view blocked websites with opera vpn for ios

opera vpn for ios let's you browse websites that may be blocked depending on the location from where you are accessing the internet. For example if you are somewhere where some websites may be censored by local authorities, the vpn will let you access the blocked content by connecting you to a location that can access that content.

In addition, the free tool can also block system-wide ads as well as trackers, for free. Opera does collect data for statistical purposes and may send limited push notifications with marketing material (if you turn off the notifications for the app, the vpn won't work). Currently there are 5 vpn access locations in Cananda, Netherlands, Germany, Singapore and the US. which are hosted by SurfEasy which recently has been acquired by Opera.

The vpn option has already been integrated into the desktop version of the Opera web browser for Windows as well as OS X. As this is a free service you may not agree with the terms or you may prefer more options and features. If that's the case, witopia has been offering reliable and good vpn services for quite a long time and well worth the cost.

Sega’s classic game ‘Crazy Taxi’ available free for iOS

The universal game is currently available for free on iTunes. The car racing game first came out in 1999 for gaming arcades and arrived a year later on Sega’s Dreamcast gaming console.

The game has been recently ported as universal App for iOS, meaning it’s playable on the iPhone, iPad and iTouch that have iOS version 4.3 or above. The game runs at full screen on the iPhone 5. The game in which the player is a taxi driver is centered in the city of San Francisco, is a full game without in-app purchases. It usually costs around $5 so grab it while you can.

Scanner Pro for iOS currently free

As App of the Week, Readdle's Scanner Pro is being offered for free on the Appstore. Scanner Pro serves to digitalise documents with the help of the iPhone or iPad camera. The app can automatically recognise the edge of a paper document, offers several editing functions such as contrast and lighting adjustments and is able to handle multiple pages and save the photographed documents in PDF format. Documents created with Scanner Pro can be saved to various cloud services such as Dropbox, iCloud and Evernote. The app is about 30MB in size and is currently available for free (usually 6 Euros) download.

Use Airplay on your PC's screen with AirServer

Video Airplay used to be only available with the Apple TV. But what if you wanted to play videos, show photos or mirror your iOS device's screen to your computer? That's exactly what AirServer (available for Mac and Windows) allows you to do, without the need of having an Apple TV.  Mirroring is supported by the iPad 2 or newer and the iPhone 4s or newer.

Whether it is showing off photos that are on your iPhone on to your computer screen or giving a presentation using AirServer on your notebook computer that is connected to a projector, or just playing one of the thousands iOS games on your computer screen, AirSever will enable all of this. On top of that you can connect multiple iOS devices to one display. There is a trial you can download which allows you to try it out for 7 days and if you decide to keep it, it's available for $15.

Browse the web on your TV with an Apple TV & AirWeb

The Apple TV already allows you to view online content such as movies, video streams and music. However it doesn't allow you to browse the web like on a PC or even your tablet. Introducing AirWeb for iOS, it allows you to browse the web on your TV (through a connected Apple TV) and use your iPhone as a handy trackpad. But how is this different than mirroring your iPhone to the TV through AirPlay you ask? Well, Airweb will allow you to use your TV's full resolution as opposed to the screen resolution of your iPhone. AirWeb supports various gestures such as pinch to zoom, pan to move the cursor and pan with 2 fingers to scroll. It's price is currently reduced for the holidays at $0.99 on the AppStore.

Initiate a torrent download from your iOS device

For this to work you'll need a PC that is on (or that you can turn on through WOL with a remote control software such as TeamViewer or LogMeIn), is connected to the internet and has uTorrent and the Dropbox client installed. Of course you also should have the latter installed on your mobile device too from which you want to initiate the torrent download.

After you've installed all the required software, start uTorrent and under 'Options' go to 'Preferences'. Under 'Directories' put a check mark at 'Automatically load torrents from..' and create a new directory in your Dropbox folder with a identifiable name such as 'torrents'. As a result, all torrent files that are saved in that directory will be automatically launched for downloading provided that uTorrent is running in the background (normally in the tray bar).

Let's say you are still on the road or at another place than your home but want to download a torrent to your home PC from afar. All you have to do on your iPhone is go to your favorite torrent website, tap on the file you want to download, tap 'Open in..', select 'Dropbox' and save it to the 'torrent' folder you've created previously. The uTorrent client will automatically notice the new file in it's watch folder and will start the download of the torrent on it's own.

Save web pages (while browsing on your PC) to read later on your iOS device

If you often find yourself looking for an easy way to send a web article to your phone so that you can read it at a later time (instead of emailing it to yourself or bookmarking it), have a go at Pocket (formely known as Read it Later) by Idea Shower. First you need to create an account at Getpocket. Then download and install the appropriate Pocket extension for your Desktop browser. If you're using Firefox you can get the Pocket Add-on here. Install Pocket for iOS and login with your user account.

On your desktop browser there will be a small (downward facing arrow, grey-white when not saved or red-white when a page has been saved to Pocket) icon in the right end of the  address bar which you can click anytime you find an article on the web that you want to save to read it later on your mobile device. The articles that you save (by clicking on the Pocket icon on your desktop browser) will automatically be synced with your smartphone once you open the Pocket App on your iOS device.

Receive Windows balloon notifications on your iOS device

The windows notifications that pop up usually in the lower right corner of your computer screen just above the toolbar can be very useful. They can alert you when your notebook battery is running out of juice and you need to find an outlet quickly to recharge it. It can tell you for instance that the video you are currently converting to another format is now finished, or it can tell you that your download is complete among other things.

This is all quite useful when you are on front of your PC but what if you're in the kitchen and your PC is in the bedroom but you still want to know when an encoding or download is finished or if there are any other alerts. For that very purpose you can use a versatile tool called Growl that 'will let you know when things happen' on your computer such as a new email arrived, or a friend is online. And what interests us is that it has the ability to forward all notifications or only  the ones you choose to you iOS device.

But before you can start to receive notifications on your iPhone, several components need to be installed and configured. First you'll need Growl for Windows. After downloading and installing the software, you'll need to install notification apps, which are sort of plugins for Growl, that will allow it to receive notifications from the appropriate programs. For your iOS device you can use Prowl, which is a Growl client for iOS.

If you choose the "Windows Balloons" plugin for Growl (you can install as many as you want), you can set it to forward all notifications to your iPhone by clicking the + button under 'Network' in the main Growl Windows (you may have to double-click the Growl icon in the toolbar in case it's not open yet) and select 'click here to forward notifications to an iPhone via Prowl'. After going through a short verification process, your iPhone will receive all future notifications when it's on the same network as the PC.

Instapaper for iOS currently free on App Store

As App of the Week the popular iOS to store webpages on your iPhone for off-line reading is currently being offered for free. It used to cost EUR 3.59. Instapaper allows you to store the pure text of a webpage, stripping out the full layout of the pages thus optimizing it for the iPhone screen to read it later. You can store up to 500 pages on your device and unlimited pages on the Instapaper website The App offers an offline mode that is integrated into various other apps.

Additional features include different font sizes, dark mode for night reading, sorting of unread articles by date or article length, organising into folder, search word meanings through online dictionary or Wikipedia and preview links in the built-in browser.

Rock Star Games releases GTA San Andreas for iOS

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for iOS features a rich open-world game playing in the state of San Andreas. After having left his hometown Los Santos in the 80's, Carl Johnson CJ, the lead character of the game returns 10 years later to take charge of his old neighborhood.

The high resolution graphics have been remastered for the mobile experience as well as enhancement have been made for the iPhone 5 that feature detailed shadows and real-time reflections of the environment. External physical controllers that are made for iOS devices are supported. Rockstar Social Club Members can save their game progress in the cloud, thus allowing continued play on any of their iOS devices.

You can fully control the camera and movement with dual analog stick controls. Customize the on screen controls to display the buttons only when you need them. You can even create your own playlist to listen to while playing the game. The download size is 1.63GB and the price is $9.99.

Angry Birds Go! now available

Keeping their promise, Rovio Entertainment have released their go-kart racing game Angry Birds Go! for iOS. Keeping in tune with birds and piggies characters, participants will be racing downhill on piggy island on hazardous roads that have plenty of twists and turns in addition to mischievous opponents that will try to prevent you from reaching the finish line in your soapbox.

The characters and game are all in 3D. You can choose from many characters of the AngyBirds universe to race as, who all have their own special powers on the challenging tracks. Participate in different game modes including Fruit Plat, Champion Chase and Mega Match.

The Soapboxes can be upgraded to a superfly supercar either by earning them through game progression or by in-app purchases. Apparently you'll also be able to view Angry Birds animated TV series through the app.

Shutdown a Windows PC on same network with ios device

ServerControl by Stratospherix allows you to reboot or shutdown a Windows PC on your network. Just enter the IP address and an administrator's account info of the PC you want to shutdown into the app the first time. You won't need to install any additional software on the remote PC. Will also work over VPN.

Facebook Messenger for iOS now uses phone number

The most recent Facebook messenger for iOS has been updated with the iOS 7 look. Similar to WhatsApp it now allows you to add people you want to message by phone number , even if they are not friends on Facebook. It will regularly check your updated contact details to see whether there are users using the new messenger or are available, displayed by a blue icon next to it's avatar picture.

Blackberry messenger for WiFi iPad and iPod Touch

Blackberry updated it's Messenger app which now can be used on iOS devices without Cellular capabilities. Although it hasn't been updated yet for the iPad and uses instead a blown up version of the one on the iPhone, it offer's new option for sharing contact details.

Microsoft releases Remote Desktop app for iOS and android

Remote Desktop for iOS let's you connect to and control a Windows PC from the iPhone if connected to the same network. A VPN server will let you securely use Remote Desktop over the internet also. Among other features, you'll be able to use the iPhone as a remote for presentations.