Android Pay VS Samsung Pay VS Apple Pay

Since the launch of several mobile payments option in Singapore like the Android Pay, Samsung Pay and Apple Pay, just how different are they from one another? The Straits Times put up an infographics tabulating their differences.

How Android Pay is different from Samsung Pay and Apple Pay [via]

You may wish to check out the various banks for the promotions they are offering. Do not miss them!

Learn Android and Web Development from Google for FREE

What is better than learning Android and Web Development from Google experts for FREE? Google courses hosted on Udacity caters for beginners to advanced developers are opened for enrolment.

Google Malaysia access disrupted and hacked

As of now, access to Google Malaysia (www.google.com.my) remains not possible and is showing 'Google Malaysia HackeD' message.

The disruption is reported to be due to DNS redirection as confirmed by a tweet from Google Malaysia.

Getting reports some users are experiencing http://t.co/uIvl6RbDzu DNS redirection. Please use http://t.co/AdkzwxVR4U in the meantime.
— Google Malaysia (@GoogleMsia) April 14, 2015

A WHOIS check on www.google.com.my domain confirmed the DNS redirection.

How do I uninstall Chrome's new Bookmark Manager?

Google has been working on a new bookmark manager for Chrome. This upcoming bookmark manager is now on the Chrome Web Store as an extension before it is integrated into Chrome by default. This new bookmark manager extension looks beautiful but it does have its own shortfall for now e.g. inability to sort bookmarks by title.

So what if you wished to uninstall this new bookmark manager? As far as I know, you cannot remove this extension from chrome://extensionsbecause the extension is not listed at all! Do follow the below steps for the removal of this extension:

1. Type chrome://flags on the address bar.
2. Search for Enable Enhanced Bookmarks option.
3. Disable it.
4. Close and restart Chrome.
5. Type chrome://extensions on the address bar. You should see the bookmark manager extension now.
6. Remove the bookmark manager extension.

Hope it helps.

Handling 404 error page by showing set of suggested links

When a user attempts to follow a broken link or mistypes a url on a website, the user will often be redirected to a typical friendly "404 Not Found" web page so he knows what has happened, instead of throwing some ugly error message.

One way to enhance the experience would be to guess where the visitor intended to go and suggest that page or shows a list of possible pages. An article by the Smashing Magazine describes an approach that makes use of Google's Custom Search API for this purpose. Before embarking onto the implementing it on production, please do note that the free tier for this API has a limit of 100 calls per day.

» A Better 404 Page | Smashing Magazine

Inbox by Gmail - Am waiting for an invite

Inbox by Gmail looks interesting and cool! Requested for an invitation yesterday and am still waiting for one. Do drop me an invitation!

HTML Tags Accepted by Gmail

When sending a HTML email out, we often used some common HTML tags e.g. <br>, <font> and so on. An article, Gmail's HTML Tag Whitelist, on Quip publish a list of HTML tags known to be supported as well as unsupported by Gmail.

Supported HTML Tags

<a>
<abbr>
<acronym>
<address>
<area>
<b>
<bdo>
<big>
<blockquote>
<br>
<button>
<caption>
<center>
<cite>
<code>
<col>
<colgroup>
<dd>
<del>
<dfn>
<dir>
<div>
<dl>
<dt>
<em>
<fieldset>
<font>
<form>
<h1>
<h2>
<h3>
<h4>
<h5>
<h6>
<hr>
<i>
<img>
<input>
<ins>
<kbd>
<label>
<legend>
<li>
<map>
<menu>
<ol>
<optgroup>
<option>
<p>
<pre>
<q>
<s>
<samp>
<select>
<small>
<span>
<strike>
<strong>
<sub>
<sup>
<table>
<tbody>
<td>
<textarea>
<tfoot>
<th>
<thead>
<u>
<tr>
<tt>
<u>
<ul>
<var>

Unsupported HTML tags

<applet>
<article>
<aside>
<audio>
<base>
<basefont>
<bdi>
<bgsound>
<blink>
<body>
<canvas>
<content>
<data>
<datalist>
<decorator>
<details>
<dialog>
<element>
<embed>
<figcaption>
<figure>
<footer>
<frame>
<frameset>
<head>
<header>
<hgroup>
<html>
<iframe>
<isindex>
<keygen>
<link>
<listing>
<main>
<mark>
<marquee>
<menuitem>
<meta>
<meter>
<nav>
<nobr>
<noframes>
<noscript>
<object>
<output>
<param>
<picture>
<progress>
<rp>
<rt>
<ruby>
<script>
<section>
<shadow>
<source>
<spacer>
<style>
<summary>
<template>
<time>
<title>
<track>
<video>
<wbr>
<xmp>

If you have a whitelist for Outlook.com and Yahoo, do make a comment below.

Google Play Errors Explained (With Fixes)

Popular Android forum, XDA Developers, wrote a thread explaining some of the errors encountered on Google Play. Yes, they may get annoying and may caused one to be helpless. With the feedback from many fellow Android users, the forum thread serves to provide with an always updated knowledgebase.

Google Docs and Sheets Launches Add-Ons

Google launches add-ons to its Docs and Sheets apps. With add-ons written by developers, users would now be able to add in even more features in their documents and spreadsheets e.g. easily send documents as emails to contacts, create Avery address labels and name badges from Google spreadsheet data, adding track changes and approval workflow, etc.

This is really many steps ahead for Google.

Outlook.com launches automated tool to migrate from Gmail

Microsoft is continuing its attack on Google by launching an automated tool to migrate Gmail to its very own web-based Outlook.com (successor of hotmail.com).

The blog post claims emails, contacts, labels and even calendars can be imported. Immediately after the import is completed, Microsoft will send an email notification to your inbox.

Though I am not a fan of Outlook.com, I thought I should give the tool a try one day for curiosity sake.

Use Google Analytics to Track Outgoing Gmail Messages

Very creative use of Google Analytics to track outgoing Gmail messages.

Generate VCard as QR Code Using Google Docs

Should you have lots of contacts to be imported into your phone, it can get pretty time consuming to input one at a time. One time saving tip is to have them entered into a spreadsheet and have them converted into VCard format. Google Docs does have a feature to generate VCard as QR Code which you may then use any QR Code reader to read them.

This article demonstrates exactly just how to do that.

A quick summary:

1. Create a new Google Spreadsheet
   
   
2. Setup 5 columns i.e. First Name, Last Name, Phone, Contacts, QR Code.
   
   
3. First 4 columns should be self-explanatory. As for the last column, it shall be a formula to generate QR Code. Copy and paste below formula.
   
   =image("https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chs=200x200&cht=qr&chl=BEGIN:VCARD%0AN:" & A2 & "%20" & B2 & "%0ATEL;CELL:" & C2 & "%0AEMAIL:" & D2 & "%0AEND:VCARD")

Hope it helps.

Lengthy but awesome biography on Marissa Mayer

An unauthorised biography featuring former Googler and now CEO of Yahoo!, Marissa Mayer, published by Business Insider, is a MUST read! The write-up pretty much summarised Mayer's personality as well as her brilliance that make her who she is today.

Read the biography here.

Google Releases Seven Videos On Typical Manual Spam Actions Received On Webmaster Tools

Google released seven videos for the most common manual action notifications related to spam for websites in your free Google Webmaster Tools. The videos include user-generated spam, hidden text and/or keyword stuffing, pure spam, thin content with little or no added value video, unnatural Links to site video, unnatural links from your site and unnatural Links to site – impacts links.

User-generated spam

Hidden text and/or keyword stuffing

Pure spam

Thin content with little or no added value

Unnatural Links to site

Unnatural links from your site

Unnatural Links to site - impacts links

» Google Releases Seven Videos On Typical Manual Spam Actions | Search Engine Land

How to Do a Partial YouTube Embed (Custom Start and End)?

Suppose you have a long YouTube video but would like to do an embed only from say first to second minute? It's actually possible with a simple tweak.

The following is the standard embed code (without changing anything) of the PSY - Gangnam Style YouTube from first to second minute.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/9bZkp7q19f0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

To do a partial embed from the first to second minute, you will first need to convert the periods into seconds. So it would be from the 1*60=60 seconds to the 2*60=120 seconds. We will then add the 2 new start and end parameters to the embed code. The following is the customised embed code.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/9bZkp7q19f0?start=60&end=120" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The video goes like this!

Google Doodle for Malaysia On Polling Day 2013

Google doodle for Malaysia as the Malaysians go to the poll today.

Official Chrome Extension for Google Keep

Google has released an official Chrome Extension for Google Keep - a task keeping minimalistic app. The Chrome extension can only be installed from the link above i.e. you won't find the app from doing a search.

As quoted from the Google Drive blog post,

The Google Keep Chrome app launches in its own window, so you can create notes, cross out your to-do lists, and attach photos to tasks while you work on other things. And if you don’t have an internet connection, don't fret: the Chrome app works offline because we all know that ideas (big and small) can be sparked at any time.

Yahoo! Mail New Re-thought iOS and Android App

Ever since Marissa Mayer came on board as the CEO of Yahoo, its mobile strategy seem to have taken quite a bit of a lift. Once slow and sometimes buggy Yahoo! Mail mobile app has now been revamped and re-thought.

Quote from Yahoo! corporate blog post Unbox Your Mail with Yahoo! Mail For Tablets,

Today, we’re excited to introduce the Yahoo! Mail Apps for iPad and Android tablets - a full-screen experience that gets rid of the noise. There are no folders, no buttons, no tabs - just you and your mail - and you can easily flip through it like a magazine. We've designed Yahoo! Mail to take full advantage of the tablet making reading your email faster, easier and just a little bit more fun.

Download Yahoo! Mail for iPad and Android tablets now.

How to Disable Chrome New Right Menu?

If you somehow or rather don't like the latest Chrome's right menu, there is a way to disable it.

1. Look for the shortcut where you usually start Chrome e.g. on your Desktop.
   
   
2. Right click on the shortcut and then Properties.
   
   
3. Make sure the Shortcut tab is selected.
   
   
4. In the Target field at the end of "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" after space add "–-disable-new-menu-style" without quotes. (note we have got two hyphens before disable).
   
   
5. Click OK to apply changes.

Done! The next time you click on this shortcut, the good usual familiar right menu will be used.

» Don't like Chrome’s New Menus? Here is how to Disable Them | TechDows

Google New April Fools' Day Features

As part of Google's tradition, a series of new features or initiatives were announced in this year's April Fools' Day.

We have announcement from YouTube at which they announced they are now ready to announce the best ever uploaded video in 10 years' time. The selection process will be by several technicians based on strict guidelines. And YouTube will be shut down for good.

Next, we have announcement featuring whole new service in beta - Google Nose - a whole new different experience in search using a sense.

We also have got Google Maps launching treasure mode.

Joining in the fun, Gmail is launching Gmail Blue, obviously in mockery on Windows Blue - making everything blue.

Google Fiber is bringing fiber close to you, as long as you are connected to a "pole".

For webmasters and marketers, Google Analytics participated in this joke day by including hits from the International Space Stations.

Last but not least, a Google Easter Egg for you just by doing a search.