Dramatically improve battery life in iOS7

Do you hate it when you need to make an urgent call and your battery indicator is running low? Or when you have barely used your phone and you already need to charge it? Are you tired of charging your phone twice a day? Well, you have come to the right place. Here are 5 proven tips to improve your phone’s battery life.

Background App Refresh:

First head to settings and open up background app refresh. Here are the apps that use your phone’s battery even when your screen is turned off. Toggle as many apps as possible OFF excluding the really important ones. This way, you will have already increased your battery life.

Control Center:

You can access the control center by just swiping up from the bottom of the screen at your home screen. Here disable Bluetooth when you are not using it. Bluetooth is a feature that consumes a lot of battery and unless your phone is connected to a wireless Bluetooth headset or a Bluetooth speaker, it is just not worth it.

Next tap on airdrop in the control center itself and toggle it OFF. Airdrop is used to share files between iOS devices and unless you are in the process of transferring items, you definitely want to disable it.

Parallax Effect:

By default, your iOS device will have this feature which apple calls the ‘parallax effect’ ON. What this means is that when you move your phone around, the icons on the home screen will also move which makes it look as though the icons are 3D. But the effect isn’t really that great. Moreover, it uses the accelerometer sensor on your phone and consumes a lot of juice in doing so. To disable it, head over to the accessibility section under general in your settings app and toggle ‘reduce motion’ to ON.

Notification Center:

Now not a lot of people know this, but notification center consumes a lot of power. This is because most of the apps on your phone will be connected to it by default when you install them. As a result, when you are using your phone the notification center is constantly checking the apps connected to it for notifications coming in. Fortunately though, it is simple to fix this; head over to the notification center under settings. You will notice a long list of apps. You can toggle the type of notifications for each app individually by tapping on them. I recommend that you only use notification center for apps that give you important information like news and messaging while disabling it for games which frequently have worthless alerts popping up asking you to return to play them.

Location Services:

Apps that do have access to your location, consume a lot of battery, besides knowing your location at all times (which is kind of creepy) Solution? Disable location services for as many apps as possible under location services in the settings menu.

And here’s a really important tip. Scroll down the same menu to system services and disable items like ‘diagnostics and usage’ and ‘location based ads’ as they really don’t help much while eating up battery life.

Once you have implemented all these tips, you will notice that you are getting roughly 1-3 hours extra battery life each day. Remember that quick fixes like reducing your screens brightness and closing running apps in the multi-tasking screen will also help.

Lastly, for a BIG tip! If you want your phone to charge in just half the time, keep your phone in airplane mode before plugging it in. This way, the cellular network and the mobile network will be turned off, which helps your phone charge from 0% all the way to 70% in just 2 hours.

Top 3 problems with Smartphones

Smartphones have been around for about half a dozen years, you would expect them to have become nearly perfect over this period of time. In many ways they have. But today let us focus on the ways smartphones can improve. Here is a list of the Top 3 problems of smartphones.

Strength and Rigidity: Now a days, we have phones like the Xperia Z with glass on both the sides of the phone. And remember the iPhone 4 and 4S? What is common between them? These are the phones that crack whenever they hit the ground. Now, if you go back a decade, when Nokia's Feature phones existed, they were heavy duty, almost military grade. Drop them from a second floor window and the phone would still work. But if you drop your smartphone today, from even the height of 6 feet, lets not talk about the consequences. Ok, they are waterproof, but I don't always take my phone swimming. The rigidity of smartphones, believe it or not has actually deteriorated.

Speakers: If you look at smartphones today, you will realise that features like the screen display quality and the camera quality have improved a lot. But then when you look at the speaker, you wonder why it has been left behind. Today's speakers on smartphones  ( except for a few of course ) are really bad, unable to play music at a high volume, even at "tinny" quality and when you play rock music on them, they really drive me mad.

Screen Sizes: You would expect after 5 years or so, a standardised screen size to have been established. But today, if you just walk into a phone store, you would see phones ranging from 3.5" all the way to 6.3" Now, thats nearly twice the size. Why???? Why can't we have one standardised, or at least a few established screen sizes. Maybe like 5" or 5.3" for phablets and if we really need smaller screen sizes for budget phones, why not 4.5" ( like the Moto X)

In conclusion, I think we have realised that smartphones can really be much smarter. Let us see what the year 2014 will bring for us. Until then, we will have to stick with what we have.

Half a year using a Phablet

It all started with Samsung releasing its Galaxy Note. A phone that broke predicted sales twice over. Then there was the greater success of the Galaxy Note 2, and today Samsung is advertising its new Galaxy Note 3. Over this time, several other companies like Sony and HTC have entered the so called "Phablet" market and are producing phones with screen sizes in excess of 6 inches.

So what is a Phablet? Well it basically is a phone having a large screen, a much larger screen that is! The Galaxy Note 2 has a battery which is as big as the screen size of the iPhone 5! But what does this mean for the common consumer? Well let me tell you my experiences with "Phablets."

The day I first switched on my Phablet i.e. the Galaxy Note 2, I was convinced the screen size was perfect for me. I always like playing video games and a larger screen would definitely compliment that. For the first month or two, I really liked the large screen, but as time progressed, I found that it was impractical in various ways. Firstly, it was much heavier than other phones like the iPhone. Secondly, the larger screen did not help in one handed usage, and lastly, it almost felt like it was a "cheap" and not a "premium" device. (Though that may be because of the plastic used on the Galaxy phones)

I personally feel that phones should not exceed a screen size of 5 inches and bezels should be kept as thin as possible, so that it becomes easier to hold. So if you are trying to buy a new phone today, you might want to skip the Phablets, unless of course you watch movies a lot and love gaming. Some recommendable, more realistically sized phones are the iPhone line-up, the Galaxy S3/S4 and of course the HTC One. 

iPhone event - September 10th

There is an apple event coming up on this september 10th and it is rumoured that apple is going to unveil its new iPhones. Notice that I used the plural form of phone, thats because there is a high change of a "low cost" iPhone in addition to the "normal"ones coming out.

The 2 iPhones that are rumoured to be unveiled are the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5C. The iPhone 5S will be a minor upgrade from the current iPhone. It is likely to feature a the same camera but with a minor upgrade, a faster processor (as usual) and a finger print sensor. This sensor will most likely be embedded in the trademark home button which will be made of sapphire crystal. Yes, big words being used there, but again it has not been confirmed. Also there have been a lot of pictures that have surfaced on the internet suggesting a gold or champagne coloured iPhone 5S in addition to the black and white ones, while this has not been confirmed either, I must say that I found some of the pictures to look elegant. The Champagne colour would be on the back while there is a fair bit of white and its blend looks simply amazing. It will be interesting to see this if it does come out.

Coming to the iPhone 5C. The C basically stands for cheap but if apple does release it, they would say that C stands for colour. This is also supported by the fact that a number of images showcasing iPhones made out of plastic of various colours are on the internet. While economically it may be the best option open to apple at this point of time, apple may not come up with anything like that as it would contradict their beliefs in superior quality devices as stated by their late founder Mr. Steve Jobs.

Now, though none of these are confirmed, it will be extremely exciting to see whats in store for us in just a few weeks from now. Until the, we might as well glance through the numerous images supporting these stuff on the internet.

Google Now

             

  

Here is the review of Google Now which I promised to talk about.  It hasn't been to long since I have been using this application, however it has surprised me immensely already. Just to let you all know, google now is available for iOS 6 and above and is part of the google search application; for android users, it is only available on Jelly Bean 4.1 and above. Also, as a quick side note, I tested this application primarily on my Note 2 and  HTC One X and also a bit on the iPad 2.  So let's get into this review.

One of the main features of this application I s that just by your voice all your information is at your finger tips. Literally. I just asked it what the height of Barrack Obama was and in just a second it gave me the right answer. brilliant! It does all the normal things you would expect google to do for example detailed weather, general knowledge, news stories, reminders, alarms, sports scores, blah blah blah.... 

Now, lets go to the more advanced features of it. I asked it to remind me to buy an article the next time I would be at a particular place, frankly I expected it to fail. But surprisingly, it actually worked! Just a minute after I reached that place, I heard my phone's notification tone go off. Then, I check it and it reminds me of the same exact thing!

The next thing I am going to talk about isn't very advanced, but it is worth mentioning, I just asked it, would I need my sunglasses today and it answered no, showers are expected. (It's monsoon where I'm at) so this is awesome!

You can open this application by long pressing one of the capacitive buttons on your phone, after which, will appear a screen with a number of 'cards'. What do they do? Well they provide information about various stuff. For example, if a soccer team I support is either paying a game right now, just played a game, or is about to play a game, it would pride me information on the same. Furthermore, if I search for a particular topic repeatedly on a different device (eg: my Mac) using my same google account, then a card would appear, updating me on the same.   

Now the are tons of features to this application that I haven't mentioned and neither do I plan to do as it would take me millennia however, since this is free and since it is awesome, I officially recommend this application to all. Also, this application is being constantly updated with better features, though a lot of features related to your phone's settings are not available as yet, Google promises it in the near future and I trust them. Anyway, signing off, Google just hit a home run. Well done!

iOS 7

It is that time of the year again when Apple releases their latest software. Just yesterday, Apple released a new version of iOS and a new version of the desktop operating system (I will be talking about the latter a bit later,). Today I'll brief you guys about iOS 7.

iOS 7 is headed by Senior VP of Design and Human Interaction, Sir Jonathan Ive. He is credited for designing many of the most popular devices by Apple.

Jony Ive has completely changed the design of iOS. The new design seems to be flatter compared to the previous version with some new features. Now, by sliding up from the home screen, you can access all the toggles, example WIFI, Bluetooth, brightness, music etc. Also, now all apps can run at the same time, which means better multi-tasking. Also, the new version comes with an enhanced notification centre and all Apple app icons have been redesigned. Siri has also got a radically different look and so have some other apps. Apple has also improved the integration of FaceBook and Twitter across all of its apps. The iconic "Slide To Unlock" is still there but is part of an      entirely new lock screen.

Apple had set out to create a completely new OS, yet keep it the same and I think they have done a fantastic job of it. A lot of Apple's apps now look a bit like the Windows Phone apps. A lot of details have been perfected. iOS 7 will be available for the iPad 2, the new iPad (iPad3), the iPad with retina Display (iPad 4), the iPad mini, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPhone 5. But before you get too excited, you will only be able to download some time is August. I just can't wait to get my hands on it, in the mean time, check out this video on Apple's website. I'll see you next time!

http://www.apple.com/ios/ios7/#videos

Top Android games

This topic was recommended by Nila Sekar.

The Android PlayStore has many many games of all genres. Some of these games are just top quality and the others aren't as popular. So I have compiled a list of what I think our the best games in a few categories.

Great games that do not require an expensive Android device:

1. Jet Pack Joyride (Free), developed by HalfBrick Studios, the same guys who developed Fruit Ninja is a great game. You basically need to travel the longest distance, avoiding obstacles and collecting coins, which you can redeem for upgrades.

2.  Where's My Water (Free / Paid) is developed by Disney. Your main aim is to get the water flowing from point A to point B (the shower). This game has many levels with increasing difficulty and will set your brain to work.

3. Bad Piggies (Free) is developed by Rovio, the same developers that created the world famous game Angry birds! In this game, you basically have a set of blocks that you combine together to make the "Piggy" go around collecting stuff. This game is easy to learn, but hard to master and it too, like the previous one will keep that brain on power ON. (There is also an HD version of this app).

 Top games for powerful smart phones and tablets:

 1. Iron Man 3 - The Official Game (Free) is developed by Gameloft, a popular developer. In this game, you basically fly over roads defeating enemies and collecting XP and coins to upgrade you suit. You also unlock more pieces of a mystery every time you complete a mission. The graphics age great on this phone and this game game definitely keeps me playing fore a long time.

2. FIFA 12 by EA Sports (Paid) is developed by EA Swiss Sarl is the great Football game that has been dominating on the XBOX and the Play Station for a long time, finally it has come to Android devices as well. This game is self explanatory and it is a must buy.

3. Real Racing 3 (Free) is the sequel to the popular game Real racing 2 HD and is also developed by EA Swiss Sarl and is by far the best racing game I have seen yet. The graphics are stunning and the sound effects are spot on, gameplay is fantastic and the best of all, its FREE!

Here are the links to all the games:

Jet Pack Joyride

Where's my water

Bad Piggies

Iron Man 3 - The Official Game

FIFA 12 by EA Sports

Real Racing 3

Samsung Galaxy Mgea

This topic was introduced by Anagha B J.

               

Just a couple of days back, Samsung released 2 new smartphones. They are called the Samsung Galaxy Mega. One has a 5.8 inch screen and the other sports a 6.3 inch screen. First of all, I don't understand why Samsung came out with a 5.8 inch screen, that's because the Galaxy Note 2 already has a 5.5 inch screen and is only about Rs.4,000 more. Anyway, both the phones have an 8 MP rear camera and a 1.9 MP front facing camera. The bigger phone will have 8GB and 16GB variants of internal storage and the smaller phone will have 8GB of internal storage. Also, both phones will have a micro - SD card slot to expand storage up to 64GB. The larger phone has a 1.7 GHz dual core processor while the smaller one will be powered by a 1.4 GHz dual core processor. Also, both the phones will have 1.5 GB of RAM. The larger phone will have a display of 720 by 1280 (233 ppi).

The smaller device will have a display of 540 by 960 pixels (190 ppi). Both phones will be running the attest version of Android. The price points are at roughly Rs. 30,000. I personally think that the larger phone will do better than the smaller one. But I also think that both these devices will give competition to other devices made by Samsung itself, so according to me really bad strategy by Samsung. Only time will tell if I am wrong or right. I guess I'm done with this post, so I'll see you next time!

June - The Month Of Gadgets

What's so special of the sixth month of this year? Well there happens to be 3 major events from three major companies of this world. Apple, Samsung and Google. So lets start with Apple.

Apple has announced that WWDC will take place from the 10th of this month to the 14th in San Francisco. Also, tickets were priced at $2500 or Rs. 1,37,500 each. And guess what? They were sold out in just two minutes! That's right 120 seconds! So, what can we expect to see? Well Apple's much awaited iOS 7 will be unveiled. Apple's famous designer Sir Jony Ive is heading it and he says that iOS 7 is a major overhaul to the previous versions of this operating system for iPads, iPod Touches and iPhones. Apple CEO, Tim Cook says that we shouldn't expect any new hardware for this event. However, he also said that 'new hardware would come this fall.'

Now let's talk about Samsung. Samsung's big event is on the 20th of this month in London.  A lot of people had anticipated that Samsung would unveil 3 new smartphones. The Galaxy S4 Mini, the Galaxy S4 Active and the Galaxy S4 Zoom. However Samsung surprised everyone by launching the Galaxy S4 mini much before the event. We also expect to see Samsung's new range of devices dedicated to windows 8 called the 'Ativ' range. 

Next, let's talk about Google. Google had recently held its I/O event. However, they have scheduled 2 more events on the 7th and 13th of this month. These events are called 'Mobile Chrome.' So what can we expect to see from Google? Experts say that the 2 different events are for 2 different operating systems, iOS and Android. But what will we exactly see? Only time will tell. 

I can't wait to see what these 3 major companies will show the world. But one thing is for certain. This month will be BIG. Thanks for stopping by, I'll see you next time!

Nvidia SHIELD

This topic was recommended by Anuj tambwekar:

Nvidia, the company that makes all those powerful GPUs for those gaming machines, is coming up with a new class of gadgets. So what exactly is this? Well it is called the Nvidia SHIELD. It is a portable gaming machine that has a 5 inch high resolution multi touch display and a console like controller. according to Nvidia it runs the latest version of Android Jellybean. Thus, it will be able to play all games on the android market! but thats not all, it will also be able to stream compatible games from your computer! But only computers that have an Nvidia GeForce GTX GPU. For those of you didn't understand that, don't fret! It is basically a kind of processor (graphics card) in your computer manufactured by Nvidia. (most computers don't have it)

 Examples of games it will run, Batman Arkham City, Borderlands 2, Resident Evil 6 etc. For Android, you can acces the playstore for games and also Enjoy two pre-loaded SHIELD-optimized games right out of the box. Under the hood is some serious power. It's got a TEGRA-4 quad core processor with 2 GB of RAM. 5 inch 1280x720 (294 PPI) Multi-Touch Retinal Quality Display. And 16 Gb of flash storage. (which isn't a lot for gaming) Now, for all of you who didn't understand that, well in one word it is powerful for a portable device. 

So, when can we expect this device? Well Nvidia says it will start shipping by the end of June of this year. You can pre-order this device right now from Nvidia's website. (Link is below) This device will only be available for sale in North America. And how much will this device cost? Well Nvidia hasn't told anyone yet. For all you Tech Geeks who want to know what are the exact requirements for streaming from the computer to the SHIELD, here is is:

• GPU: GeForce GTX 650 or higher desktop GPU (Notebook GPUs are not supported at this time)
• CPU: Intel Core i3-2100 3.1GHz or AMD Athlon II X4 630 2.8GHz or higher
• System Memory: 4GB or higher
• OS: Windows 8 or Windows 7
• Software: GeForce Experience application and latest GeForce drivers
• Routers: 802.11a/g router (minimum). 802.11n dual band router (recommended).

Link to the website : Click Here

See you next time!

Tips to save your device's battery

Does your phone or tablet's battery run out quickly? would you want it to stay just a bit longer? Well you are not alone. Many people around the world have this problem. They try to use battery saving apps, but the truth is that these apps help little if they even turn out to help. So how do you fix this problem? Well here's how:

1. Always turn of your bluetooth and GPS unless you absolutely need the. These 2 features are always power hungry and are your worst enemies when it comes to saving your phone's battery.
2. If you have 3G data on your phone, whenever you can, switch to WIFI. In the long run WIFI uses far less power than 3G data.
3. There is a feature called Auto-sync on your phone. What this feature does is it automatically connects to your E-mail account or you Facebook, Twitter etc. every now and then and checks if you have any emails or any new posts, or status updates etc. and will tell you once it has collected the data. Turn this feature off because while doing so it consumes a fair amount of power.
4. If your phone has an ambient light sensor, turn the brightness to automatic. What this does is it senses the amount of light in your surroundings and adjusts your phone's brightness accordingly, so your phone's screen will never be too bright or too dim. If your phone does not have this sensor just set the brightness to 50%.
5. Always remember that your phone will consume more power when it vibrates compared to when it rings. 
6. To make sure that your phone's battery stays in tip-top condition, avoid keeping your phone in direct sunlight for a long time since this damages the battery and after sometime, your battery may only charge to 80%.

Well following these tips well definitely save your phone's and tablet's battery life. See you next time!

Top Android keyboards

The best thing about Andorid is its customisability. Today I will be testing 3 keyboards and I will tell you which one is the best. Before I start, I must tell you that all these keyboards are absolutely free, not like Swift Key which has a 28 day free trial or like Smart keyboard which in 14 days you loose some functionalities. Also, I am not referring to the pro or paid versions of these keyboards if they have one. Also, please note that these tests have been conducted on a phone, not a tablet. So, let's jump into it.


First up, GO Keyboard. This keyboard has tons of options for themes, sounds, settings etc. This keyboard too has the Swype functionality without the need to switch, just like the previous keyboard.
However, I didn't find the Swype experience enjoyable and I couldn't justify its autocorrect function. The landscape mode however was really nice, but I must say that this keyboard looses to the previous keyboard because of its sloppy autocorrect function.


Next, Touchpal Keyboard. This keyboard is feature packed. It starts off with a friendly tutorial and teaches you the cool stuff this keyboard can do. Let me give you a few examples, to delete the previous word in one go, you just slide left from the back space button. To get emoticons, long press the symbol button on the main screen. This keyboard comes with Swype built in. Swype is a form of typing where you don't lift you finger from the screen, instead you just trace a path from letter to letter. You don't even have to switch between normal typing and Swype, you can use them both on the go! However, during fast typing, this keyboard just can't catch up, unless you are using landscape mood where this keyboard performs really well.

Lastly, we have the Jelly Bean Keyboard. It is the stock Android jelly Bean keyboard and is also available for download from the Play Store. This keyboard isn't the worst in the world, but at the same time it is not the best. It can keep up with fast typing in the portrait mode, but fairs better in the landscape mode compared to the Go Keyboard.

So these are the final results. If you want a highly customisable keyboard, choose the GO Keyboard. If you want an all-round keyboard, choose the Touchpal keyboard. However, if you like simplicity better over features, the jelly Bean Keyboard is your best bet. I am now going to switch over to the Touchpal keyboard. So see you next time!

Google Drive

The future of the world lies in cloud computing. Today, I'm going to go through an application called Google Drive. Google Drive is a free application which offers cloud storage. So what can you do with this app?

Well for starters, I use this app to create office documents which I can access from my phone, iPad and Mac. It is easy to create word documents, spreadsheets and presentations. To get started, all you need to do is download that application on your phone, tablet and laptop/desktop. Then all you do is sign in with your google ID and you are done! So once I have typed out, lets say a project for school on my mac in Google Drive, I walk up to my iPad, open Google Drive and there I have it. Next, I can change some sentences on my iPad, walk back to my Mac and there it is! The latest version of it! The best part is that you don't need to even save it. It automatically saves the document once you have made any changes to it. And thats not it. You can also upload photos, music PDF files and video clips. Then it syncs with your google account and you have it on all of your devices. Also, it is easy to share the files and documents stored.

I have just gone over this app briefly but you can check out all it's capabilities in detail on the developers website which is at the end of this blog. If you have an android phone, the link to download it is below.
To sum up, this is THE BEST cloud storage option available as of this date. It is a must have. See you next time!

Link to the Developers Website
Link to the Android Play store Android Play Store

Google Goggles

Many people know a lot of Google applications but how many know Google Goggles? Google Goggles is a free app by google that claims to do the following -

1. - Scan barcodes using Goggles to get product information
2. - Scan QR codes using Goggles to extract information
3. - Recognise famous landmarks
4. - Translate by taking a picture of foreign language text
5. - Add Contacts by scanning business cards or QR codes
6. - Scan text using Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
7. - Recognize paintings, books, DVDs, CDs, and just about any 2D image
8. - Solve Sudoku puzzles
9. - Find similar products

So I decided to test every single thing they claim to see if it works consistently and accurately.

1. I scanned 3 item's barcodes. First,a tic tac mint box. It scanned it and performed a google search of it and then i got the usual web results. Then, I scanned a Hardy Boys book. It scanned the barcode and opened up Google Shopping and then even told me how much the book would cost. Third, an Agatha Christie book unfortunately, it was not able to scan it. That is 2 out of 3.
2. I then tried the QR code scanner. I scanned a QR code of a college. It gave me their website and offered to save its contact. Perfect. 3 out of 4.
3. I then scanned the Taj Mahal, but instead of giving me information, it opened up Google Shopping and showed me an iPhone case which had a Taj Mahal picture on it. Epic Fail. I then took a picture of the Eifel Tower and it surprisingly worked. So I give it half a point. That is now 3.5 out of 5.
4.  I then took a picture of I'm hungry in chineese and took a picture of it, but it couldnt translate it since it only suppourts these languages. - 
English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and Turkish. Then I tried the same thing in French and it worked perfectly. The score now is 4.5 out of 6.
5. Test 5 is combined in test 2. 
6. I scanned the heading of the Times Of India newspaper and it offered to search the web for its logo or for the text "Times Of India." Perfect again. 5.5 out of 7.
7. I took a picture of the most famous painting in the world. The Mona Lisa. It worked again giving me a description of the painting. Great! 6.5 out of 8.
8. I took a picture of a Sudoku puzzle. Unfortunately, it only searched Google for sudoku. Thats 7.5 out of 9.
9. For the last test I took a picture of a tic tac mint , hoping that it would reply with results of Altoids or Polo, but it only gave me information of the company and searched Google for it.

Thats the end of the test folks. 7.5 out of 10 is what it scores. Note that this test was conducted under below average lighting conditions, so you shouldn't have a problem with lighting. To sum up, this is a great application which everybody should have on their smartphone. Till next time!

Opera Mini web browser VS. Google Chrome

Smartphones have many great features. One of them is surfing the web. With so many web browsers out there on the store, how do you know which one is the best. Well it turns out that I just figured it out.  At the begining I used to use the standard browser that came with the phone. Then i switched over to the world famous google chrome. Then I heard of the Opera mini web browser. I had tried the desktop browser of it and clearly it lagged behind google chrome, so I didnt set up high expectations for its mobile version. Opera claims that web pages would load up faster and it would take less data to do so. And I found out that they werent totally telling the truth. Google searches did load up just a fraction faster compared to google chrome, however it took pretty much the same amount of data.

In the main screen your bookmarks show up with nice pictures. While surfing, at the top of the screen is the search bar. On the bottom of the screen is a tool bar that stays in the same place even when you scroll. Overall, it is a nice web browser and while many might prefer it, I would still stick with google chrome since it has a nice and sleek UI. However, you might want to check Opera's browser out too. Here are the links below. Happy surfing!

Google Chrome 
Opera Mini web browser 

Samsung Galaxy note 2

The Samsung galaxy note 2 the successor to the galaxy note launched by Samsung last year. The new note is slimmer for easy 1 handed use but is longer and now has a 5.5 inch screen. I found the screen display quality to be very good. However, like most samsung phones, this phone to has that plastic build, which is not what you would expect for a phone of this price. This phone has 2 GB of RAM and 8 GB built in storage which can be expanded via the micro-SD card slot. The 8 MP camera at the rear takes really good shots, while the front camera works really well for video chats. This phone comes with jelly bean built in, which means that it has google's google now, of which I will be doing a review soon. The stylus also known by its famous name, the "S pen" works great with the built in apps and i actually found myself writing with the S pen instead of typing on the keyboard. An awesome feature I found was that you can write in your own handwriting and it will automatically convert it into text and this worked accurately for me. Also a nice little feature, when it detects that you are roaming, it creates an extra home screen with a dual clock showing the time of the current location as well as the time at your home. Above it it says "Have a lovely trip!"which is a nice little feature. This phone's performance is snappy as it is powered by a quad-core 1.6GHz processor. So, is this a device that you should buy?
Here is my verdict. If you want a powerful phone capable of doing anything, the YES. However, if you want a phone that is small, portable and a little more affordable, then there are many other phones to choose from. However, the Galaxy Note 2 just defined a whole new segment of phones and the last time we saw something new as big as this was when the first iPhone was released way back in 2007. Props up to Samsung for that!

Google and youtube on April fool's day 2013

Google's youtube is shutting down until 2023. However, experts say that this is a practical joke since today is 1st april. april fool's day! Also google nose is just a prank and dosent work a bit. watch this video :
http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/31/youtube-announces-that-it-has-been-an-8-year-contest-will-shut-down-on-april-1-to-determine-the-winner/

Assistant for android

Assistant for android is a voice assistant (yeah, just like Siri if you were wondering) by speaktoit, which is free of charge and is available on the google play store. You can also upgrade to the premium version in which you can actually teach your assistant. That is you can create your own commands for your assistant.

Let's start with customisation. To say it in one sentence, that developers really knew what they were doing. You can can change your background to update with the home screen wallpaper or you can also put in any other picture from your photo album. Then comes your assistant's voice.
You can either stick to your phone's default synthesiser or you can buy a voice ( like a good one) from a variety of ounces which the developers are selling in app for $1. Now to your assistant itself. You literally build your assistant's avatar from scratch and you have a wide ( like really wide) range of options to choose from.

Now to the actual functionality. This app can do almost anything. ( except bake you a cake). If it does not know an answer, it will offer to ask your Facebook friends for it and even offers to read their replies. The GUI is really nice. Oh, and did I tell you about the jokes? I think the developers have a good sense of humour. This app even offers interactive knock- knock jokes which will keep you entertained for a long, long time.

This app also comes with different sized widgets for your home screen which are pretty useful. So, to sum it up, this is a great app ( except it can't bake you a cake) and the best part is that it's free! I think that is one of the best voice assistants on the App Store and I definitely recommend this app.

Real Racing 2 HD

Today, I will be reviewing something I don't usually review... A game for a tablet/mobile. It is real racing 2 HD. first of all, as you have already guessed this is a racing game and is created by Firemit. so lets get into the review...

first of all the graphics on this game are spot on! the look incredibly great. the sound effects are also great and vary by car. another good feature is that when you get hit by a car that part of the car may start becoming loose and finally fall off. There are many cars to choose from but customization is something that lacks in the game. you can only change the color and some performance parts which don't affect the look of the car. Also the career mode is not the best either, you just keep earning money to get better cars to get to the world series. I would have enjoyed something a bit more, like sponsors.

however the racing experience on this is console quality (well almost) and with a lot of cars and races this game will definitely keep you playing for hours...

Apple iPad mini

Apple has recently released the iPad mini, but this is quite shocking. 2 years ago when Steve Jobs was asked  why he did not manufacture a tablet to compete with the kindle and other smaller tablets he said that "Apple will never launch a smaller sized tablet" and also stated that the smaller sized tablets were confused ones as they were not in either place not as small as a smartphone and not as big as a laptop screen but were in the middle. Now, 2 years later Apple has launched the iPad mini. a 7.9 inch tablet.

specifications wise, the iPad mini has the exact same configurations as the iPad 2. However, the camera is upgraded to 5 megapixels. The iPad mini comes in colors similar to the iPhone 5 that is Black and slate or white and silver. The iPad mini starts form $329 and goes up to $659.

However, the smaller version of the tablet is an inch bigger then the current 7 inch tablets and also costs more. So will this device be a game changer like the iPhone or will it just be another device out in the market. But for now, all we can say is that this device's hardware and software are both really good and that only time will tell. Also, the iPad mini 2 (if that's what they will call the next one) is rumored to come out sometime in mid 2013 and will have some pretty good upgrades considering the iPad 4 has already come out. So, i would rather wait for the next generation of it. 

Apple announces iOS 6.

   

Apple recently announced that they will be releasing the much awaited iOS 6 this week.

iOS or i operating system is an operating system created by apple. About twice a year apple releases a new, better one to upgrade their products such as iPhone and iPads .

One of the main highlights in iOS 6 is passbook.

With Passbook, you can scan your iPhone or iPod touch to check in for a flight, get into a movie, and redeem a coupon. You can also see when your coupons expire, where your concert seats are, and the balance left on that all-importantly coffee bar card. Wake your iPhone or iPod touch, and passes appear on your Lock screen at the appropriate time and place — like when you reach the airport or walk into the store to redeem your gift card or coupon. And if your gate changes after you've checked in for your flight, Passbook will even alert you to make sure you’re not relaxing in the wrong terminal.

Another very helpful feature is Siri

Siri has been there in the iPhone 4s but now it gets even better. Ask Siri for the scores of a match navigation while driving by voice, where are good movies currently going on. And now it supports dozens of languages like Italian, mandarin, Japanese and Spanish to name a few.

The new iOS also updates other apps such as maps, photos, safari, Face Time, and mail.

iOS 6 will support iPhone 3GS , iPhone 4 , iPhone 4s , iPod touch  4th generation, iPad 2 and iPad 3.

However Siri will only work with iPad 3 and iPhone 4s.

Galaxy y

    

                                                
Android is currently one of the most proffered mobile operating systems. Thus many companies are manufacturing android phones. Samsung has come out with and android phone which they claim is the cheapest android phone. The Samsung galaxy y. So let's go ahead and review it!

The galaxy y runs android gingerbread 2.3.6. It weighs roughly a 100 grams. Powering the phone is an 832 MHz processor. The phone features a 3 inch TFT capacitive touch screen. It has got 180 MB internal memory, however it is expandable to 32 GB. Don't expect the phone to be really fast and don't think multi-tasking would be easy. Hey, that's the world's cheapest android phone, what would you expect.

Being android powered you have many, many apps from the google play store to choose from. I forgot to mention the 2 MP camera. It's not great either, but is good enough to view them on your phone. This phone features Swype which is amazing. If you haven't heard of it it basically allows you to touch a letter on the keyboard and then trace its path along other letters in a continuos 'Swype' to complete a word. Tests say you can type 40 words a minute with this feature. Also, android phones are known for their endless customizing options. I actually made my galaxy y like a proper iPhone with lock screen, icons and all, which I will talk about later

 So to sum up, if you are on a really tight budget and you want something that runs android you should probably pick this one. There are some draw backs but the android OS will not disappoint you.This phone will set you back 7000 INR. And with our robust studio algorithm this phone scores a  7.5 on  10.

Lumia 710

                                                                         

Nokia has just entered the windows phone industry... Their newly launched Lumia series has got a fair bit of attention in the market. The Lumia 710 which costs about fifteen thousand is the product we are going to review today. its got a crisp looking 3.8 inch touch-screen display. the rounded edges fits nicely in your hands. the phone relies on the Zune software to sync files between you computer and you phone.its got a solid 1.4 GHZ processor running at the back. the phone weighs roughly 125 grams. the down point is that it has only 1 camera. the plus point is that it has got led flash and a 5mp camera which takes photos like this:

                                                

running on windows 7.5 it has all the games you could play on the xbox 360 and even runs them smoothly. however the marketplace where you can get apps does not have the best. contrasting to it nokia gives you free access to the nokia music store where you can download music for free! since it runs on windows OS, it even comes integrated with ms office 2007. now that is sweet! typing on the lumia is a breeze thanks to the nice touch-screen and more importantly the great keyboard. 

this phone costs about 15,000 INR. but with the new update to windows 7.8 and the Nokia music store it is worth every penny you spend on it. There are a lot of accessories which Nokia has made for the Lumia series which we will review soon...