10 Services To Send Text Messages From The Web

Sometimes you need to send a text message, but you forgot your phone, or you have poor cell reception, so what can you do? Or you just prefer the comfort of the full keyboard to the crammed one on your phone? No problem, we've got 10 sites to help you get started with staying in constant contact with your friends, families and even your customers.

Bloove.com - Get your phone contacts on the Bloove site, and then log in and manage them as well as send them text messages directly from the site.

ClearSMS.com - A professional SMSing service for businesses to send out mass messages to their customers to alert them about specials and sales. All messages are assigned a value in credits an you purchase more as needed.

GizmoSMS.com - GizmoSMS lets you send texts to users in over 50 countries an a slew of carriers inside each of those. While it is free to use, it does not allow space for identifying yourself except inside the body of the text.

Group2Call.com - Allows you to import your contacts, break them up into groups and send all the free texts you want to them. Also offers the chance to broadcast voice messages, but you have a limited supply of those.

Jaxtr.com - This one requires the person you wish to text to have the widget (like the one pictured above) installed on their blog or social networking profile, but if it's there, you can text the member if they live in one of any 38 countries.

OhDontForget.com - Not only can you text people, you can schedule them for later delivery.

SMSGupShup.com - A system to allow you to send one text message to a number and they will then resend it out to every member that belongs to your group, up to 5,000 people in size.

Swaggle.mobi - A service for small groups to SMS each other at once; accessible via iPhone as well as by the web.

Yahoo Mobile - Yahoo Mobile lets you send and receive phone text messages; you will not be charged for sending the SMS; but the recipient might be charged the standard messaging rates for receiving or replying.

Yellowpipe - Mainly a web host, but they happen to offer a quick and easy SMS feature when you just have to get out a text quickly. They do allow you to enter a return number.

Find out if your computer acts as a Skype Super-Node

Bandwidth usage can be extremely different for Skype users which can be attributed whether computers are being used as Skype Super-Nodes. A Super-Node is basically a computer that is running Skype and not preventing the software access to the ports 80 and 443 which are used to route traffic from other Skype users who are behind a protected system.

The major problem with being a Skype Super-Node is that the bandwidth usage per hour will be much higher which might cause concern for users with Internet accounts that are having bandwidth limitations.
A great way for finding out if your system is being used as a Skype Super-Node is by installing a software that logs the bandwidth usage of Skype when the application is running. One tool that can do that is the trial version of Netlimiter which can be used for 30 days before it has to be registered.
Netlimiter logs all incoming and outgoing connections and their traffic consumption and it is possible to display the traffic consumption of a specific application as well.

The best way in my opinion to find out if Skype is acting as a Super-Node is to start it and let it run for a few hours without using it actively. Bandwidth consumption is obviously higher if you make calls or transfer data with Skype and it is more difficulty to find out if Skype is acting as a Super-Node if you have to analyze the traffic in direct and indirect traffic.
The above screenshot is showing the incoming and outgoing Skype bandwidth for most of today and as you can see it's less than 500 Kilobyte. Super-Nodes can use hundreds of Megabytes.
The easiest way to prevent Skype from being a Super-Node is to block access to the ports 80 and 443 in Skype. You can do that under Tools > Options > Connections. Just uncheck the option "Use port 80 and 443 as alternatives for incoming connections".

Netlimiter 2 Monitor

Do you know which applications and processes connect to the Internet on your computer ? If you use a firewall chance is that you had to define rules to allow certain programs the right to connect to the Internet. Sometimes however users think of this as a burden and use low security settings to prevent that they are being pestered all day with questions from their firewall.

The result? All programs can connect freely to the Internet. While most certainly do so legitimately, for instance to download updates or to display websites, others may be sending data about your computer to a server on the Internet or even steal files from it.
Netlimiter 2 Monitor is a sweet software that displays all open processes and applications on the system detailing their incoming and outgoing bandwidth along with ports, IP addresses and process numbers. That's basically the same amount of information that my previous favorite Currports is displaying but with the addition of bandwidth which CurrPorts is not displaying.
The first difference is that Netlimiter Monitor has a history feature where it is displaying which applications have connected to the Internet before on your system. Great for quickly checking out if an app is among the list that should not be there. Note that the history only dates back to the date you have installed Netlimiter on your system and not before that time.

It's definitely a great application if you want to evaluate the bandwidth usage of a process or software. I used it to keep an eye on Skype to see if my computer was used as a Skype supernode.
Both the Lite and Pro version are not free while NetLimiter Monitor is. The lite version supports setting limits for programs which the Monitor application does not.
The Pro version of Netlimiter adds some interesting functions like Traffic Shaping, Network support, Network Tools like Whois and Traceroute, Remote Administration and Advanced Rules that the two other versions do not support at all.
The program is available as a 32-bit and 64-bit version for all supported versions of the Windows operating system. Note that you need to register the product for free on the developer website.

Unshorten: speed up the opening of short urls on Android

Whenever you try to load a short url resource on Android, one that will redirect you to the original address in the process, you will be taken to the system's default browser first before you are taken to the native application handling those links.

Say, you spot a link on Twitter that points to Instagram. Without Unshorten, activating that link opens your web browser of choice first, where the link is expanded before it can be opened in the native app.
With Unshorten, the link on Twitter is automatically resolved so that it is directly opened using the native Instagram application.
Here is how it works in detail.
Once you have installed the Unshorten application on your Android device, supported are all versions of the operating system from 2.2 on, you will notice that it adds itself as a potential handler for select short url services such as those used by Reddit, Instagram, Twitter, Google, Facebook, WordPress or The Verge.

When you tap on a supported short url, a "complete action using" screen is displayed to you. Here you need to select Unshorten from the list of available options. You can use the service only this one time, or select the Always option to make it the default handler for these types of links permanently.
You can tap on sample links that the application lists when you start it to make it the default handler for these types of links.
The core benefit that Unshorten provides you with is speed. Once you have configured your Android device to open those links using the application, you will save time each time such a link gets opened on your system as the web browser middle-man is bypassed automatically.
So who is this for?
If you run native apps for supported services, say Instagram or Twitter, and come into contact with short urls regularly, you will benefit from Unshorten as it speeds up the process of opening those links for you.
Unshorten supports a wide variety of online services that make use of short url services, and more are added by its author regularly so that any missing ones will be available eventually. If you use at least one of those services natively, and come in contact with short urls of that service, then it is very likely that you will find this app useful.

Top 5 Best Android browsers

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There are many Android Browsers available today.Every new release claims that it is better than the other browsers.But what is the Best Android Browser

I personally tested many of the Android Browsers and came to a conclusion about the Best Android Browser available is Dolphin Browser HD followed by Opera Mini,Boat Browser etc.

Default Browsers are always boring.In the case of Windows most of us go for Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera or any other Internet Browsers instead of using the default Internet explorer.
In the similar manner there are many alternatives of Android Browsers too. Through this article you will come to know about Top Android Browsers and their features so that you can select a best one from them for your purpose.

• Also Check:Top 10 Browsers For PC 2012.

Top 5 Android Browsers 2012:

1. Dolphin Browser HD:

Features :-

• Sonar – Using this feature you can search on Internet using voice search. This is one of the unique feature provided.
• Gesture - This is yet another innovative feature, Through this you can Say goodbye to typing and just Open your favourite websites with just the touch of your finger tip
• Addons – There are nearly 50 Addons available till now and still more to come. This is one among very few browsers that provide you Addons feature
• Speed Dial - You can visit any of your favourite websites with single touch.
• Tabbed browsing - This make your mobile browsing more easy and you can just switch to other tabs with great speed.
• Sidebars - Make the best of mobile interface via Dolphin Sidebar.

Number of 5 star reviews :- 427,591.
Current Version :- 8.2.2.
Compatible android version :- 2.0.1 and above versions
Average rating :- 4.7.
Memory size:- 3.1 MB

2. Opera mini:

Features:

• Saves data costs :- Reduce data costs by up to 90% by compressing the data.
• Fast :- As it compresses the data it will take less time for each page to load,resulting in lightening speed.
• Easy interface :- It provide you an easy interface so that you can access everything without any confusion.
• Tabbed browsing - This allows you to keep multiple pages open and switch between them instantly.
• Speed Dial - When you open an new tab all your favourite websites will be shown at once,you can access any site easily with this

Number of 5 Star reviews:- 192,837
Current version:- 7.0.3
compatible android version :- 1.5 and above version
Average rating :- 4.4
memory size:- 858 KB

3. Boat Browser:

Features:-

• Add-ons :- Add-ons always adds extra features to your browsing experience, there are few add-ons available and many on the way
• Voice Command and Voice Search :- You can operate your browser through this voice commands.
• Video & YouTube Video Support :- Supports AFP on Android 2.2 or above, you could watch the video in the browser as the desktop browser.
• Colourful theme options :- You can have any colourful theme that you wish
• Easy Download :- It also supports resume and download feature
• Powerful Bookmarks Management :- In this you can have a bookmarks folder,sync bookmarks with few other browsers,export/import bookmarks to SD card
• Speed dails and Tabs enabled.

Number of 5 star reviews :- 6,264
Current Version :- 3.3
compatible android version :- 2.1 and above versions
Average rating :- 4.4
memory size:- 2.0 MB

4. Sky fire:

Features:

• Skyfire Search :- Through this interesting search feature you can search instantly on Google, Facebook, Video Surf, Twitter and more.
• Facebook Like Button :- You need not to search for like button on any websites, using this ad it integrates a like button for every page.
• Facebook Quick View :- This feature view keeps your Facebook page loaded in the cloud for easy, one touch access to your news feed, profile, friends, inbox, events and places an all other facebook stuff.
• Flash Video :- Through its unique technology, it allows you to play thousands of flash videos all around the Internet.
• Tabs enabled.

Number of 5 star review :- 81,954
Current Version :- 4.1.0
compatible Android version :- 2.0 and above versions
Average rating :- 4.3
memory size:-1.6 MB

5. Maxthon Browser:

Features:

• Sync to the Cloud :- Your Bookmarks and favourite scan be imported/exported with desktop.
• Private browsing  :- We (boys) always have some spicy content to browse. If you private browsing it wont be included in the browsing history.
• Supports Theme/Skin :- This adds extra fun to your browsing experience.
• Download Manager :- You can explore many option in downloading like sorting, scheduling etc and manage downloads.
• Tab and Seed dials enabled :-
• Interesting Add-ons are available.

Number of 5 star review :- 24,079
Current Version :- 2.6.6
compatible android version :- 1.6 and above versions
Average rating :- 4.7
memory size:- 2.3 MB.

Which is Your Best Android Browser?