Cricket may not sound interesting to most Americans but for the rest of the world, specially India, Australia and South Africa, life is incomplete without Cricket. People get glued to their televisions and news channels to get every small details of the game. They don’t want to miss a single ball.

Well, if this is you, then continue reading…

You must be wondering how can you watch Cricket World cup live. Let me tell you that there are not many legal ways to watch it free any more.

First and foremost, you may buy a package on ESPN to watch cricket for $99. With that you get to watch every World Cup match live, legally, among other things.

ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Live – ESPN

Besides that some other free options have become available too. If you just want to watch a single game, then spending $99 might seem a little costlier for some.

Try any of these sites to watch Cricket World Cup Live.

1. BuyCricketOnline
2. DigitalIPL
3. Cric4USA
4. Crictime

Use Chrome browser to access the site and using Chromecast stream it on to your television. That’s about it. Please note that any of these site may go down anytime and may not work.

Irrespective of which method you choose, just enjoy Cricket World Cup Live and cheer up your favorite team.

Thank you!
Anurag Bansal
Add your comment by visiting How to watch Cricket World Cup Live? #WorldCup15 on web. Check out Techacker for more and let's connect on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

Communication requires at least a sender and a recipient. Hyper-social highly connected world we live in today brings us tools like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Blogs and hundred other social networks.

But as a society on a very ground level I think we are failing the entire purpose of communication. In order to solve the communication issue we ended up creating channels that are full of NOISE.

For any communication to happen, there are four necessary ingredients.

1. Sender – the person who wants to start a message that is you and me.
2. Message – the message itself that is the content. This post for example is a message.
3. Medium – the channel used to send the message across. In social context that would mean tools such as Twitter, Blog post, Pinterest, Facebook etc.
4. Recipient – the person/group on the other end whom the sender wants to share information with – that would again be the audience, you and me.

What is NOISE?

Noise, in social context, is something that no one is receiving. Like the tweet no one reads, blog posts no one cares about and anything else that is in abundance. The message for which there is no defined recipient is NOISE in my opinion.

As per Wikipedia,

Communication meaning “to share” is a purposeful activity of exchanging information and meaning across space and time using various technical or natural means. Communication requires a sender, a message, a medium and a recipient. The communication process is complete once the receiver understands the sender’s message.

Having said that, the next question in my opinion is how to improve on communication then. How do we reduce the noise? How do we make sure that our message reaches as many recipients as possible with minimum effort?

Believe me, there are no shortcuts to these questions. You will have to analyze your own situation and understand what works and what not.

Many people I know don’t use Twitter because to them it feels like throwing “a drop in the ocean” where there are so many sharks.

So how do you solve this mystery? Well, the guys at SurePayroll have put together an informative graphics that based on their experience and insights from tools they used, seem to have worked for them. It is worth trying some of the tips mentioned in this infographics to see if works for you as well. The infographics shows the best and worst times to Pin on Pinterest, tweet on Twitter, share on Facebook and Google+.

If not, try to tweak a little bit at a time and see if that works for you. It would at least give you a starting point and then you can build your own workflow from there. Also, to take the most advantage of this information I would highly recommend using tools like Buffer, Klout, Facebook scheduled post feature and others that let you plan in advance.

Best and Worst Times to Pin, Tweet and Share on Facebook

Best and Worst Times to Pin, Tweet and Share on Facebook

Over to you

Would you care to share what works for you? How often do you share on Twitter and other social media channels and when you get the best results?

Thank you!
Anurag Bansal
Add your comment by visiting Best & worst Times to Pin, Tweet and Share on Facebook on web. Check out Techacker for more and let's connect on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

Knowing and Measuring how fast or slow a site loads is half the battle. Analyzing and then making the required changes is a constant battle that any webmaster needs to fight on a daily basis. A fast loading website brings many advantages – better user experience, reduced mobile data usage, reduction in bounce rate, increased traffic, better visitor analytic, SEO rating and all.

Here on Techacker, I use the following tools for website speed optimization tools to understand various aspects of what to change to give you a better and fast loading website. These tools offer suggestions on what to optimize on your blog or any website for that matter.

Essential Website Speed Optimization Tools

1. Pingdom Website Speed Test

Pingdom Website Speed test tool comes on No.1 in my list as I can’t tell you how much it has helped me track down the issues with Techacker loading time. Just enter the URL of the page and analyse website’s performance grade, no. of requests the page is making, load time and page size. It also shows a waterfall list of all the files that are downloaded when a request is made to the specified page.

Besides just data, Pingdom speed tool also offers a little deep dive and recommendations on how you can make it faster like use of browser caching, minimizing redirects and the details about bad requests etc.

Pingdom Tools – Website speed test

2. Google PageSpeed Insights

Start by entering a URL into the Google PageSpeed Insights form and see the magic happen. The difference between Pingdom Speed Test tool and Google PageSpeed Insights is that Google PageSpeed highlights the areas on a page where the optimization is needed. If also shows you how your site loads on a Mobile device.

See your site score grow as you make the suggested changes. There is a lot of help in every aspect of this analysis. Just click-through the links to understand different suggestions and make necessary changes.

Google PageSpeed Insights

3. GTmetrix

GTmetrix is probably a more sophisticated tool because it provides you with YSlow and Page Speed Grade both. The report is very detailed and can be exported out as PDF. Click on a recommendation and if you want to do a deep dive to understand why you got a lower score on one item, just click on the pop up link to find out more about it.

GTmetrix Performance Report

4. Web Page Test

This is one of most sophisticated performance test tool. Start by entering the URL of the page. Select a location from which you would want to run the tool and the browser you would like to use. Just assume your user is at that location accessing your site and using the specified browser.

Now check various tabs to understand various aspects of your page. There are always some things you have no control over but many times I found that many things I could change or improve on to make the site load faster. Performance review is one area where you would want to spend a little bit more time to analyze everything that affects the page load time.

Web Page Test Details for techacker.com

Final Words

I use these 4 website speed optimization tools regularly. As you all would agree that being a blogger you end up getting excited about some widget or a feature and add it to our sites. Slowly these small additions add up and end up slowing down the site.

Most of the times, I found unnecessary plugins, JavaScript code and widgets that dragged my site’s speed. Now I pay extra attention before adding any new plugin to my site and try to keep it as clean as possible.

I always ask if something is adding any value to the user or not and if it is something that doesn’t provide any value to the user, I just remove it. It is a constant activity to keep your site clean and remove any unnecessary junk. Keep a tab on your Google Analytics to view your bounce rate and how users are interacting with your site.

You are the only one that can draw a line between what is important for your user and what is not? It is not wise to shoot for a 100 score in any of these tools as you will unnecessarily waste your time with very minimum benefit for the user. But again, keep an eye on site load time because that is what matters finally. Right!!!

What are the tools you use to check your site for problems? What other things you learned to improve your site speed? Let us know in comment section.

Thank you!
Anurag Bansal
Add your comment by visiting 4 Essential Website Speed Optimization Tools for WebMasters on web. Check out Techacker for more and let's connect on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

Yes, I totally made it up, just to draw your attention. I know, but believe me there are not just 50, a hell lot more than that health and fitness routines available for FREE at this site.

The NR Project is a site dedicated to health, nutrition and fitness. Offering FREE health advice, workout routines, healthy nutrition tips and fitness training, the NR project is a hub you wouldn’t want to miss checking out.

Best of all, everything on the site is FREE.

Definitely check out the following sections if you want to improve your health, reduce belly, learn about different exercises or in general develop a healthy lifestyle. All these health and fitness routines are available in high quality Visual images that can be downloaded and printed by anyone for FREE. (Click images to go the specific section…)

Free Health and Fitness Routines

Workouts

Visual Workouts – Neilarey

Not just 50 there are over 200 workouts that can help you find a suitable workout for your needs. I am not sure how these workouts are named and if there is any meaning behind them. But I found some of these names very amusing with no specific correlation with the workout itself. However all of them are worth checking out.

Programs

Fitness Programs

If you want to follow a particular program, such as – Cardio, High Intensity training or body weight training etc – this is a good place to check.

Fitness Challenges

Fitness Challenges

Challenge yourself and do the suggested routines like Push-up challenge, pull-up challenge etc. and go to the next stage.

Running

Running programs and tips

Want to participate in Marathons or just simply start running. Find out what is the right posture and how to prepare for marathons.

Fitness Advice

Fitness Advice

Now this is a section you will be more interested into, I guess. Because it answers your questions like “How to reduce belly?”, “How to make muscles?” and “How to lose weight?”. So go check it out.

Meal Plans

Nutrition & Healthy Eating Tips

I am sure most of you are interested into finding out healthy meal plans. This the section for you.

Other sections you may want to definitely check out are – Nutrition and Healthy Eating Tips, Recipes and Forum for question and answers on a specific problems. Irrespective of what your health motivations are, you will sure find something suitable for your needs.

Go do some push-ups…and don’t forget to watch 50 Shades of Grey because in another study it was found that Sex is better than playing golf or yoga.

Thank you!
Anurag Bansal
Add your comment by visiting 50 Shades of Free Health and Fitness routines on web. Check out Techacker for more and let's connect on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

Smartphones may have been able to change the way we consume information, however it still hasn’t replaced the browser, at least not yet.

There is an app for almost everything, but we still like the comfort of a web browser.

Similarly, Flipboard started with ‘Mobile first‘ strategy, completely ignoring the web, just like Instagram did back in the day. But user demand changed that strategy and Flipboard was forced to bring the experience to the web.

Today, Flipboard introduced its news aggregator to the world-wide web. Yes, finally!!!

But I must say they have done an awesome job to start with. Utilizing the full potential of Responsive Web design, they were able to bring the pretty card-based clean and uncluttered environment to the web. Even though some aspects of Flipboard.com are different and seem to have been designed to use the unique attributes of a browser and various screen sizes.

No change was announced for Flipboard on Android and other mobile platforms.

Few noticeable features of Flipboard on the web are:

• Responsive layouts for different sizes

Flipboard on the web

•  Scrolling interface instead of a flipping interface on mobile

Scrolling Flipboard on the web Interface

• Hovering effects triggered by mouse interactions

Mouse Interactions – Flipboard on the web

• The content adjusts itself based on the type of content – images or heavy text-based content format differently.

Flipboard team put together a small walk through in this “Introducing Flipboard on the web” video

As you may have noticed that I am a big fan of Flipboard. This is probably the most used app on my Android phone and tablet. By bringing Flipboard on the web, the team has definitely helped a lot of users and now offer a competitive web product that could potentially challenge RSS readers like Feedly. So…

Thank you Flipboard team. 

You can follow me on Flipboard and check out the magazines I curate in Flipboard – Entrepreneurs’ Corner and Learn Photography.

Entrepreneurs’ Corner Magazine on Flipboard Learn Photography Magazine on Flipboard

[via: Inside Flipboard]

Thank you!
Anurag Bansal
Add your comment by visiting Flipboard launches on the Web – Yes, Finally! on web. Check out Techacker for more and let's connect on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

Microsoft is offering a pretty decent deal on OneDrive storage space. If you sign up for Bing Rewards program, you will receive 100GB of free OneDrive online space for 2 years. Not bad, eh!!!

So what do you do to get this offer. Well, it is very easy:

• Make sure you have a Microsoft account (that means Hotmail, Live or Outlook.com email address)
• Click here to go to Bing Rewards.
• If you have never signed-up for Bing Rewards, click on “Join now”.
• If you are already a Bing Rewards member, then you should end on Bing Dashboard.
• Now you should see the offer on your dashboard and it should say – “100GB free”
• Click on the link. That will bring you to the page as shown below:
  

  Bing Rewards and 100GB OneDrive Offer

• Click on “Get my storage” and check the box below it to receive promotional emails from OneDrive.
• That’s it, your 100GB extra OneDrive storage should show up in a few moments.

The offer is only valid till February 28th, so make sure you sign up before that date to avail this deal.

Enjoy and don’t forget to share this offer with your buddies.

Thank you!
Anurag Bansal
Add your comment by visiting Sign up for Bing Rewards and get 100GB OneDrive Space free on web. Check out Techacker for more and let's connect on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

Sleeping a very important activity in our life. We spend almost 1/3rd of our life in sleeping. But how much sleep is enough for a healthy individual has been an ongoing topic for debate. We keep seeing various studies on this very topic.

Overall, it seems that anything less than 6 hours/day is not good for the health and anything over 11 hours/day — well, you are wasting half of your life in sleeping, please go find something productive to do with it.

The below graphics from National Sleep Foundation was created to show the results of a recent 2 year-long study and the results are not too different. If you look closely for any adult category aged 18+ years, you would note that the recommended sleep is 7-9 hours per day whereas 6 hours to 11 hours may be appropriate as well based on the life style choices. But bare minimum sleep is indeed 6 hours per day.

Study: How much sleep is necessary for you?

How much you should really sleep?

The below graphics from Funders and Founders also show us how much time we spend in our life on various activities dear to us.  It also shows that 1/3rd of our life we spend on just sleeping and another 1/3rd on other daily chores, entertainment and other activities. Take a look and don’t hesitate to share:

How we spend our time

And below is a daily routines of 26 famous creative people. Obviously a person can’t be creative, innovative and productive throughout the day. The image below is kind of proof of that opinion.

Click image to see the interactive version (via Podio)

In my personal experience however, I have found that 6 hours is more than enough for me. I find it non-productive to sleep more than that and if I try to force my body to sleep more I feel uncomfortable. That’s just my personal experience. Not sure what the consequences might be in the later life but for now I am happy that I am using my time in a productive manner.

What do you think? How much do you usually sleep?

Thank you!
Anurag Bansal
Add your comment by visiting Study: How much sleep is necessary for you? on web. Check out Techacker for more and let's connect on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

What a game…? What a game…? Just awesome. Patriots win but Seahawks gave a good fight. Overall a fantastic evening with friends and a scary drive home with almost a feet of snow on the roads.

In continuation of the my previous post about Super Bowl XLIX Commercials, I feel like being an Automotive guy, I should share the commercials that Automotive OEMs brought to the game yesterday.

Jeep, Dodge, Fiat, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and others putting their marketing money to work in the following commercials.

Watch all Super Bowl XLIX Car Commercials

Which automotive commercial is your favorite? I personally loved the Fiat Blue Pill ad the most. Which is your favorite, share with us in comments.

Thank you!
Anurag Bansal
Add your comment by visiting Enjoy Super Bowl XLIX Car Commericals here on web. Check out Techacker for more and let's connect on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

Companies pay top dollars for a small 30 second slot during Super Bowl. Super Bowl commercial are probably more popular than the game itself. It is one of the major attractions of a Super Bowl event, at least what I have noticed in the last few years.

It is also one of the important article that I publish every year. As usual I collect all these Super Bowl commercials into a single YouTube playlist so you can enjoy them all in one place. Below is this year’s list so far (22 videos).

The list has commercials from Budweiser, Bud Light, BMW, Kia, T-Mobile, Mercedes-Benz, Wix, GrubHub and many more. I will keep adding more videos to this playlist as they are aired and I find them. Please don’t hesitate to suggest if I missed some other Super Bowl XLIX commercials in this list.

2015 Super Bowl XLIX Commercials Playlist

For some reason, old commercials have been removed from YouTube by their respective owner. Not sure why, but they are literary GONE.  Well, at least enjoy these while they are still here.

Don’t hesitate to share this post with your friends on Facebook and Twitter etc.

(Photo credit: Ken Lund / Foter / CC BY-SA)

Thank you!
Anurag Bansal
Add your comment by visiting Enjoy 2015 Super Bowl XLIX Commercials Here on web. Check out Techacker for more and let's connect on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

Competition is always good for consumers. Any rivalry between giants always work in favor of consumers. Similarly to beat Google in its own game, Microsoft has stepped up recently and released bunch of services and applications for Android.

The short version : Microsoft releases Office for Android tablets that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.

Watch this quick video of the Office on Android apps in action to give you flavor of what can be done:

Microsoft Word

Word documents look beautiful, with text, images, footnotes, tables, equations and charts all nicely formatted. You can create, view and edit docs on tablets with a screen size of 10.1 inches or smaller. The changes can be tracked in the documents and comments can be added. View email attachments and access Word documents from OneDrive, Dropbox and Google Drive. The navigation and menu options are built for touch experience.

Microsoft Excel

Excel spreadsheets bring raw data to life with support for formulas, charts, tables, Pivot Tables, sorting, filtering and comments. It even includes conditional formatting.

Microsoft PowerPoint

PowerPoint presentations look stunning when your ideas are expressed with full support for rich formatting and embedded video, transitions and animations. There’s even a handy format painter tool, built especially for touch. While presenting, use the built-in laser pointer, pens or highlighter to get the point across.

Microsoft Outlook (Preview):

Outlook is a free email app that helps you get one unified view of your email, calendar, contacts and attachments. Swipe to quickly delete, archive or schedule messages you want to handle later. You can also easily view your calendar, share available times and schedule meetings.

Outlook works with Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, Outlook.com, Gmail, Yahoo mail and iCloud.

Now you ask, isn’t it already something built-in Android. Answer is Yes, then why would you want to use Outlook. Well, Microsoft tries to convince you with the following video:

If you are convinced, then go ahead and download Microsoft Outlook (Preview) for your phone or tablet.

Device Requirements

Current system requirements for Office on Android tablet are:

• Devices of screen sizes 7 inches or larger up to 10.1 inches
• A device with screen size greater than 10.1 inches will require an Office 365 subscription to create and edit
• An ARM based processor and
• 1 GB RAM or above.
• Android OS version KitKat4.4.x. Lollipop support will be added in a subsequent update.

Other Office apps like OneNote and OneDrive were already available in Google Play.  So now you have it all, at least for Android tablets. However there is “Microsoft Office Mobile” app for phones that can for now let you create and edit documents on the go.

[via Office Blogs]

Thank you!
Anurag Bansal
Add your comment by visiting Microsoft releases Office for Android tablets on web. Check out Techacker for more and let's connect on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.