering and electronics company, Bosch, has developed a more intelligent and efficient way of mowing the front lawn. This robotic electric lawn mower will mow a lawn without the need for direct supervision.

The Bosch Indego is said to cut up to 1,000 square meters at a time, (approx a quarter of an acre). Using the provided wiring, the owner must define the perimeter of the lawn in order to help the Indego understand the boundaries of the given property.

The robotic lawn mower is programmed to automatically avoid obstacles it may encounter along its path such as large rocks, sprinklers, lawn decorations, toys left out by kids and other obtrusive objects. The Bosch Indego then automatically figures out how to adjust its mowing pattern in order to avoid these obtrusions.

The electric lawn mower can cover roughly 200 square meters every 20 minutes. Once it’s low on electrical energy, the Bosch Indego will automatically return to its charging pad and begin recharging its lithium-ion battery. After spending and hour and a half to recharge the battery, the mower returns to the process of mowing the lawn.

Using the charging pad as its initial navigation point, the mower returns to the exact spot where it stopped mowing and cuts the lawn in straight lines to avoid missing any small patches of grass.

According to the German engineering company, this method of cutting the grass is four times more effective than any other robotic lawn mower.

By contrast, some other robotic mowers move more or less randomly all over the place, the idea being that they’ll eventually get the whole lawn done.

The Bosch Indego is also able to sense “no-mow” surfaces such as gravel, pavement, and tile while other automatic electric mowers must be programmed with the location of such areas, or require them to be cordoned off with wire.

In addition to its quiet, linear operation, the Bosch Indego mulches grass clippings during the process and does not expel harmful exhaust like the traditional gasoline-powered mower.

The Indego can be set to automatically head out on its lawn-cutting duties every other day or as often as the owner wishes.

Should anyone try and steal your automatic electric mower off its charging station or during operation, the Bosch Indego has a built-in alarm that will sound if it is moved a significant distance from its charging pad. Its alarm code can be updated on the internet, should you need to legitimately move it to another home.

According to estimates from Bosch, the Indego electric lawn mower is ten times cheaper to operate than a standard gasoline-powered mower. However, the extremely expensive $2,040 price tag will definitely turn people away for the near future. The robotic lawn mower will be sold within northern Europe during 2012 and expand to larger markets over 2013.

IKEA’s Uppleva TV (and cabinet) launches, but critics disappointed

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Jun 282012

As IKEA’s Uppleva TV and Blu-ray cabinet hits its retail stores in Europe, an early review by Sweden’s largest tech publication reveals a much more underwhelming regard towards the product.

The much anticipated IKEA Uppleva Home Entertainment system has finally hit its furniture stores, although for now you’ll have to stop by Sweden if you want to get one.

The IKEA Uppleva TV/Blu-ray player/cabinet combo multimedia furniture device was first eagerly announced back in April of this year, and went on sale in its Stockholm, Sweden store just last week. Other IKEA stores across Europe will start selling the furniture tech hybrid sometime next month; enthusiastic consumers in the US will have to wait a bit longer I’m afraid. The IKEA Uppleva will not be on sale until later next year.

The IKEA Uppleva caught the eye of many people when it was first announced a few months back, and not only because it was the furniture company’s first emergence into the multimedia home entertainment market. It’s sleek, modern design made well known by IKEA’s designers and its all-in-one approach (hiding those messy cables) also left consumers impressed.

IKEA’s new widescreen TV set is available in three sizes – 24”, 32” and 46” has an LED, full HD 1080p display; come with MP#, DivX HD and JPEG file compatibility; and contains a number of HDMI and USB ports, depending on its screen size. The Uppleva will also come with a Blu-ray player and will incorporate a complete 2.1 sound system. The TV includes an array of custom multimedia apps including YouTube and Vimeo. In total this bad boy will cost your right around $1000.

In addition, the Swedish International Furniture company has also revealed an 8GB flash drive that will allow users to record all their favorite TV shows, allowing them the opportunity to rewind and fast forward live television programs.

Unfortunately for IKEA, a recent review of the Uppleva by the well-known Swedish publication M3 has released a less than favorable review of the much anticipated all-in-one home entertainment system. Sweden’s biggest consumer electronics magazine was a bit critical of IKEA’s new offering, comparing elements of its picture to that of low budget TVs from LG and Samsung.

M3 also shared concerns about the high level of noise in the picture. The interface for operating the TV also received a big thumbs-down, though as M3 pointed out, this could be easily remedied through a software update. Overall IKEA’s Uppleva received an underwhelming 5 out of 10 from the Swedish tech publication.

On the bright side however, M3 editor Andreas Ivarsson was able to find a few positives, describing the sound system as “very good” and the furniture as “stylish”.

“With some nice interior this piece can be something you don’t have to be ashamed of in your living room,” Ivarsson said in a Gizmodo translation. “The only thing you have to be ashamed of is if your friends will try the TV’s more advanced functions.”

Using your iPhone and iPad while in another country

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Jun 282012

Many cellular network carriers offer both international voice and data plans. While an international plan is not a requirement to use voice or data roaming on either your iPhone or iPad, your cellular network carrier may charge you some additional fees or much higher data rates if you don’t have one. Contact your service provider before you travel abroad and ask these questions:

Does your carrier offer cellular service in the country you’ll be traveling to?
Which carrier partners are supported in the country you’ll be traveling to?
Does your carrier have a data-roaming agreement in that specific country?
Does your current network/data plan have an international-roaming agreement?
What are the going rates for international voice and data roaming?
Are there any other charges or fees to consider while traveling?
Who do I call for voicemail and customer support when abroad?

International Traveling Tips

While you’re traveling in another country, your iPhone or iPad should automatically select the best network available. That being said, you can manually set each of those devices to work off a specific carrier network of your choosing.

Manually Set Cellular Network:

Tap Settings > Carrier and then Turn Off Automatic. Wait until you find all available networks that may appear.
Select the carrier you want to use during your stay. Keep in mind that this setting will probably only appear when you’re outside of your carrier’s network and other local carrier networks become available.

Turning off Cellular Data/Data Roaming to Avoid Roaming Charges:

iPhone – Tap Settings > General Network

IPad – Tap Settings > Cellular Data

Keep in mind that when your data roaming and cellular data are turned off, your shouldn’t see a cellular network indicator in the status bar.

Troubleshooting data roaming

If the time or date are off after your arrive, make sure the Automatic Time Zone is enabled in Settings > General > Data & Time > Set Automatically.

It’s possible that Visual Voicemail and Customer Service features in Settings > Phone > Services may not be available while staying in another country. Speak with your cellular network carrier about other ways to access these features while you’re away.

AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint customers can enable Settings > Phone > International Assist to automatically add the correct international prefix when dialing from abroad.

If you should encounter difficulties sending SMS/MMS or making calls while traveling abroad, try disabling International Assist to see if that resolves the issue.

If your iPhone 4S supports both CDMA and GSM roaming, you can use Settings > General > Network > Roaming > International CDMA to control which network your iPhone 4S uses:

International CDMA > on: iPhone 4S will attempt to use an available CDMA network instead of GSM.
International CDMA > off: iPhone 4S will use only GSM networks.

Keep in mind that after enabling International CDMA while on a GSM network, you should turn on airplane mode for 30 seconds to ensure that your phone switches over from your current GMS network to the CDMA network.

Visit iPadHacks.com for more tips and iPad Training.

Powerbreather – An advanced snorkel for swimmers

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Jun 282012

Swim, snorkel, and train freely without worrying about turning your head with the Powerbreather.

Swimming is an excellent cardiovascular exercise, but many people stay away from it because of the lack of constant breaths of air and the fear of drowning.

Forcing yourself to turn your head above the water during sidestrokes can feel unnatural, and if done incorrectly, can cause serious neck pain.

When you use snorkels to help you breathe underwater, you have to keep your head straight so water doesn’t get inside the tube.

But with the new Powerbreather, you no longer have to worry about any of these issues.

The German product aims to be the “future in swimming,” as the Powerbreather wraps around your head with the air valve at the very top. This eliminates your need to run your head when you swim, and allows you to keep your face underwater and still receive fresh air.

The circular shape of this revolutionary snorkel removes spent air by breathing out of the mouthpiece and also keeps water from coming in. This valve technology of the Powerbreather makes it possible that only fresh air is ever inhaled.

According to its German-based designer, air is inhaled through the upper section behind the head which is equipped with a check valve and is fully exhaled through a check valve located in the mouthpiece.

The elastic material of the Powerbreather ensures the device stays securely on your head and in place. Amateur swimmers as well as seasoned professional athletes can focus on their speed and power without worrying about their head placement and swim freely.

A prototype of the Powerbreather was shown at ISPO Brandnew 2012, held at the Messe Munchen International Trade Fair.

“Even older people, professional swimmers and anyone undertaking swimming training can train with the Powerbreather in a much more relaxed and effective way,” the product page states.

Now, your neck muscles won’t ache either as you continuously train. The Powerbreather eliminates orthopedic muscle imbalances and ensures balanced muscle development on the left and right side of the body.

Its designers said that professional swimmers and even children can benefit from the device. If this is indeed what it is as promised, those who are still learning to swim will never have to accidentally swallow water anymore.

The Powerbreather was a finalist in the Accessories category at the 2012 ISPO Brandnew awards in innovations for sporting goods. While no pricing and sales information are currently available, we do anticipate the product to hit the market relatively soon since it does say that the design has been “patented worldwide”. For information, contact Powerbreather directly via its official website.

F.lux – Giving your eyes a rest from those bright computer screens

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Jun 202012

F.lux adjusts your desktop/laptop computer screen to fit the lighting in the room you’re in. When the sun goes down, it makes your computer look like your indoor lights. During the day, it adjusts itself to the light intensity of the sunlight again.

This small, clever software program chance the color of your computer screen from its natural glow to an artificial lighting that correspond to the hours of the day – helping you sleep better. F.lux even adjusts to your exact location on Earth!

I was introduced to F.lux via blogger recommendation. Even though my sources were reliable, I was still kind of skeptical considering I didn’t really understand much of the purpose of this software, so it stayed on the backburner for a while. I work at all hours of the night, (and recently a lot of that time has been dedicated to playing Diablo III), so I eventually got around to trying F.lux out. There aren’t any snapshots letting you know what exactly F.lux looks like in action. (As in comparison photos, settings etc.) So it all came down to giving it a hands on try because there really was no other way around it.

The computer screen transition basically work a lot like when you change the temperature of a photo in an image editing software like Photoshop or Aperture. Computer screens are designed to look very vivid, bright and crisp – a lot like the sun. When it gets to the wee hours of the night however, looking at the sun isn’t exactly the best thing for your eyes.

F.lux understands these time changes and adjusts the temperature of the screen to warmer hues as it gets late, with the resulting color looking a lot more like natural lighting instead of the bright sun glaring at you, irritating your eyes. It really does make those bright screens a lot more bearable by changing the brightness levels throughout the day/night.

In F.lux, the temperature of a color is measured in Kelvins. Average LED flat screen monitors rack up about 6500K. The lower the Kelvin, the warmer the color temperature, and vice versa. Studies show that those subjected to lower (yet hotter) color temperatures before sleeping in an equally lit room had better sleep than those subject to cooler temperature colors.

To get F.lux to work according to your specific location, you’ll need to enter your current longitude and latitude, and it will set the correct settings. To help you, F.lux has its very own locator button, that directs you to their website where you can enter your address and it will return your approximate longitude and latitude in unison with Google maps.

When you first install F.lux, its default transition speed will be set to fast. This will change the color from day to night in 20 seconds. Personally, I liked the gradual transition speed, of 60 minutes, which runs and looks a whole lot smoother to me. You can also disable F.lux for up to 1 hour at a time if you have to do some more color sensitive work for any given night.

In conclusion, F.lux is one of those applications that once you start using, you just can’t see yourself doing without it. Turning it off will make you seem like a vampire exposed to light – seriously. People who use laptops and desktops during the late, late night hours will definitely benefit from using F.lux.

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Mac OS X, Linux

Google World Wonders Project

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Jun 182012

Google releases the first edition of the World Wonders Project on Thursday, May 31, an innovative website that allows us to “visit” ancient and culturally important locations around the globe up close and personal.

Google’s street view has proven itself to be an important tool for those of us curious about the world outside of their own neighborhoods. Since its initial launch over 5 years ago, the service have been able to travel the world visually mapping roads, railways, parks, airports, malls and even parts of remote locations like the Amazon basin.

Now the powerhouse internet empire has given us yet another reason not to venture past the confines of our computer screens with the introduction of their newest feature: the World Wonders Project.

Officially launched on May 31, 2012 in a post on Google’s official company blog, the World Wonders Project gives us 132 ancient and culturally important locations spanning across 18 unique countries. The World Wonders Project uses a “Street View” technology to let viewers get an up close and personally view of the different sites, which include the UK’s Stonehenge, archaeological areas of Pompeii in Italy, ancient temples in Japan’s former capital, Kyoto, Shark Bay in Australia, Yosemite National Park and the palace at Versailles.

There are also some great little extra features that come with Google’s newest project. Its Stonehenge pictures, for example, take you right in among the stones — something you can’t even do if you visit in person, as a rope cordon around the ancient monument has been in place for the last 35 years. In addition to taking a ground-level tour of a site, you can display information about it with a click.

“Most could not be filmed by car, so we used camera-carrying trikes to pedal our way close enough,” Melanie Blaschke, product marketing manager of the World Wonders project, explained in the blog post.

On some of the more well known locations, you’re also able to get a look at 3D models of the location, watch YouTube videos about it and see additional professional photographs, some of them gleaned from sources such as Getty Images and Ourplace.

World Wonders was developed under the auspices of the Google Cultural Institute, which, in the past, has brought to the Internet such amazing treasures as the Dead Sea Scrolls and the archives of Nelson Mandela.

“We also partnered with several prestigious organizations, including UNESCO, the World Monuments Fund, Getty Images and Ourplace, who provided official information and photographs for many of the sites,” Blaschke wrote, adding “World Wonders is part of our commitment to preserving culture online and making it accessible to everyone.”

Google hopes World Wonders will prove particularly popular with students and scholars, and has even put together a number of educational packages for use in the classroom.

So if you feel like enjoying some of the world’s ancient sites without actually having to physically travel to them, or if time and money are a bit on the tight side just now, the World Wonders Project could be well worth checking out.

Firefox Crop Circle – Even Aliens prefer Firefox Browser!

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Jun 182012

A talented group of extreme Firefox enthusiasts responsible for the Firefox mural made from cornstarch and kool-aid in addition to launching the Firefox weather balloon have now carved out a full scale Firefox Crop Circle in Oregon. “Does the sudden appearance of a Firefox crop circle imply which browser extraterrestrials prefer? We don’t know, but it was still fun to make,” the creators commented.

The 12 member crew planned out the project in less than two weeks and finished carving the crop circle itself in less than a day. The finished product with an astonishing diameter of 220 ft (67 m) was constructed in an oat field near Amity, Oregon, where it was completely invisible from the road but unmistakable as seen from the sky.

The team, (mainly consisting of OSU students with way too much free time), carefully and precisely pressed down oats from 3:30pm Friday afternoon until 2:30am, putting on the finishing touches between 7:30am and 11:00am Saturday.

Inspired by the enthusiasm and support of Asa Dotzler at Mozilla, Matt and John, Mozilla video interns, came up with the idea a few weeks beforehand. The next thing they needed was to find a field with an owner willing to go full Firefox. Well they did, and even found a pilot willing to help them see what they were doing from above.

How did they do it?

The design took shape from several large posters that had a two color version of the Firefox logo. They then partitioned the photo into 32 distinct sections and overlaid 60 concentric circles with an even space between them. On the top of the design, the team constructed their stompers – a unique tool, consisting of some 2x4s and rope, used on the Discovery channel to quickly shape crop circles.

The circumference was made by connecting a taut measuring tape to the end of a stake and walking around in a 220 ft (67 m) circle.

Throughout the night, the team used walkie talkies to quickly report our progress to the each other.

“For example “from 2 to 4 from 74 to 86″ means we were about to stomp an area from ray number 2 to ray number 4 (somewhat analogous to going from 2 o’clock to 4 o’clock) with a depth from 74′ from the center to 86′ from the center. With two teams of stompers, each with a walkie talkie and smaller version of the map, we reported our progress to our map team located outside the circle where they recorded all the work by highlighting it on their copy of the map. The map team then knew what needed work and what had been finished even when the stomping teams couldn’t see each other,” the creators said.

After they had stomped through the larger areas boxy grid-like pattern, they simply “connected the dots” by smoothing out all the edges and blending the corners of the grid to fill everything in.

This didn’t happen without a little trouble though, “For the most part, everything went perfectly! We had a brief accident around midnight and accidentally gave our Firefox a little bump on the head, but after we saw what we had done, fixing it wasn’t very difficult,” the creators noted.

Great job guys!

Firefox 14 Beta Arrives with better… everything!

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Jun 182012

The Mozilla Web Browser Firefox 13 has just barely reached our fingertips and we can already catch a glimpse of the Open-Source company’s newest endeavor: Firefox 14 Beta and the Firefox 15 Aurora as well.

The most predominant upgrades readily visible in the new Firefox are its new and improved security features that “make it easier for users to control their Web experience,” as stated in the official beta launch announcement late last week on the Mozilla blog.

A whole truck load of new features in the upcoming version of this extremely popular free and open source web browser are intended to make the Internet browsing experience a whole lot easier for its users. The release date of the final version won’t be until sometime in July, but until then, here some highlights of some of the key features and improvements you can expect in Firefox 14.

Default HTTPS

HTTPS will be activated by default for Google searches in the new Firefox 14 beta. This is aimed to protect users “from network infrastructure that may gather data, modify or censor search results,” Mozilla says. This new feature will also block third-party websites from gathering search data when you click link items on the search engine results page (SERP). “We look forward to supporting additional search engines as they enable SSL searches,” Mozilla says.

Better Plugins Control

Firefox 14 beta gives users more control on how plugins like QuickTime play through a new feature that can add a “play” button to all plugin content. Users can now simply click “play” to begin viewing the media right away. “Future releases will include more specific customizations and a robust interface; for now, you can experiment with the feature by selecting plugins.click_to_play to ‘true’ in about:config,” Mozilla says.

URL Autocomplete

The Firefox 14 beta finally introduced the long awaited URL autocomplete. The Awesome bar (URL field) will now automatically offer suggestions to previously visited, or well known URL domains as you begin to type them, making web browsing even faster.

Improved Mac OS X Support

With Firefox 14 Mac users will get native full-screen support for OS X Lion 10.7, providing “a richer and more immersive browsing experience,” Mozilla says.

Better Website Identity Verification

Finally, Firefox 14 beta introduces a new way to show the verified identity of a website in the Awesome bar. A globe icon positioned next to the domain will indicate a website not using SSL encryption, while websites with SSL encryption will include a lock icon and show “https.” Sites that have an Extended Validation (EV) certificate, meanwhile, will be indicated by a green lock icon and include the name of the site owner. Sites with mixed http and https content show a gray triangle icon as a warning. This simple visual guide will make it easier to see the security level of the website you’re visiting, consequently making “spoofing” of secure sites a lot more difficult.

In addition, developers will get a sneak peak at some new key features in Firefox 14 beta, including a pointer lock API and pseudo class lock.

For those of you looking way ahead, Firefox 15 Aurora is now available as well. The most notable new addition to see there is native PDF support – a feature Google Chrome has exclusively had for some time now.

Remember that neither of these new web browser releases are designed for actual steady use, but if you’re interested in getting a sneak peak of what’s to come, they are both available to download with browser support for Mac, Windows, and Linux Distros. Firefox 14 beta is located on the Mozilla Beta page, and the Firefox 15 Aurora on the Aurora channel.

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