Tag: whatsapp

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Tech

The best apps for your WP smartphone

Have a Windows phone but not the apps to go with it? Check out our app list to get started.
by Manik Kakra

Announced more than two years ago, the Windows phone has been a refreshing new OS in the smartphone world. The OS is on the third place, and though it still needs lots of apps, services, and improvements, there’s no doubt that Microsoft has got a lot of great applications for users.

This is a list of apps you should definitely try on your shiny new WP handset.

rap dialerRap Dialer: WP has got some decent native apps, but its dialer seems a bit uncooked. Rap Dialer (in pic on left) is what you should try if you feel the same about the stock dialer. Rap Dialer has got a few interesting gestures, and has got features you need from your phone’s dialpad, right there.

The alternative? People Search

Twabbit: If you’ve been using a smartphone for some time, chances are you would be quite active on Twitter. I never really liked the official Twitter app for WP, and I would recommend Twabbit. This app has got a great features list, from streaming, push notifications, image preview, custom theme, to mute filters. This feature-packed app is surely worth an active Twitter user’s bucks.

The alternative? Mehdoh

WhatsApp: I wouldn’t have mentioned it here had the developers not brought about the major update this app required. With the last few updates, this chat client has become much more reliable, and has got much better reviews from what users had to say about it earlier.

The alternative? LINE

UC Browser: In order to get a better Web browsing experience than what the IE10 Mobile offers with its less-than-required number of features, download the UC Browser (see pic on right). This UC browserbrowser has been on the scene since Symbian days, and has got a lot of features in its WP avatar. From offline mode, to custom font and speed dial, this free browser is a worthy addition to your WP tiles.

The alternative? Surfcube

Baconit: Want to check Reddit on the go? Well, Baconit is probably the best Reddit client on WP. It’s fast, well-designed, and has all the features you might need.

The alternative? Baconography

Besides these apps, you should also check out apps like MapmyIndia, MetroTube, 6stagram (coming soon), Wikipedia, Avirall, Camera360, Zomato, Nextgen Reader, 4th & Mayor and games like Gravity Guy, 4 Pics 1 Word, and N.O.V.A. 3. 

Do let us know if we’ve missed out on any of your favourite WP apps, and if any other apps require a mention here.

(Pictures courtesy www.thelostogle.com, www.windowsphone.com, www.funkygadgets9.com)

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Tech

The best messaging clients for your smartphone

Love to text people and want to go beyond SMS and WhatsApp? Check out four other cool client messaging options.
by Manik Kakra

With smartphones in our hands or pockets more often than not, it is the best device to stay connected with your near and dear ones. Until recently, SMS was a big part of most people’s phone usage, when messaging apps for user-to-user phone chat started taking their place. Here are the best clients you can install on your smartphone today:

WhatsApp: You saw it coming, right? With the biggest userbase among any such apps, WhatsApp is what most users have installed, and is their go-to app for texting. Active development team, and cross-platform availability, this one is surely among the keepers.

ViberViber: Available for Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Symbian, this one, along with WhatsApp, enjoys first-to-arrive benefit among these apps. Following the same rule of setting a user’s number as his/her ID, it isn’t much of a hassle to set it up. Users can also call each other through it, though the developers really need to improve the call quality.

LINE: LINE is one of the recent entrants in this list, but is surely here to stay. With over five million users registered in India in about three weeks’ time of its Indian launch, this one could well be your next favourite messaging client. Good call quality, emojis, emoticons, and some really nice stickers, plus a clean and responsive UI are the best things about it. It’s available for Android, iOS, BlackBerry, S40, Windows and Mac OS X.

Tango: You might not have heard its name, but this app got the Best Communication Awards this year. Its call quality – whether voice or video – is impressive, and with the usual text, picture and video-sharing features available, you should try this app once.

Fring: Old, but still relevant. With Fringe, you can not only group chat, but can also conference call with four persons. Great, right? Whether fringlandline (fixed) or mobile phone, you can make free call, mostly.

Apart from these, there are a number of other clients. While iOS has its own native iMessage (along with FaceTime), BlackBerry users have got their beloved BBM, which is soon going to be launched for iOS and Android; Android might get its own client later this year. Other apps worth checking once include Facebook Messenger (with its new Chatheads), SnapChat, which is focused more on image sharing. Nimbuzz, and WeChat.

(Pictures courtesy www.windowsphone.com, play.google.com, beyondthedefaults.com)

Categories
Overdose

Sar utha ke jeeyo

When will we finally realise that a beautiful world full of wonder exists around us, not inside our smart phones?
Jatin Sharmaby Jatin Sharma

I read recently about this girl in Mumbai who was listening to music on her phone while on the street. She couldn’t hear the sounds around her, was hit by a bus or truck and she died.

While I commisserate with the girl’s family over this tragedy, I must say that I was not very surprised to learn of this fatality. Let’s just say I was even expecting to hear about something like this for some time.

There is a new disease afflicting most of us in the world. It’s called ‘phone-buried’. Earlier, people used to walk straight-backed, with a purpose. Now they slouch, not seeing what’s happening around them. Even if they were to be hit by an oncoming truck, they wouldn’t even time for the proverbial famous last words in a speech as they died, but their last words would be capsuled in a text message they would be typing at the time of impact. Or they would probably even take a pic of the incoming truck and tag it with,”Woohoo you won’t believe a truck is gonna hit me!!!!”

The disease of being phone-buried runs so deep that even when one meets friends for dinner, all of them are engrossed not in actual phone dinnerconversation with each other, but in Whatsapp. And when their food arrives, they take a million pictures of their food to show the world where they are, prefixing everything with “YUM!!!”

The essence of NOW is slowly killed as we always live in the past and the future, where we are either reading the comments received on our pics or contemplating how many likes our pics are going to get. If we are ever in the present, we are wondering which pics to still add to complete our virtual album.

What’s even more disheartening is that even when we are out having a walk with a loved one, we are glued to our phone all the time. I consider this a social crime punishable by hanging to death, at least in my head. How can you treat someone who is with you at that very moment like dirt? And when it comes to that, how can you be on the phone ALL the time?

phone sexWe eat, drink, breathe and think only about the virtual world nowadays, and that’s because of our smartphones. A simple ‘Like’ or a ‘retweet’ is what we crave for, and when we do get them, it’s like we’ve won the Nobel Prize. Whatsapping and looking at the ‘last seen’ column gives us the satisfaction of actually looking at that person.

The social life that used to be has all but disappeared because of our preoccupation with our virtual social networks. The people who are physically present around us are no more important; they are just background noise! The rising sun and the sunset are just mere subjects for Instagramming. Sadly, all beautiful natural phenomena exist today in a world where gadgets are taking over human emotions.

Even our sleep is now not without its share of interruptions – we hear our phones buzzing at regular intervals and keep checking our phones for new emails and alerts. Our phones are becoming a nightmare that for now, to phone users, seems like the most beautiful dream.

It’s time that we open our eyes and give value to the real things around us. Like the words that touch our hearts and not the emoticons that remind us of an emotion. Like the people smart-phoneswho are really our friends and standing next to us and not the ones who are tweeting or retweeting or liking where we are, at their convenience. Do respect the people who are around you, because burying yourself in your phone when in company is a sign that you are a dumb person with a smart phone.

And hey, watch out for that truck.

Jatin Sharma is a media professional who doesn’t want to grow up, because if he grows up, he will be like everybody else.

(Pictures courtesy www.dialaphone.co.uk, www.mid-day.com, mattjabs.com, www.chatelaine.com)

Categories
Tech

10 must-have apps for the iPhone 5

Your iPhone 5 can be even more awesome if you get these 10 work and social apps, plus some fun games ones.
by Manik Kakra

So you got your shiny, new iPhone? It’s awesome, isn’t it? Well, you know what could make it even better – apps and games. Over the years, iOS has become a dominant player when it comes to mobile. Developers across the world want to develop their apps for iOS – because the platform is popular, used widely, and app quality is top notch. So, here is a list of 10 apps and a few games apps to get you started with your new Apple gadget:

1. Chrome

Most of us use Chrome on our PCs. By using Chrome on your iPhone, you can sync bookmarks between the devices without any hassle. Just sign in and you are good to go. While it doesn’t enjoy as much freedom as Safari does on iOS, the browser works smoothly and feels like home for PC Chrome users. 

An alternative? Opera Mini

2. Tweetbot

Are you on active on Twitter? If yes, then there’s no way you can’t have Tweetbot installed on your iPhone. This Twitter client is one of the best out there. No compromises – neat UI, feature-rich, and support from developers.

The alternative? Twitterrific

3. Camera+

The iPhone 5 (and 4S) has a great camera, and it can be put to even better use by using something like Camera+. This app allows you to snap photos as well as edit them – with borders, filters, exposure, and more.

The alternative? Paper Camera

4. Dropbox

Dropbox is a must-have app, regardless of what device you are carrying. It is a cross-platform cloud storage service, which allows you to sync your precious data across your devices. You can buy more storage as and when required, according to their plans.

The alternative? Box

5. Evernote

Evernote has, over the years, become a solid app for not only taking notes, but also to compile to-do lists. It synchronises them across devices, as it has a web version, too.

The alternative? Springpad

6. 1Password

As you use your phone or any other connected device, you keep signing up for a number of services, and, as a result, have to remember their respective passwords. 1Password is your one-stop app to stop worrying about having to remember so many passwords. The user doesn’t have to look up in the app as he/she will be signed in automatically.

The alternative? LastPass

7. Airport Utility

This free manager allows you to fully control your Airport stations. It lists all the devices connected, and gives you options to change settings you want.

8. Flipboard

This app is sort of a news-aggregator. You can choose which news sites you want it to combine, and then the app presents them in a beautiful manner, thus allowing you to have your very own virtual magazine.

The alternative? Zite

9. WhatsApp

Chances are that you might be using this app already on your phone. Right? No doubt it’s the most popular cross-platform messaging service today, well worth the money for chatting with your friends.

The alternative? Viber

10. 8Tracks

This is an Internet radio service that gives access to thousands of radio stations made specifically for people having a particular genre preference, created by like-minded people.

The alternative? Pandora

For games, check these out:

Subway Surfers

Angry Birds HD

Real Racing 2

Ruzzle

Did Manik miss any apps which are essential to start with your iPhone? Do let him know your favourite or worst app experiences in the comments section below this article.

(Picture courtesy engadget.com)

Categories
Overdose

Feel the like

Jatin Sharma writes about how social networking has helped us endlessly ‘connect’ to virtual worlds while ignoring the real one.

We are the Internet generation. We are the generation of gadgets, of tablets and social networking sites. We are the Facebookers and the Twitterati. We are the people who are lost in the virtual world.

The world is closing in and our emotions are shutting down. Thanks to the virtual world, we have changed the basic definition of emotion. Earlier, an emotion used to be a feeling, now it has become a message on the wall. Earlier, birthdays used to be a celebration, now they have become a reminder of an event in our phones. Earlier, the world and being social in it was a real activity, now it has turned into one big facade.

Look at photographs; how they were all about memories and capturing a particular time. Now, photographs are judged on the basis of whether they are FB-worthy or whether they will get minimum 50 likes. The human mind is now full of unnecessary information as we have started demeaning our lives. We are becoming slaves to technology and our emotions, or the showing of them, have become a formality.

It seems quite funny to me when people prefer to Skype or chat on FB for about 10 years, and tell each other that they have been in constant ‘touch’ for so long. Ipso facto they may have met just once. Even when it comes to relationships and love affairs, people like to announce them as their relationship status. One fight and the status becomes complicated; and if the matter gets more serious, the boyfriend or the girlfriend gets to know of it on Facebook where the girl’s/boy’s friends have like the update of ‘XYZ changed their relationship status from ‘It’s complicated’ to ‘Single’.

Our emotions have become so frail in today’s times. People form an opinion, then mentally compose a clever line in order to be able to tweet about a trending topic and get as many retweets as possible. Our speech is no more about putting our thoughts into words, it’s all about getting ‘likes’ and retweets and being ‘favourited’.

We are so engrossed in this virtual world that even when we are out with our friends, we are glued to our smart phones. We are becoming ‘virtual Mayors’ of markets and restaurants, and are Whatsapping and putting out our current activities as our status messages. The whole joy of socialising is not about meeting people anymore. In fact, social networking sites should also get a Nobel Peace Prize, for the outcome of most of our fights is now decided by ‘unfriending’ or ‘blocking’ or ‘unfollowing’ a person. These are now considered to be a very fierce punishments in social networking.

Our minds are completely lost in this virtual jungle. And we are not realising that this is slowly and steadily going to ruin our basic human interactions. We all need to feel, touch and hear words in order to survive. Depression is on the rise in the world and I strongly feel that the Internet is responsible for it. The little joys of life are the ones where you can actually feel them. Don’t dedicate yourself to social networking sites. Life is much more than that which exists inside your phone or computer. For once, try to liberate yourself and be a human being. Meet people, don’t ‘poke’ them. Spend some quality time, don’t get hynotised by your phone screen. Feel like a human being. Speak, don’t just type. Feel the like, don’t just click on LIKE.

Jatin Sharma is a media professional who doesn’t want to grow up, because if he grows up, he will be like everybody else.

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