Locate your lost phone with Android Device Manager

Have you ever lost your phone in between the couch cushions or forgot it in a restaurant? Or maybe searching for your phone before you rush out the door is part of your morning routine? Let the new Android Device Manager help you out! It's one of a few simple features you can use to keep your device—and the data you store inside—safe and secure. 

Locate and ring your misplaced device 

If you ended up dropping your phone between those couch cushions, Android Device Manager lets you quickly ring your phone at maximum volume so you can find it, even if it's been silenced. And in the event that your phone or tablet is out of earshot (say, at that restaurant you left it at last night), you can locate it on a map in real time.

You can also remotely add a screen lock to your device through the Android Device Manager. Whether you’re on a phone or a tablet, a screen lock is an important security step to protect the information stored on your device, in case it accidentally gets into the wrong hands. Being able to do this through the Android Device Manager means that even after you lose your phone, you’ll still be able to add a lock (or change an existing lock) to your device. 

Protecting your personal information and data

While losing your phone can be stressful, Android Device Manager can help you keep your data from ending up in the wrong hands. If your phone can’t be recovered, or has been stolen, you can quickly and securely erase all of the data on your device.

Availability and getting started 

This service is now available on devices running Android 2.2 or above; to use it, you also will need to be signed into your Google Account. There will also be an Android app's to allow you to easily find and manage your devices. Stay tuned!

Newborn Photography Safety Tips to Ensure a Comfortable Baby Photo Session

Newborn photography is a huge responsibility: Parents are trusting you with their new, tiny baby. Yes, you want to capture incredible and amazing images that they will treasure for a lifetime, but you also want to be sure that you’re shooting with the safety and comfort of the baby in mind.

Practicalities and planning for newborn photography

Most newborn photography sessions take place when the baby is between 5 and 10 days old. At this stage, newborns are super sleepy, making them easier to work with, and they are still fairly flexible and moldable. As they get a little bit older, newborns gain more control over their limbs and bodies and get much more proficient at wiggling out of whatever cute little pose you were attempting.

Scheduling newborn sessions involves a willing flexibility on your part. Best case scenario: Talk with the parents-to-be beforehand about the timing and expectations of your shoot. That way, once the baby arrives, the parents will already know what to expect and how to contact you for final scheduling.

What to do the morning of a newborn session

Plan for a sleeping baby. Most newborn photographs rely on an exhausted, sleeping baby who is willing to submit to whatever poses, outfit changes and interactions you have in store. Advise the parents to try to keep the baby awake for the two hours leading up to your session. (Reassure them that this is likely to be a futile endeavor but still to try.)

Then, aim to feed the baby as full as possible about 15-20 minutes before you plan to start shooting. This will help induce a baby coma of peaceful sleeping. If you know that arriving, organizing your supplies and setting up might take those 15-20 minutes, you might want to recommend the parents wait until your arrival to feed the baby.

Plan for a warm baby. You want the baby to be as comfortable as possible — and that means cranking the heat. Ask the parents to turn the thermostat up to 80-84 degrees F or use a space heater in the room. You could also try using an electric blanket to pre-heat the blankets or backdrop the baby will be lying on, but you never want to place an active electric blanket on or near the baby.

Safety while photographing newborns

Newborns are delicate and fragile, and you always want to use the utmost care when moving and posing an infant. Always wash or sanitize your hands before any newborn session. (It goes without saying that you must reschedule a newborn shoot if you think you might be getting sick.) Ask parents’ permission before touching or moving the baby, or ask for their assistance in posing. Be prepared to work slowly to get the pose or look that you want.

A curled up, sleeping baby will often stay that way when reassured with a steady hand and a firm hold. Wait a few beats for the baby to settle before withdrawing your hand and taking the photographs. Swaddling  is another great way to immobilize a baby for certain shots.

Even sleepy babies may fight the urge and try keeping an eye open. Gently use the back of your knuckle to massage down the baby’s nose. This usually causes the infant’s eyes to close and give you that peaceful, sleeping look. It may only last a moment, however, so consider asking a parent to help so that you can capture the shot the minute their hand is out of the way.

Newborn babies cannot support their own heads. Any photograph you have seen with a baby’s head lifted or propped up on its hands, or balancing on a prop was done as a composite. The photographer took two or more shots with a parent supporting the baby’s head (one shot holding from above and one from below) and removed those hands digitally during post-processing. This style of shot can only be done safely with an adult carefully supporting the baby during the entire process. Unless you have a lot of experience compositing separate images, do not attempt this type of shot.

Plan ahead for the types of shots that both you and the new parents want. Spend a little time plotting out which shots work well with various backgrounds or when to risk upsetting the baby with an outfit change. A little forethought and a big dose of safety will go a long way towards a successful newborn photography session.

Time to Upgrade Your Smartphone Camera

With every new year, smartphone cameras show signs of improvement and better, rapidly drawing closer the nature of higher-end cameras. Smartphones have pretty much annihilated the point & shoot market. Adding to this are the innovators and business people who are making great embellishments and applications to take cell phone photography significantly facilitate. Here are a few suggestions for incredible smartphone camera accomplices to take your photography to the following level.

This iPhone shoots at what might as well be called around 32mm and a determination of more than 3200 pixels over!

This is a 100 percent harvest of the same photograph.

LENSES

iPhones and most smartphones have a fixed lens. Some of them are pretty good for their size, offering apertures as low as f/2.0. However, since most of them are fixed around 30-35mm (as compared to a full-frame camera) you are locked into a particular perspective. Even, if you “zoom,” the perspective doesn’t change, it only gets magnified. And the quality degrades as you zoom in. To overcome this problem, creative people have invented ways of changing your focal length through accessory lenses. Some of them give you a wider perspective, some of them give you a zoomed in perspective, and some change the look of the image through filters.

Moment lenses sells two lenses. One will double your focal length and one will half it and both are super high quality pieces. Olloclip sells a 4-in-1 device that gives you four different lenses: wide angle, fish eye and two macro zooms at 10x and 15x. Olloclip also sells a polarizing lens and a telephoto. There are plenty of other options for changing your focal length as well as specialty lenses, like the Lensbaby Sweetspot, which gives you an interesting blurring effect.

Macro attachment captures stitching on a baseball cap

Macro attachment looking at sand on a beach.

POINT-AND-SHOOT CONVERTER

For the very serious iPhone photographer, there is Snappgrip. This device gives you an extra grip on your phone, plus the dials and buttons that allow you to skip the on-screen menus. Snappgrip also lets you prefocus and take the shot with one button, like you would on a regular camera. If you spend a lot of time shooting iPhone photos and just want a little more control, this could be the thing for you.

STABILITY

Sometimes you need a tripod for the ultimate selfie, to take a photo in a difficult spot, or just for a little extra stability in your videos. There are a ton of different tripod options for smartphones. The most basic option is to get a mount for your existing tripod. or you can invest in an all-in-one tripod and head combo that holds the phone. Or you can get something like the Joby Griptight, which will hold on just about anywhere.

If you shoot a lot of video with your smartphone, besides a tripod, you may also want to look into a stabilizer like the Steadicam Smoothie. This is just a much smaller version of the Steadicams used for major motion pictures. It gives you the effect of the camera flying through the air and is great for introducing some movement into your iPhone filmmaking.

WATERPROOF CASE

Getting the perfect photo sometimes means that you have to brave less than perfect conditions. For anywhere that you need protection from the elements, a waterproof case can come in handy and give you the piece of mind that your phone is safe. Cases like the one Lifeproof makes keeps your smartphone safe while maintaining the functionality of your phone’s camera. The Lifeproof case can even be used as an underwater camera up to a depth of 2 meters.

BACKUP BATTERY

If you use your phone a lot and plan on taking a lot of photos or videos throughout a day, it might be a good idea to have some extra juice on hand. When you are away from a place to charge your phone up or unable to stop long enough to wait for a charge, there are backup battery chargers to give you a boost. Dozens of companies make these at a reasonable price but one of the coolest is the Trianium Atomic S case for iPhone. This is a case and battery charger in one, effectively doubling your battery life.

PRINTER

You may not need to make prints in the field, but if you really want to blow someone’s mind, pick up something like the Fuji Instax Printer. You can instantly print Polaroid quality photos straight from your smartphone. New accessories are being created every week and I’m sure this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Lollipop Version with a kevlar wrapping: New security includes in Android 5.0

With each new arrival of Android, we attempt to stay two stages in front of the awful fellows. Regarding security, Lollipop is the greatest overhaul for Android to date. From the minute you turn on a gadget running Android 5.0, you'll have an abundance of new security elements ensuring you, similar to encryption of course and a lock screen that is less demanding and more intense than any other time in recent memory.

The simplest way to stay safe is now even easier 

What’s the simplest way to keep the data safe and secure on your mobile device? Use a screen lock! Lost and stolen devices are the number-one security issue affecting smartphone users. Still, a lot of people using mobile devices don’t use a pin or password because it takes too long to unlock, dozens of times per day. We’re making it easier than ever with Smart Lock, which lets you tell your phone to unlock using Bluetooth pairing, NFC, or simply your smile—faster than before. Plus, you can allow certain notifications to be accessible from the lock screen, helping you quickly get at the information you need while still keeping your device protected.

More secure, from the first time you turn it on 

People use safes and combination locks to protect their physical goods. With digital information, encryption acts like a safe to protect your information from thieves and snoops. That’s why we’ve worked hard to provide this added security for our users, which will now be the default from the moment you power on a new device running Lollipop, keeping your data safer without needing you to fiddle around in the settings. Full device encryption occurs at first boot, using a unique key that never leaves the device. This is the safest way to encrypt your device, which is why it’s how we’ve built encryption on Android since it first launched three years ago.

SELinux, making Android secure enough for the most demanding customers 

Android has had a strong application sandbox since the very beginning; Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) pushes enforcement of the Android security model further into the core of the OS and makes it easier to audit and monitor so there's less room for an attack. With Android 5.0, SELinux Enforcing mode is required for all applications on all devices. Multiple vulnerabilities have been prevented since we first introduced SELinux last year; by strengthening it even more, Android becomes a top choice for enterprise customers that have really strict security standards, such as the government. This is a feature that the broader security community helped us build, and is an example of how Android’s open nature helps make your device more secure every day.

There are a number of other features that were added to the platform to keep your devices secure. So, not only is Lollipop is the sweetest update of Android to date, we also built in a rigid (security) Lollipop stick for the core and and kevlar wrapping on the outside — to keep you safe from the bad guys, inside and out. 

Android is prepared for work know here 

A new route for the entire family to play know here

Android is prepared for work

Silk Sarees:

India is the second largest producer of silk, contributing to about 18 per cent of the world production. It will be interesting to mention who is the first one. The vibrant colours, light weight, resilience and excellent drape etc. have made silk sarees, the irresistible and unavoidable companion of Indian women. Indian silk is popular all over the world with its variety of designs, weaves and patterns.

Manufacturing process:

The entire process of starting from the eggs till the worms are grown up and cocoons are formed .The silk farmers let the caterpillars that make the largest cocoons, to turn into moths. The moths then laid eggs and the eggs hatched out more caterpillars making even bigger cocoons. Over the centuries, the size of the cocoon has increased and silkworm cocoons are now much bigger than the cocoons of other caterpillars (see picture). At least half a mile of continuous thread may come from one cocoon.

The silk threads are then dipped in colour liquid and used for preparing the colourful silk Saree. Chinese are the ones who started the manufacturing the silk sarees. Out of the numerous species of silk moths, scientists have enumerated about 70 silk moths which are of some economic value.

Although the bulk of world silk supply comes from the silk moth Bombyx  Mori which is domesticated, the other varieties of silk are known as wild silk, as they are grown in remote forest trees in natural conditions.

The four commercially known varieties of natural silk are (1) Mulberry silk (2) Tasar or Oak Tasar silk (3) Muga silk and (4) Eri silk.

    

  

Mulberry Silk:

Comes from the silk worm “Bombyx mori” which feeds on the mulberry plant. In India, the major mulberry silk producing states are Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Jammu & Kashmir.

Tasar Silk:

Less lustrous than mulberry silk, Tassar silk is used mainly for furnishings and interiors. Tasar silk is generated by the silkworm, Antheraea mylitta which mainly thrive on the food plants Asan and Arjun. It is cultivated in the states of Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Orissa, besides Maharashtra, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. A wide range of silk fabrics are produced at different production centers both Handloom and Powerlooms. A brief account of the range of fabrics is furnished below, as is known by its popular names.

Muga Silk:

The pride of Assam is known for its natural shimmering golden yellow colour. It is obtained from semi-domesticated multivoltine silkworm, Antheraea assamensis. These silkworms feed on the aromatic leaves of Som and Soalu plants. The muga silk, a high value product is used in products like sarees, mekhalas, chaddars etc.

Eri Silk:

Also known as the Endi or Errandi silk is thick, warm, soft, rare and very long lasting. India is a major producer of Eri Silk. It is grown in Assam and eastern parts of India. It is also found in Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa. Eri silk is produced by Philosamia ricini that feeds mainly on castor leaves.

A new route for the entire family to play

Whether you're attempting to enthrall a baby on a swarmed plane, empower your kid's freshly discovered affection for perusing or basically discover a motion picture for the entire family to appreciate, discovering the right substance ought to be only a tap or two away. Folks need the best for their children, yet in terms of advanced diversion, it can be hard to comprehend what to search for.

Starting today, we’re making it easier to find great family-friendly content on Google Play. Parents can now find family destinations across the Play store, with new features for browsing by age and interests. We’re also providing more useful information about apps and content on Google Play and improved tools so you can decide what’s right for your family. 

Follow the family star

On the Apps, Games and Movies & TV homepages, you can now tap the Family button to browse our new family-friendly experiences. On the Books homepage, tap the Children’s Books button. Since toddlers and tweens have different interests and abilities, these pages let you browse by age range to find content that’s the best fit for your family. Whether your child is still learning shapes and colors, or is getting into more scrapes than Judy Moody, you’ll find inspiring ideas for every age. What’s more top charts, recommendations, and even searches from family homepage are filtered to our family-friendly catalog.

Play with your favorite characters

For many of us, childhood memories include at least one favorite character: a plucky personality from a book, the superhero from a movie or a beloved stuffed animal. Characters are just as relevant today, and Lego, Barbie and other kids and family brands are some of the most popular searches on Google Play. To help you browse Google Play content around a favorite character, we have created special pages featuring dozens of top characters from across the globe, like PBS KIDS, Pororo and Peppa Pig. From the Play store app, take a tour through all of our popular characters to find apps, movies, books and more from your family’s favorites.

Empowering parents

When it comes to finding content on Google Play, our goal is to empower parents by giving them practical information and better tools for making decisions. Our new family star badges convey the specific age range that an app, movie or book was designed for. On our app detail pages, you’ll now find a new label telling you when family apps are ad-supported and new locally relevant content maturity ratings. Finally, Google Play has updated parental controls, so you can restrict downloads, purchases or streaming of mature content. 

For more on Applications click here 

Always on Apps

Watches tell the time, constantly the time, helping you keep focused and settle on fast choices initially. That is the reason Android Wear underpins dependably on screens and dependably on applications. You get the data you require the length of you need it, while saving money on battery and keeping away from arm bends just to wake your presentation.

Always-on fitness

Going out for a run? Now, you can keep an eye on distance and pace just by glancing at your watch with Endomondo, MapMyRun, and Runtastic. If golf is more your game, Golfshot gives you accurate distances from tee to pin so you can always grab the right club from your bag.

Always-on productivity

Competing in your personal weekly supermarket sweep? No need to slow down to bring out a list or phone. Just glance at your watch to see what’s next with Bring! Shopping List and Google Keep.

Always-on travel

And if you’re catching a flight, apps from American Airlines, Delta, and KLM show you flight status, gate, and seat info right on your wrist. Wearing your boarding pass keeps your phone in your bag and out of the airport lost and found.