Showing posts with label mobile. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mobile. Show all posts

Apr 12, 2014

Must have free Android Apps

Saturday, April 12, 2014 Posted by prolific , , , , , , , No comments

Nowadays, choosing an app for your smartphone is like choosing an ice cream - You can't have all and you want the best one. So to make it simple, I am going to share some of the android apps which I find quite interesting and useful. Some apps which you should have in your smartphone or at least try once.
The name of this app might not look familiar to you but believe me it is really a great app. The best feature of this app is WiFi Repeater. In android, by default you can only share your mobile data with other devices through hotspot. But this app lets you share your connected WiFi connection over a new WiFi network of your choice with your set password (Mobile should be rooted for this). This is the perfect alternative of Connectify for Windows. Besides this, you can also make your own proxy server for other devices. It also includes lots of other features like remote access and custom proxy. Isn't that great ?
Ever heard about Shazam ? That's really old school. Like Shazam, SoundHound lets you recognize songs. Whether someone is humming or only a music is being played, SoundHound recognizes and shows information about it along with option to play the video through youtube. Just tap and let it listen to the part of the song being played and that's it. Besides this, it also fetches lyrics through internet and syncs it with the song so that you can also sing along. From my experience, it is much more accurate than Shazam.

3. Asphalt 8: Airborne

If you have been a fan of Need For Speed: Most Wanted then this game is made for you. From cars, graphics, levels to nitro, drift, barrel rolls and flat spins, it is a complete entertainment package. You can also race against your friends through a local WiFi connection in multiplayer mode or with other players online. Think that no one is better than you? Then you can try beating your own ghost and improve your best time. Nothing more you can expect from a game like this. A racing game you must try!

4. PicsArt - PhotoStudio

Everyone wants to be an artist whether he has a good camera or not. Everyone wants to edit their images to make it look better and more appealing to others. PicsArt is a combination of both Photoshop and Instagram. It is not always handy to shift your photos to your laptop and photoshop it, that's when PicsArt comes into existence. It lets you edit your photos using the built in frames, effects, brushes etc and share them with the world. It is very easy to understand and use. Besides this, you can also combine pics and make various collages. A perfect Photo Studio.

5. Google Keep

It is a simple cloud based application by Google. It is an application where you can make a checklist, note down some details, set reminders, store voice information or add pics to your notes and many more things. It is constantly synced with your google account whenever it gets access to internet. You can access all your notes through http://keep.google.com having a similar interface which helps you share information between mobile and laptop. It has a very simple user interface with an option to select different colors for different notes to differentiate or to group them. Simple yet powerful.

6. HoverChat

If you like facebook messenger's notification style also called chat heads then this app is made for you. It will replace the default messaging app in your android phone. Whenever you receive some message, a popup will open no matter which application you are using which will let you reply to the message without actually closing your current application. Isn't that awesome? And the best thing is unlike facebook messenger, it has it's own store which lets you customize the shape of popup, themes etc. You can even choose a list of contacts for which the popup will be shown along with the tone used. Besides this, you can also send encrypted messages to increase privacy (But for this feature the other person should also be using HoverChat).

Tell us what you think about these apps. Share the apps which you think are the best through comments below and we might add them to our list. Your feedback really matters to us.


Apr 6, 2014

FireChat : "off-the-grid" way to Chat

Sunday, April 06, 2014 Posted by Ashwani , , , , , 2 comments

Today when messaging is main-stream because of mobile applications like WhatsApp, Viber, Facebook Messenger, LINE and many more, offering free messaging over internet (from 2G to 4G, or your wifi). Before this to sent a SMS you was limited to 160 character per message, and it's cost is almost equal to cost of normal calling charges. But with internet messaging apps you can chat for free (you just have to pay for data connection, again which cost is too too less compared to standard message rates), which are not even limited to 160 character.
But even to use these messaging apps you must have an active internet connection either cellular network or wi-fi network to transfer messages. Here comes the "off-the-grid" way to chat - FireChat; chat without internet connection. Yes even no cellular connection is required, not even mobile phone coverage.

Mar 6, 2014

FreeKall : Make free voice calls without internet

Thursday, March 06, 2014 Posted by prolific , , , No comments

Guess what, you always wanted to make free voice calls to your friends and family but end up using services like Skype, Viber or Google Hangouts. But these services are not completely free because they all are dependent on good internet connection which in no way is free or easily available everywhere.

With FreeKall, you can make free voice calls to your friends. Not even an internet connection is required. Wherever you are just make a missed call to a number and the company will call you asking the number of your friend and then you will be connected to your desired person for no cost. Talk as much as you like.

Till now the company was in beta testing phase which is now over and all the services are temporarily suspended. From 15th April, 2014 they are going to launch the final product through which registered users would be able to make unlimited voice calls. That's amazing, Right ?


FreeKall is a company started by three engineering students of Banglore, India. And there is only once catch in this. You only have to hear a 10 second advertisement during the call for every 2 minutes. But seriously, for making free calls anytime and from anywhere, this would not be a big problem.

Tell us what you think about this amazing service. Do you think this company can help people stay connected ? Your views really matter to us, so share them with us via your comments.


Mar 4, 2014

Project Ara : Phonebloks from Google and Motorola

Tuesday, March 04, 2014 Posted by Unknown , , , , , , 2 comments

This one's exciting ! I just couldn't wait to blog about it.

Think about a phone which is made of small building blocks that can be replaced or rearranged to build a fully personal phone, right at the hardware level.

This also means that you don't need to wait for a new phone in order to get a new processor or more battery power or more memory. Just swap that part of your phone.

Seems like a dream phone, doesn't it ? Ever heard of Phonebloks ? Check it out :


That was a concept a few months back. But to my delight, Motorola and Google are at last making it possible. Motorola has been working on this for months and now, Motorola's " Advanced Technology and Projects " is moving to Google and will be making Phonebloks possible. They're calling it Project Ara.



Project ara will be doing for hardware, what Android has done for software :
  • Create a vibrant 3rd party Developer Ecosystem
  • Lower the barriers to entry
  • Increase innovation
  • Shorten development timelines

Check out the website . There will be three Ara Developers' Conferences in 2014 with first one scheduled April 15-16. They are releasing an Ara Module Developer's Kit (MDK) .

All this is a great beginning and in future we may NEVER need to buy a new phone !
Are you excited too ? Do comment.  

Feb 24, 2014

Nokia X , X+, XL - Androids that imitate Windows

Monday, February 24, 2014 Posted by Unknown , , , , No comments
I've been eagerly waiting for the combination of the best hardware and best software there exists for mobile phones, i.e. a Nokia phone running android.

My wait ended earlier today when Nokia announced the phones, but I'm greatly disappointed.


Let's look at the facts :

Nokia X has a 4" screen, 1 GHz Qualcomm processor with 512 MB of RAM, 3 MP camera and 4 GB of storage expandable with SD Card.

Nokia X+ has 768 MB of RAM and Nokia XL has a 5 MP back and 2 MP front camera along with 768 MB RAM and a 5" screen.

The phones are dual SIM.

Of course the hardware is not at all high end and the phones will only be launched in developing countries like India. US won't be having these phones.

But what I'm sad to see is what Nokia has done with the software. 



The phones run a highly modified version of Android 4.1.2 from 2012 (Jelly Bean) which has been brutally made to poorly imitate the Windows Phone's metro UI. Why on Earth will someone do that ?

As if all this wasn't enough, it won't support the Android apps directly and won't have access to the Google Play Store. App developers have to port their apps on the Nokia X series.

Google's apps like GMail, Maps etc. ( that make Android what it really is ) won't be available and such services will be provided by Nokia and Microsoft. Really Nokia ?


In the end I don't have a clue why anyone with brain will buy this phone. Zombies may.

Do share your thoughts with us !

Feb 23, 2014

$19 bn just to turn down Whatsapp ?

Sunday, February 23, 2014 Posted by prolific , , , , No comments

It's not even a week when the very famous giant company, Facebook bought WhatsApp for 19 billion dollars. And soon after this news, WhatsApp's server went down for about 4 hours.

Here is what WhatsApp tweeted during the outrage:

sorry we currently experiencing server issues. we hope to be back and recovered shortly.

It's not vague to say that just when the WhatsApp's server went down, the number of visitors increased to a great extent on WeChat, Line, Viber and most importantly on Facebook. What were you trying to do Mark ? It looks like a wise step taken by Mark just to increase visitors on Facebook.
Know why Facebook bought Whatsapp for $19 billion and share your views with us. Is it just a coincidence that soon after facebook bought Whatsapp, it's server went down or it was some business strategy by Mark Zuckerberg ?

Feb 22, 2014

Why did Facebook buy Whatsapp for $19 bn?

Saturday, February 22, 2014 Posted by Unknown , , , , No comments


If $19 bn does not seem a huge amount to you just because of the small no. of characters it can be spelled with, let's convert that into Indian Rupees

19,000,000,000 US Dollars = 11,80,47,00,00,000 Indian Rupees 

Well I've no damn idea how to even spell that.
So why did Facebook spent such humongous amount of money on a messaging startup ?
Before I put my points, here's what Mark Zuckerberg has to say :

Our mission is to make the world more open and connected. We do this by building services that help people share any type of content with any group of people they want. WhatsApp will help us do this by continuing to develop a service that people around the world love to use every day.

Well that's so sweet of you Mark ;)

And what is Facebook going to do with WhatsApp ?
Well, according to Mark, NOTHING.

WhatsApp will continue to operate independently within Facebook. The product roadmap will remain unchanged and the team is going to stay in Mountain View.

And according to Jan Koum , co-founder of WhatsApp, again, NOTHING.

Here’s what will change for you, our users: nothing.

So the question still remains : Why 19 billion dollars for nothing ?
Well according to me,

Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19bn to end its rivalry.

Facebook messenger has been there for quite a long time, but still in some regions like in India, everyone uses WhatsApp. Facebook can't just wait and watch regions with such huge number of users go to its rival.

There are some pretty straightforward reasons for people opting for WhatsApp.
  • Just your phone number identifies you and everybody having your number is automatically connected
  • No Ads. Of course, trying to sell you nothing.
  • No Games or walls or any thing extra. Just Messaging.
  • Free
  • Easily send files
  • Groups
WhatsApp was intended to be just a replacement for SMS , and its simplicity paved the way.

If you were the CEO of facebook, would you have bought WhatsApp for such an amount ? Do comment. 

Looks like that's not the end of story. Soon after Facebook bought WhatsApp, WhatsApp's servers went down.