Categories
Google Internet

Extensive List of Google Now Voice Commands and Tricks

In our last post on Google Now we explained What is Google Voice and How it is so amazing and a game changing feature added by Google. The most exciting feature of Google Now is the Voice search. This voice search can perform an endless list of tasks for you only if you are familiar with the related commands. Most people who are unfamiliar with these commands are not utilizing their Android Phones to the fullest capacity. To help you get started, here we are providing an extensive list of Voice commands that can be used with Google Now to find information.

General CommandsExamples
– “Search for ”“Search for Google Doodles ”
– “What is ”“Meaning of Android”
– “Who invented ”“Synonyms of visages”
– “What is the meaning of ”“Show stocks for Samsung electronic ”
– “Who is married to”“How old is Larry Page”
– “Capacity of ”“Population of Bangalore”
– “Show me the stocks for ”“Who is the CEO of Samsung”
– “Author of ”“How tall is Kobe Bryant”
– “How old is ”
Time & Date CommandsExamples
– “What time is it in ”“When is the father’s day in 2013”
– “When is the day in ”“Show me the time and date”
– “When is the sunset in ”“When does sun set in Chennai”
– “What is the time zone of ”“What time is it in Sydney”
– “Time at home”
Weather CommandsExamples
– “Weather”“Is it raining in New York”
– “Is it going to rain tomorrow”“Will it snow today”
– “Do I need an umbrella”“What’s the weather in Colombo”
– “Should i bring a Jacket today”“Is it raining outside”
– “Will it snow this week”“Is there any rain expected for Friday”
– “What’s the weather in ”“Weather forecast for Wednesday”
– “How’s the weather on going to be”
Maps & Navigation CommandsExamples
– “Map of ”“Where is the statue of liberty situated”
– “Show me the nearby on map”“Show all hotels near me”
– “Where is situated”“Bookstores in New York”
– “ in ”“Take me to the convention center on foot”
– “Navigate to on car”“Coffee bars in Madrid”
– “How far is from ”“How far is the motorway from my current location”
“When does the next train arrive”
Calculations & Conversions CommandsExamples
– “How much is times ”
– “What is percent of ”“How much is 57 point 78 minus 22”
– “Square root of ”“65 plus 135 into 20 minus 18 equals”
– “ ….. equals”“Convert 36 degrees Celsius into Fahrenheit”
– “What is the numerical value of Pi”“How many gallons in 1 kiloliter”
– “Convert into ”“Convert 100 hours into minutes”
– “Temperature of the sun”“What is the 75 percent of 1 point 5 million”
Sports CommandsExamples
– “ points table”
– “Who won the last match between and ”“Did the real madrid win last night”
– “ scorecard”“Scorecard of last Real Madrid match”
– “schedule of games”“La Liga table”
– “”“KaKa”
Web Navigation CommandsExamples
– “Go to ”
– “Open ”“Open xda.com”
– “Show me ”“Show me CNN.com”
– “Browse to ”“Take me to facebook.com”
Entertainment CommandsExamples
– “Listen to ”“Play YouTube Smosh FOOD BATTLE 2012”
– “Play ”“the cast of The Avengers”
– “YouTube ”“Movies of Leonardo Di Caprio”
– “When was the first episode of ”“Who produced The departed”
– “ movies”
– “Who acted in ”
– “Who is the producer of ”
– “When was released”
– “Runtime of ”
Notes & Reminders CommandsExamples
– “Remind me to at ”“Water the plants in one hour”
– “Wake me up in ”“Set an alarm for 2 hours from now”
– “ at ”“Remind me to call Bill in 45 minutes”
– “Self note to ”“Pick up kids from school at 3 P M”
– “Set alarm for ”“Note to self ”
Contact & Communication CommandsExamples
– “Call ”“Send email to Ian, Subject, post fix, Message, BLAH,BLAH”
– “Send to ”“Send SMS to dad mobile please call me A S A P”
– “” (shows the contact card)“Call help center”
– “Call in ”“Send I cannot come right now to Erin via text”
– “Email to , B C C , Subject , message ”
Image Search CommandsExamples
– “Images/photos/pictures of ”“Photos of mars”
– “Photos of at sunset”“Images of the Earth from moon”
– “Images of ”“Pictures of Eiffel Tower at sunrise”
– “Show me the photos of at ”
– “Logo of ”
Flight Schedules & Status CommandsExamples
– “Flight Status of ”“Status of B A 215”
– “Has landed/departed”“When Is Emirates 230 going to depart”
– “When will land”“Air Canada 760”

The following video will give you a better idea about the unlimited potential of Google Now.

Tips and Tricks of Google Now

Change Default Voice for Better Voice Recognition

The default language in Google Voice is English (US). If you are a Non-American, Google Voice will have a hard time understanding few phrases. So if you have difficulty, you can change the default language  to your choice.

– Open Google Search Aplication and Go to Settings

– Tap on Voice And then on language

– Select the language of your choice and now you can have a better recognition

Do a Barrel Roll

The popular barrel roll easter egg also works in Google Now. To test it, open the application and say “Do a barrel Roll” and see for yourself what happens on your phone screen.

Using Google Now without tapping the speaker icon

If you are using Android Jelly Bean, you can use a phrase ‘Ok Google” to wake up the Voice Search and let it perform tasks for you. So you do not need to tap on the speaker icon every time you want to run a search or find information.

Categories
Windows

Should I upgrade to Windows 8.1?

The public release of Windows 8.1 code-named Windows Blue  is around the corner (The expected release date in 17th October). This is a much anticipated release, as it is said to bring many radical changes in Windows 8. So many of us are contemplating to upgrade to Windows 8.1 as soon as possible. Those lucky few with access to MSDN and Technet has already got the privilege to test it out. Starting 17th October, Windows 8.1 will be available via Windows update for all existing users and those who want to upgrade, they can do so by going for a fresh installation of Windows 8.1, which will be available as a standalone product.

Let’s see if this new Windows 8.1 hype is how justified and you can decide if you really need this update?

Key Features of Windows 8.1

Start Button

When Windows 8 was released, the users were much surprised when they did not find the Start button, which Windows users were used to since Windows 95 days. So there was much condemnation to Microsoft as they released a Windows OS sans Start menu. Infact it is very difficult to work without a Start menu. So with Windows 8.1 everyone was expecting at least the Start menu and Microsoft disappoints again. What they did is just put the Start button which helps in navigating between Metro Interface and normal Desktop which was earlier present on the charm bar. So the only USP for Windows 8.1 for a general user is not met which is a major disappointment.

Lock Screen

The Lock Screen in Windows 8 was used by users to display the photos of their loved one. So Microsoft though to take this a step further and convert the Static lock screen photo to a full featured slideshow. Now you can choose photos from your harddrive or from skydrive to display a slideshow on your lock screen. Now when you are on lock screen, you do not need to enter a password to open the camera or answer a Skype call.

windows-8.1

Start Screen

Windows 8.1 has got bigger tiles size as well as now you can resize the live tiles. But the tile size is specific to each app. But most of the modern mobile app tiles are resizeable in any of the four ways viz. large, wide, medium and small. The video below explain how the live tiles can be re sized in Windows 8.1

Smart(Hero) Search

The new search in Windows 8.1 is a big improvement than its predecessor. The Smart Search powered by Bing is capable of finding lot more things for you. It will now index apps, documents,web content and probably emails. What you get in search result depends upon what you are searching for. The image below shows how the smart search bring result for a search term “Bill Gates”

smart-search_windows8.1

An indepth explanation of the Smart Search can be found at Win Supersite.

Snap View

The snap-view or split-screen as we generally know was introduced with Windows 8 for better multitasking. But this had a major flaw in Windows 8 as the screens were being divided at 70/30 ratio, making the app occupying the smaller screen virtually unusable. Now with 8.1 the screens can be resized at 30/70, 40/60 or 50/50 and for bigger resolution even 3 apps can be opened and workd on simultaneously.

Boot To Desktop

One of the major enhancement in Windows 8.1 is the ability to boot to the desktop. So every time you start your PC you do not go through the Start Screen and click on Desktop tile to go to the classic desktop view. This is useful especially in corporate environment and for those who largely use desktop mode in their windows 8/Windows 8.1 device.

Reading List

With reading list feature in Windows 8.1, you can save an article to read it later. You can use this feature to collect a repository of information or you can quickly save article to use on your research project. This is quite useful feature for those who consumes lot of information and web content.

ReadingList_windows8.1

IE improvement

The updated version of IE in Windows 8.1 now supports unlimited tabs without hindering performance. So you can open 100s of tabs in one IE window and another 100s of it in a second IE window and you will not feel noticeable performance changes.

Better Skydrive Integration

Skydrive is installed by-default with Windows 8.1 and it looks like an integral part of Windows Explorer. With Windows 8.1 Microsoft has added Smart Files functionality. The Smart Files feature enables part of the files/folders to reside on the local storage and part on the skydrive there by leaving more space on local drive. With the new Skydrive app, now you can mark several files to make those available offline too.

SkyDrive_windows8.1

The new features in windows 8.1 seems promising, though not a completely new operating system but the changes it incorporates are quite welcome. Things like Start button and 50% split of screen are like a boon to existing users of Windows 8. Moreover the changes in User Interface, Control Panel, Better Skydrive integration etc are desirable. However Microsoft could have brought back the most sought after feature Start Menu with Windows 8.1 and as it did not happen, it seems like Start menu is completely gone from Windows  and we will not see it ever in any of the future version of Windows. All in all Windows 8.1 is a definite yes for the upgrade.

Categories
Mobile

10 Smart Phones in India under Rs15000

Smart Phone is a craze among today’s youth and first thing they look at while deciding to purchase a phone is the price tag, the features and specifications comes second. Today almost every company in the market has a phone that suits to every pocket and that makes our decision to buy the next phone little complex. It is difficult to choose the perfect phone within our budget. So to make your shortlisting process easier, we are presenting below a list of 10 Smart Phones for those budget conscious phone freaks.

Disclaimer: The prices shown against each phone is the latest price obtained from Internet and the price at your local store or any online store might vary.

smartphone-under-15000

1.Micromax Canvas HD (@Rs 13,386)

With the release of Canvas range of phones Micromax has become hugely popular and has helped pushing the adoption of Smart Phone. It has make Smart Phone affordable. The Canvas HD which is the 3rd in the Canvas series is the best phone till date from Micromax. It sports a 5-inch IPS LCD screen with resolution of 1280x720p and comes with Andriod 4.2.1. It is clocked at 1.2 GHz and powered by a Quadcore Mediatek processor, with 1GB of RAM and 4GB of internal memory, which can be expanded up to 32GB through an external microSD card. It sports an 8MP primary camera with LED flash at the back and a 2 MP front camera. Connectivity features of the phone include 2G,3G,Wi-FI, Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP and microUSB 2.0. A 2000mAH battery ensures that you can run the phone extensively for a whole 24 hours and if you are an average user it can last upto 36-40 hours.

2.Nokia Kumia 620 (@Rs 12,650)

Nokia Lumia 620 has a 3.8 inch TFT screen with Nokia’s ClearBlack display    technology. It has a 246ppi and resolution of 800x480p. It is clocked at 1GHz dual core processor coupled with 512 MB of RAM and comes with 8GB in built memory and microSD support up to 64GB. It has a 5MP camera with LED flash on the back, while a VGA camera in the front. Connectivity features include 2G,3G,Wi-Fi,NFC,Bluetooth 3.0 and microUSB 2.0. It runs on a 1,300 maH battery. It operates on Windows 8 so has a very different interface than the android phones.

3.  Karbonn Titanium S5(@Rs 9,999)

Karbonn Titanium S5 has a 5 inch qHD display which comes with 220ppi pixel density and 540x960p. It is clocked at 1.2 GHz quad core QUALCOMM snapdragon processor coupled with 1GB of RAM and 4GB of internal memory which can be expanded up to 32Gb with a microSD card. It has a 8MP camera with LED flash on the back and a 2MP camera in the front. Connectivity features include 2G, 3G, Wi-Fi and microUSB 2.0. It runs on 2,000 maH battery. It operates with Andriod 4.1.

4.  Sony Xperia E (@Rs 8,899)

Sony Xperia E has a 3.5 inch TFT display with 480x320p resolution and 165ppi pixel density. It operates on android version 4.1 jelly bean. It is clocked at 1GHz processor coupled with 512MB of RAM. It has 4GB of internal memory which can expanded up to 32GB microSD card. Connectivity includes 2G, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 and microUSB 2.0. It has a 3.5MP camera on the back and runs on 1,530 maH battery.

5.   Nokia Lumia 520 (@Rs 7,870)

Nokia Lumia 520 has a 4 inch LCD IPS display with resolution of 480x800p and              233ppi pixel density. It is powered by 1GHz dual core qualcomm processor coupled with 512MB RAM. It has 8GB of internal memory and expandable up to 64 GB through microSD card. It has a 5 MP camera on the back and runs on 1430maH battery. Connectivity includes 2G, 3G, Wi-Fi, and microUSB 2.0. It operates on Windows 8 so has a very different interface than the android phones.

6.    LG Optimus L7 (@Rs 12,999)

The LG Optimus L7 has a 4.3 inch LCD IPS display with 217ppi pixel density. It is powered with 1GHz dual core cortex A-5 processor coupled with 512MB RAM. It comes with 4GB of internal storage expandable up to 32 GB using a microSD. It has a 5MP camera on back and runs with 1,700 maH battery. Connectivity includes 2G, 3G, Wi-Fi, and microUSB 2.0.

7.  Micromax Ninja A91(@Rs 8,159)

Micromax Ninja A91 comes with a 4.5 inch TFT display with 218ppi pixel density. It is powered with 1GHz dual core processor coupled with 512 MB RAM . It comes with 2 GB of internal storage and expandable up to 32GB using a microSD. It has a rear camera of 5 MP and a VGA camera in the front.  Connectivity includes 2G, 3G, Wi-Fi, and microUSB 2.0 and runs on a battery of 1600 maH.

8.  Samsung Galaxy Fame (@Rs 9,399)

Galaxy Fame has 3.5 TFT display with 165ppi pixel density. It is powered with 1GHz processor couples with 512 MB of RAM. It comes with 4GB internal storage and can be expanded up to 64 GB using microSD card. It has a 5MP camera with LED flash on the back and VGA shooter in front. Connectivity includes 2G, 3G,Wi-Fi, and microUSB 2.0 and it runs on 1300 maH battery.

9. Videocon A55HD (@Rs 13,499)

The Videocon A55 comes with a 5 inch HD display with 1280x720p resolution. It is powered by 1.2 GHz quad core processor coupled with 1GB of RAM. It has internal memory of 4GB and 32GB expandable memory with microSD card. It has an 8MP camera with LED flash on the back and a 3.2MP camera in the front. It operates on Android version 4.2 and runs with a battery of 2000 maH. Connectivity includes 2G, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and microUSB 2.0

10.  HTC Desire U (@Rs 11,250)

HTC Desire U has a 4 inch display with 480x800p display. It is powered by 1GHz processor coupled with 512MB RAM. It has inbuilt memory of 4 GB and expandable memory up to 32GB using a microSD card. It has an 5 MP camera with flash on the back. Connectivity includes 2G, 3G, Wi-Fi, and microUSB 2.0. It runs on a 1650 maH battery.

If we consider from every aspect, than Micromax Canvas HD is a true winner and the best phone to buy in the sub 15K range. So Canvas HD is our recommendation for you.

If you have bought a smartphone recently, please let us know which one did you buy and how much you paid?

Categories
Android Mobile

Hands on review and Unboxing of Micromax Canvas 2

Android has paved the way for many companies to jump into the mobile and tablet manufacturing business. Among them few have carved a niche for themselves like Micromax. Recently Micromax has come up with many attractive phones and tablets.  But with introduction of Canvas series of phablet (Essentially Canvas can be termed as a combination of Phone and Tablet) it has ascended greater heights. Micromax Canvas 2 A110 also known as the Superfone is the cheapest Phablet currently available in the market with an impressive specs. I bought it couple of days ago and here is my hands on review of the same.

Unboxing

The Canvas 2 A110 package is very small and one will not believe that such a big phone is resting inside it. So it rightly said that “every beautiful gifts come in smaller packages”. As soon as you open the cover you will find the beautiful monster laying flat on it. You pull it out and hold it on your hand and you will have that macho feeling. The package also contains data cable cum power cord, power plug, the battery, 3.5mm earphone and instruction booklets. Here is the unboxing video:

Build and Design

When I saw A110 , just one word came out-wow!!. Initial look of the device is very impressive. It looks identical to Samsung Galaxy S III and size is almost the same as of Note II. The device is available in two colors, white and black. The build is much nicer and also heavier than the other micromax devices. The device features a 5 inch capacitive touch screen which gives a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels. The screen guard that came on the device was of very inferior quality and came out once I put the phone in picket and took it out. I had to change it the next morning with a new screen guard. There are three touch sensitive hardware keys at the bottom of the screen and used for Option, Home & Back. on the right hand side power and lock button is present, the left hand side has the volume keys, the top side contains one microUSB port and 3.5 mm audio jack. On the back side a 8 MP camera, a dual LED flash and on the front side 0.3 MP front camera is placed . The rear of the Micromax Canvas 2 has a textured finish giving it a very good grip. Though the rear panel is plastic it has a premium feel.

Rating: 4.0/5

Multimedia

Multimedia features are not upto the mark. Because of the bigger screen size watching video in this device is a bliss but if you are looking for super sharp pictures you will be little disappointed. The built-in video player does not support all the formats, so you must download MX player to enjoy all video formats. FM radio is another facility which stands as an alternate style of multimedia. Sound has to be little good but nice. If you want a better multimedia experience, just replace the earphone that came bundled with it with a better one. However if you like reading novels and reports on your smartphone, you will in ,love with this device. As reading on this device is very smooth because of the large screen size and does not generate any stress even after reading continiously for 30-40 minutes.

Rating: 3.5/5

Camera

This comes with a 8MP primary camera with dual flash light. But low-light or night photography is a disappointment. The low light photos are of lower quality as compared to that on a 5MP camera with only single flash light. But outdoor photography is just superb. This also has a 0.3 MP front facing camera primarily used for video calling. Video Recording quality of the primary camera is also not upto the mark. Overall the camera is a little disappointment. Look at the bottom of the post for few shots taken at different lighting condition.

Rating: 3.0/5

Battery 

I loved the battery supplied with Micromax Canvas 2 A110. It has a lithiumm ion battery of 2000 mAh that provides longer uptime for the device. I  noticed that with maximum brightness of the screen, the battery was draining pretty fast. So if you reduce gthe brightness to atleast 50%, you can get a good battery life.

Rating: 4.0/5

Hardware and OS

Canvas 2 is powered by a 1GHz dual core processor and running on Ice Cream Sandwich 4.04. It is having 2 SIM slots which is an advantage, as there are only a few smartphone with dual SIM capability. It comes with 2GB ROM and 2GB built-in storage which is expandable upto 32GB via microSD. Micromax could have done a better justice to this device by putting 1GB RAM instead of  512MB. That would have found lot more takers for the phone. However the 512MB RAM seems to be quite good while operating this device and there is no lag in game play or while using lot of applications. While checking the available RAM I saw a very peculiar thing. In Google Nexus S with same 512MB RAM I got different result, the screen shot from both are attached. It clearly indicates that the available RAM to OS in Micromax Canvas 2 is more as compared to Nexus S.

Rating: 4.5/5

Connectivity

Micromax Canvas 2 A110 Superfone offers loads of data connectivity features including the bluetooth 3.0 facility that ensures that the user can transfer and receive data from other device. The USB 2.0 port helps the user to connect the device with their computers or laptops and charge the device through it or even exchange data with it via USB cable. GPS is working fast , where you can create Wi-Fi network by the device.

Rating: 4/5

Applications

Micromax Canvas 2 A110 Superfone comes with many preloaded apps like the Facebook and Twitter applications along with HookUp, M! Zone, M! Store & M! Buddy. M! Store is a content delivery platform like Google Play store. So apart from Play store you have another options to download apps. The user can also download more games and apps from the play store.

Specification of Canvas 2

Canvas 2 as described above comes with an impressive specification.

OS: Android ICS 4.04
Chipset: MediaTek MT6577
CPU: Dual-core 1 GHz
GPU: PowerVR SGX531
Sensors: Accelerometer, proximity
SIM slot: Dual SIM slot
Camera: 8 MP Primary, 3264 x 2448 pixels, autofocus, dual-LED flash
:0.3 MP secondary
Battery: Li-ion 2000mAh
Memory: 512MB RAM
2GB ROM
2GB built-in storage, exapndable upto 32GB
Display: IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Resolution: 480 x 854 pixels

Final Verdict

Overall Rating: 4/5

This phone is available in India at an MRP of INR 10,299 (You might get better deal in some online stores too). So at the 10K range this phone is a real value for money. But if you will try to compare it with Galaxy SIII or Note II, yu will be disappointed.  In-fact both caters to the different segment of buyer and should not be compared. However if it is compared to any other smart phone at this price range, it will surely be a winner. Micromax A110 is fail to gain extra points. It has has a smaller screen with the latter featuring a 5.5 inch screen as compared to the former’s 5 inch. If you want a bigger screen phone or a phablet and you are on a tight budget just go for it and you will love every penny spent.

Gallery


Categories
Apple Mobile

10 most popular games for your iOS device

An iOS device without games is like a computer without software. With release of iPod touch the demand for music has been suppressed by the demand for Games. Thanks to high quality 3D games in App Store.  There are scores of new games being launched everyday with some big brands battling on the app store. If you consider yourself an avid gamer and you are lucky to posses an iDevice, you can’t ignore the following games from App Store. Get ready to experience the iOS gaming pleasure.

Epic Astro Story

App Store user rating: 4.5
Developer: Kairosoft

The Epic Astro Story is a simulation game from the Japanese mobile games publisher Kairosoft. The game is set in space and the idea is to construct a flourishing colony in an untamed planet by building houses and roads while sending members of the team away to conquer new planets. The battle with cosmic creatures heats up the challenge. A sure buy for the strategy fans!

Beat Sneak Bandit

App Store user rating: 4.5
Develop: Simogo

Coming from the magic hat that has already created two of the most uniquely warm and compelling iOS games, Beat Sneak Bandit is a rhythm-action stealth puzzler. Your goal is to stealthily enter the mansion of Duke Clockface, the wicked clock thief, and give back the world all the timepieces he has stolen. On your way, you must dodge enemy guards and objects. Planning, working out puzzles, and predicting hazards will help you win the game. The smart design and Looney tune visuals are a definite plus.

Beat Hazard Ultra

App Store user rating: 5
Developer: Cold Beam Games

Beat Hazard Ultra is a fast arcade-style, music generated shooter game. The intense visuals and beat detection in the game are outstanding. The soundtrack in the game is based on the user’s iTunes playlist. Each track represents one stage and the arrangement of enemies depends on the song. As the intensity of the music goes up, the foes get faster and furious. If you are aching to get your hands on a pair of virtual sticks and let the bullets fly, Beat hazard Ultra is the game for you.

Pizza vs. Skeletons

App Store user rating: 4.5

Developer: Riverman Media

What can a custom-made giant pizza do? A lot of things, as you will in find out in Pizza vs. Skeletons. The three common elements for making a pizza – rolling, jumping, and pounding the ground are done by tilting your device, tapping the screen and hitting the deck by tapping again. These are also the moves that crush the skeletons and dodge their spears. The game includes a mighty 100 levels. A weird yet ridiculously entertaining game!

Spin Up

App Store user rating: 4.5
Developer: Nenad Katic

Spin Up is creative high score game that brims with brilliant graphics, plot, and music. The game is based on a clever gameplay mechanic where the user has to spin the outside rings of a rapidly deteriorating space elevator to guide their astronaut avatar climb out to safety. Adding to the fluidity and challenge, the elevator is filled with vicious, man-eating office supplies, broken ladders, and hostile machines. Spin Up joins the line of endlessly addictive games.

Bee Leader

App Store user rating: 4.5
Developer: Fightless Limited


Bee Leader is a relatively peaceful game that is simplistic and highly polished. In this game, you take up the role of an over-sized bee responsible for collecting nectar and honey for the hive. You navigate through a circular landscape and search flowers, honey pots, and even honey barrels. Filling the hive with honey will earn you points and move you up to the next level. It is humor combined with simple facts that makes the game interesting and different.

The King of Fighters – i 2012

App Store user rating: 5
Developer: SNK Playmore

The King of Fighters – i 2012, yet another fighting game on the app store, comes with some interesting enhancements over its previous version. The content-rich single player mode offers hours of never-ending gaming experience. New characters join the 2012 team and your player ranking changes depending on the number of victories and losses. With 32 playable characters, gamers can battle against the strongest players across the Wi-Fi network.

Swordigo

App Store user rating: 5
Developer: Touch Foo

Swordigo is an appealing side-scrolling action-RPG that includes iCloud support as a novel feature. Recalling the basic elements of established console games, Swordigo is set around genuine yet familiar characters and conventions across challenging forest, cave, and dungeon environments. Bad creatures return to cause havoc. The player takes up the sword and sets on a journey to recover powerful weapons to defeat the creatures while slashing eerie bats, crawling spiders, horned monsters, and dangerous forces on the way.

Chaos Rings II

App Store user rating: 5
Developer: Square Enix

Chaos Rings II can easily be called one of the best JRPGs available on iOS. An apocalyptic force that is threatening the world into doom pushes Darwin into the role of a nominator. Darwin’s job is to complete the Rite of Resealing task to seal away the destroyer and save the world. With an expanded battle system and amazing environment, the game is robust enough to justify its slightly high price tag.

Kitten Sanctuary

App Store user rating: 5
Developer: Clockwork Pixels

With Kitten Sanctuary, Clockwork Pixels seem to have taken a slightly new route differing from the conventional bare bone approach that most iOS puzzlers are based on. The plot of the game revolves around rescuing 50 kittens kidnapped by aliens. Progressing through a series of levels, you must play the match three game to accomplish the rescue task. The items that you will match are resources that you will collect. The well-crafted layout and attention to detail makes Kitten Sanctuary an interesting play.

Sindhuja Sandeep is a blogger who writes on mobile phone, computers and other technical stuff. Also she is keen in updating about latest technology. At present she blogs for convergence catalyst, a Telecom consulting firm offering Indian telecom market forecast & operational strategies across entire Telecom value chain

Categories
Gadgets Tablet PC

Best Android tablets for kids

The advent of the latest technology has had a deep impact on almost every aspect of our daily lives. Tablet PCs are considered the latest innovation in the computer industry and they have been designed keeping in mind the needs of people from all walks of life and of all age groups. These days, doing business, watching movies and listening to music while travelling has all become ridiculously easy and all credit goes to tablet PCs. In addition, parents even prefer using the aid of the latest technology to educate their children, as a tablet PC can potentially act as the gateway for heaps of infotainment for your kids. This has been combined with the power of Open Source Android and availability of tons of amazing free and paid apps from Google Play Store.

For all parents looking to gift an age-appropriate tablet PC to their young one, here are the top android tablets for kids:

Intel StudyBook

Widely acclaimed by reviewers for its brilliant features, affordability and educative value, Intel StudyBook can be the perfect birthday gift for your little one. This 7-incher is compatible with both Windows and Android Honeycomb 3.0 OS and is highly energy efficient as it is equipped with single-core Intel Atom Z650 chipset. The best part is that Intel StudyBook offers all the right features to educate your kindergartener as well as your kid in the sixth grade. The device is also accompanied with Intel Learning Series Software Suite that offers an amazing learning experience for young kids. Hailed by educators around the globe for its brilliant features, the Intel StudyBook is up for grabs for less than $200.

OLPC XO-3

Developed by the non-profit organization, ‘One Laptop per Child’, the XO-3 is an amazing educational device that uses the muscle of the latest technological advancements to make it work in different environments. Priced at a staggering $100, this amazing tablet PC offers amazing specs that will fulfill the needs of your little one. Powered by Linux OS and Marvel ARMADA PXA618 processor, the XO-3 offers half gigabyte RAM and crystal clear display quality on an 8-inch screen. Although, currently OLPC XO-3 is not available at ordinary retail stores as it is being primarily used as part of education programs in third world countries, still it is only a matter of time before you can buy it for your kids.

Lexibook Kids Tablet

Offering the perfect mix of education and entertainment, the Lexibook Kids Tablet will put an end to your problems with respect to helping your kids in easy learning. Lexibook Kids Tablet offers an easy-to-understand interface, loads of built-in games, built-in Wi-Fi support, pre-loaded songs, educational tests and 53 discovery activities. Parents can hand this amazing device into the hands of their young ones without any apprehension as all the e-books, songs and educational material found in this tablet PC has been selected by the makers after a careful review of the learning needs of kids.

Fuhu Nabi 2

Built to help your children learn and grow into healthy and educated adults, Nabi 2 tablet PC by Fuhu allows you to educate your young kids by blending information and fun together. Featuring NVIDIA Tegra 3.0 1.3 GHz processor and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS, this 7-incher offers the best learning system for your kids with instructional sound learning, educational games, age-appropriate song collection and brilliant strategy games such as Treasure Box. Parents can even use Nabi’s online N-SITE to analyze your kid’s progress.

Micromax FunBook

If you are in India, Funbook is worth a buy for your kid as it has an impeccable specs to fall for. At approximately USD 120 or INR 6000 this is indeed the best buy for your kid. Micromax FunBook sports a 7 inch Capacitive touch screen with 800X480 resolution. It comes with 1.2GHZ Cortex A8 processor and Dual Mali-400MP graphics processor. The 512MB RAM is not much impressive though (There is a choice of a pro model with few extra bucks with 1Gb RAM). It is powered by Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and comes pre-loaded with many educational apps and videos. Moreove Micromax has an appstore from where you can download apps apart from the regular Google play store.

You might come across many other tablets at the price range mentioned here or below this price, but those are not good. We have compiled this list by observing these models of tablets closely and looking at their popularity and performance.

Categories
Android Gadgets Tablet PC

Unboxing and Review of BSNL T-Pad IS703C Tablet

It seems the Tablet market in India is growing pretty rapidly and this growth is being supplemented by introduction of low cost tablets with open Source Android as the platform of choice. HCL, Micromax and Pantel technologies are leading the bandwagon to release the quite affordable low cost tablets in India. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has collaborated with Pantel technologies to release affordable tablet by the brand name T-Pad. Recently we got an opportunity to try our hands on BSNL T-Pad IS703C tablet and we got a mixed review of the tablet for our readers.

T-Pad IS703C was launched on 29-05-2012. With a price tag of INR 6999, we cannot say T-Pad IS703C as a low cost tablet when there are tablets available for INR 3000. But it will come in the mid or lower midrange tablet category. To offer users a low cost gadgets, company has definitely compromised in few features such as display, battery life, camera, body etc.

Body

At the very first look, it grabs an ascent look but when we look at the rear the blacky shiny plastic body may disappoint few users as the material used for the body is below standard. The form factor is also not quite impressive as compared to other high end tablets like Galaxy Tab or iPad. When I hold the T-Pad for 15-20 minutes, I started feeling pain in my hand. So this might play hindrance to be used for a longer period.

Buttons and Ports

The T-Pad IS703C does not have a physical button on the body, so everything needs to be controlled by touchscreen. As I have been a long time Google Nexus owner, I am pretty used to the physical button, so I found it little awkward at the beginning to work with this tablet.

This has got a lot of physical ports like card reader, HDMI for high definition video output, 3.5mm audio jack, DC adaptor port, USB port to connect a 3G USB dongle or a USB storage device. These ports ar all placed comfortable on one side of the tablet.

It has great support for USB thumb drives and it detected our 4GB Transcend pen drive in no time. We could read and write data to our pen drive without any issue.

Touch Screen/Camera/Speaker/Display

T-Pad IS703C comes with 2 point capacitive multitouch. The sensitivity of the touch screen is not so good when we look at the response time. There seems to be little lag when you touch and when the device senses it and specific command is performed. This might be issue with touch screen or may be due to processing.

It has got only a 0.3 Mega Pixel front facing camera to facilitate video chat.

The built-in speaker provides quite loud sound but the sound quality is not clear when it is output through the speaker. Where in the sound is quite good when heard through a good ear/head phone. We listened the same MP3 song through built-in speaker and ear phone and the difference was clearly noticeable.

Internet Connectivity

This tablet offers Internet connectivity through wi-fi and 3G. But as it does not have a SIM card slot, only 3G USB dongles can be used for 3G Internet access. But wait..it supports only a few 3G dongles. So if you are thinking that you can use any 3G USB dongles then you may be disappointed as we did when we tried to use our Micromax MMX352G. So Micromax 3G dongles are not supported. Below are a list of supported 3G dongles for T-Pad:

Huawei E171

Huawei E173

Huawei E169G

Idea GSM HUAWEI E1732

AIRTEL HUAWEI E1731 (E173Bu-1)

Reliance GSM ZTE MF190

TATA Photon+ EC156

Connectivity through Wi-Fi is pretty good and we could watch youtube videos without buffering at a very nominal Internet speed via wi-fi.

Accessories

T-pad IS703C comes with a wall charger, an earphone and a data cable with micro USB at one end and normal USB at the other end.

Specification of T-Pad IS703C

Processor: Cortex A8 1 GHz

Memory(RAM): 1GB DDR3

Internal Storage: 8GB

External Storage(Memory Card): T-Flash upto 32 GB

Camera: 0.3 Mega Pixel VGA

Operating System:  Android 4.03 ICS

Display: 7” Capacitive Multi touch with 800X480 pixel

HDMI: Supported with video output upto 1080P

G-sensor: G-sensor 3 planes

Conclusion

Some good things about T-Pad 703C are, it supports flash. Internet surfing is a good experience in this device and the speed is quite impressive. It has a good battery backup but takes a little time to charge fully (approx  4hrs). Let us tell about few negative things about this device, first of all absense of sim slot is a disadvantage as user will need to buy a supported dongle.It lacks presence of. It does not support have a GPS or AGPS chip so location will be a spoiler.

Though T-Pad 703C has got some impressive specifications like a 1GHz processor and 1GB RAM, it does not seem to work so fast. This can be a good buy for entry level users and students but for veterans this will be a disappointment. This being a BSNL co-branded tablet should come with some free goodies from BSNL like a supported 3G dongle. As Micromax dongles are advertised as BSNL device and that dongle not being supported in T-Pad will make people confused and disappoint. This device can be a good competitor to Akash as well as Micromax Fun book.

Categories
Browsers Internet

7 Best Browser Security Extensions you need to stay safe

Why Browser Security Extension

The internet is essentially like a vast disease and parasite filled jungle. If you’re moving around on it through your browser, you need to make sure that you’re well protected from infections of all types. It’s easy, very easy, to find yourself the victim of hackers, Trojans, data miners, information thieves, viruses, worms and malicious bots all over the web. There are also fun programs like spyware, malware and adware that can screw your computer up. With all these threats lurking around the net, hidden in many forms, you should really think about maintaining tight security all around.

While it’s a good idea to install a firewall on your computer, a malware scrubber and reliable antivirus software, your first line of defense will be the point of entry: your browser; secure this and you will dramatically decrease the possibility of attacks from external threats before they get a chance to enter your computer or steal your personal data. Here are some excellent browser extensions that can help you keep your machine and your private information safe.

NotScript and NoScript

NotScript is a Chrome extension while NoScript is a Firefox extension; they both do essentially the same thing to different degrees. Both programs will block script using applications on the websites that run them while you browse. Since these scripts are commonly prone to code attacks on your machine, it’s generally a good idea to avoid them where possible. NoScript is considerably more versatile than NotScript since it will block any kinds of scripts, while its Chrome counterpart can only be used against JavaScript.
In the case of both programs, you can place certain sites you trust on a white-list to avoid having their scripting apps blocked off. This is also useful since some web pages that are trustworthy absolutely depend on flash or JavaScript to run.

Web of Trust

If you decide to use just a single security extension for your Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer browser, make it Web of Trust. This extension rates almost every website you visit and gives it a green, amber or red warning depending on its trustworthiness. The information that generates this is based on user reviews, so you can also add your own opinion into the mix; very accurate and very reliable.

Adblocker Plus

This handy little extension will essentially purge your browsing experience of advertisements and other annoying ad based things like popup ads and such. Adblocker isn’t so much as security plugin as it is a nuisance elimination tool, but the extension’s ability to eliminate ads does play an important security function: ads are where many renegade malware and spyware programs Gide, waiting to infect the computer of someone who clicks on them. Getting rid of them removes the potential for many accidents.

LastPass

This excellent data security extension, available for Chrome, Firefox and IE, is a great tool for managing all your online passwords easily while keeping them extremely secure. The extension allows you to create a single master password with which you manage all your other login prompts through the plugin’s internal password creator. The security benefit is that LastPass creates much stronger passwords for all your online data than any you are likely to try remembering later on. This tool is very handy for stopping brute force password crack attacks against your online banking, credit card and any other passkey enabled access pages.

HTTPS Everywhere

This extension was created by the Electronic Frontier Foundation to secure all digital communication between your browser and other servers and websites through high strength encryption. It mainly protects your data transmissions so that the login information and other sensitive data you’re inputting all over the place cannot be stolen and used to defraud you or hack your personal accounts or web based access points. Unfortunately, the HTTPS Everywhere plugin is still only available for Firefox.

Keyscrambler

Keyscrambler is a keystroke encryption tool that will take all of your typed in characters and encrypt them at the level of your keyboard drivers while at the same time letting you see what you’ve written on your screen. The encryption protects your typed information from secretly installed keystroke loggers that might be hiding in your computer; they will only see a stream of gibberish instead of your vulnerable personal data. The Keyscrambler extension is available for both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Your Browser

No, this isn’t another security extension, it’s a bonus point you should keep in mind: The brand of browser you use will also have a big impact on your data and computer security. Of the three main browsers, Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer, Chrome has recently been ranked as the most secure and most robustly protected against frequently updating threats. Chrome’s list of features such as script and process sandboxing, Just in Time engine hardening and basic plugin installation security make it the award winner against its less advanced rivals Firefox and IE. Chrome also seems to have the shortest response time against constantly changing malware threats. Go with Chrome for better security; it’s sleek, fast and won’t overload your RAM like Firefox is prone to doing with its latest versions.

Categories
Android Mobile

Top 10 most popular and useful Android Applications

Today Android is one of the most popular mobile operating systems in market. According to the survey, over 50% Smartphones in market feature Android as their operating system. Thousands of developers across the globe have been fascinated by this Linux Kernel-based mobile OS, which has ultimately resulted into richness of Android Application Market. Let us take a look at 10 of the most popular and useful Android applications.

1.  Layar

Imagine a situation where you are roaming in completely unknown city but curious to know about inch about the city. Layar is best application for you in such conditions. This application provides 3D view of the surrounding through your phone while providing vital information like Wikipedia information or tweets related certain things and much more. With increasing power of processors and camera, the application is set to hit the summit of popularity in near future.

layar for android

2. Google Maps

Human beings love to travel and Google has decided to help you in situations where you crave for tourist guides. With android version of Google Maps installed one can easily track down route to destination. This app supports voice recognition GPS that makes things even easier. It also tells latitudes and locations of your friends eliminating fear of losing them while exploring dense forests.

Google Maps

3. SwiftKey

Everyone is not comfortable with typing on touchscreen Smartphones. But no more, thanks to SwiftKey. A revolutionary version of Android on-screen keyboard; SwiftKey adds smartness to your device. This app is loaded with loads of features that also include text prediction facility. It not only predicts current word one is typing but also guesses next one. Scrutinizing your writing style, app predicts words more accurately as time passes.

Swiftkey

4. Smart Battery Monitor

Though Android comes with in-built battery indicator, the facility fails to show in-detail report of battery life. Smart Battery Monitor is very important application for such scenario. The app shows details like Battery level, its status, battery type and technology and most importantly battery temperature. All the data is represented in percentage format.

Smart Battery Monitor

5.     K-9 Mail

If you find Android Email client boring, as most of do, you might want to check out this fully customizable app; k-9 mail. This app provides you all the functionality as that is provided by Android email client. In addition, it allows full customization including changes in appearance of the browser. One can also change gesture and view options as per own taste.

K9-mail

6. SlideScreen

One uses Smartphone more for checking out emails, status updates, tweets and likes rather than editing files. SlideScreen is an application that creates several rows on your home screen, which provide you with recent updates on the websites you choose. Scrolling up and down through stack of rows reveals more updates and sliding particular message row to right marks that update “as read” preventing it from appearing again on your screen.

SlideScreen

7. Yoo Ninja Plus

Yoo Ninja Plus is one of the best time-killers available in Android Market. You have to perform very simple task of taking player to the next level dodging darts and jumping over the holes.    This gravity based game comes with a story mode making things more interesting and fun!

Yoo Ninja Plus

8. Nimbuzz

This all-in-one chat client was expected to make to the list of top 10 android applications. Considered as only cross platform chat client loaded with enormous features is must have app for chat loving Android users. Nimbuzz supports services like GTalk, Facebook, Skype and much more.

nimbuzz

9. Evernote

Evernote application is useful for all the students using Android. This app works excellent as reminder tool allowing you to store images, recorded voices and notes. One can apply different sorting criteria like date to arrange notes accordingly. Sharing feature makes this application even more useful as one can share his/her important notes with fellow classmates. Users are provided with storage of 500 MB and that’s too ads free!

evernote

10. Hi-Q MP3 Recorder

Hi-Q MP3 Recorder has turned out to be very useful for teachers. It allows user to record audio for ten minutes. Quality of recorded version is much better than default recorder offered by Android. Gain settings allow user to change intensity of the sound while recording.

Hi-Q MP3 Recorder

It ends us with the list of Top 10 Android applications. Apart from these 10, there are many other applications in Android market that one can find useful and possessing similarity to his/her taste. So what is your list of Top 10?

Categories
Webmaster Wordpress

Mashlife the best Mashable clone theme released

The elegant look of the Mashable website has enticed many theme developers to create a theme similar to Mashable as well as many bloggers want to have a website that look like Mashable. All thanks to the elegant Mashable design. Some of the theme developers have tried their hand on doing something similar but nothing is as appealing as the recently released Mashlife theme. If you are not convinced then a look at the demo site of Mashlife will definitely make you spellbound.

Mashlife WordPress theme is the first theme developed by Qlogix Solutions and they have done a fantastic job. Almost all the features available in Mashable has been cloned into Mashlife theme. So we regard Mashlife as the best Mashable clone theme.

Mashlife is a clean, elegant looking and SEO optimized WordPress theme and have lots of customization option through Theme option in Admin panel without getting into the real code. Qlogix Solutions have also created many video tutorial as well as text based tutorials to help setting up the theme for newbies. Apart from that fantastic support is also available through email. So if you are looking for an amazing professional theme and ready to go online within minutes, Mashlife is the best theme choice for you.

Features of Mashlife theme:

Mashlife not only offers the look of Mashable but also offers many of the features available in it. let’s have a look at the amazing features:

General features:

– Compatible with the latest version of WordPress (3.1.2) and utilizes many advanced features like menu managment.

– Clean and elegant look

– Advanced theme control panel to customize various aspects of the theme

– Logo switcher between image/text and custom logo.

– Home page style selection between blog and magazine.

– Widgetized footer area and sidebar

– Author bio box for single posts.

– Automatic thumbnail creation and caching for better loadtime.

– Flexibility of thumbnail selection through custom filled for featured post.

– Integrated google analytics

– Integrated Gravatar support

Social Features:

– Built-in support for social media network and feedburner

– Built-in support for Open Graph protocol and Facebook like button.

– Integrated Facebook Like box in sidebar.

– SEO and adsense optmized

Advanced Features:

– Ads control through Theme control panel.

– Custom page template for full width page, job board etc.

– Advance features like custom post type to place job board like  Mashable on the frontpage.

– Mashable like colored menu for categories.

– Support for lazy loading of images upon page scroll

– Support for related posts without any plugin.

– Amazingly fast loading to help in google ranking. (With the help of a caching plugin like W3 total cache it will be much faster and will give much better page speed score)

– Lots of new features to be added in the upcoming releases.

These are just some of the features of Mashlife theme and we feel unless you have a test drive of the Mashlife theme on your own, you will not be able to realize the true potential of this theme.

Mashlife theme is available for purchase in 3 different flavors, e.g Single use license to be used in only 1 website, multiple use license to be used in more than one website and developers license without any restriction.

Pricing:

Single License Mashlife theme:  USD 39.9

Multiple site license mashlife theme: USD 99.9

Developer license Mashlfe theme: USD 149.9

If you are wondering, we are using an advanced version of Mashlife theme with developer license here in Techie Zone.

View Mashlife Theme Demo

Buy Mashlife Theme

Use the coupon Code TECHIEZONE while checking out to get a 15% discount.