Author
Mala Bhargava has been writing on technology well before the advent of internet in Indians and before CDs made their way into computers. Mala writes on technology, social media, startups and fitness. A trained psychologist, she claims that her understanding of psychology helps her understand the human side of technology.
A Great Palm-FitThe HTC Desire C is about the size of the iPhone but feels smaller. It has a 3.5-inch 480 x 320 screen on the front, and its soft and rubberised back with its gentle curved sides makes it hold-friendly all around. It feels just right in one’s palm, in fact. At first I thought it was a unibody device, but some investigating revealed otherwise. Being the size it is places the Desire C in the budget phone category — although it has a Rs 14,999 price tag. This phone doesn’t make a style statement. It’s quiet and accented here and there, but lacks the glitzy premium feel. It’s meant to do the job rather than make you look good. Sometimes it seems as if features have been taken in and out of smartphones quite at random. It has Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich and HTC’s Sense 4.0 interface, with some tweaks. The Desire C runs on a 600MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, which isn’t much these days. The RAM is a standard 512MB. Storage is a low-end 4GB, so you’ll need to buy an SD card. Adding to the Android 4.0, we also have other perks that are missing on even the larger premium smartphones. A removable battery (in red, at that), a micro SD slot, and a standard sim — micro sims have become a fashion on premium phones. What’s not so great is the 5MP primary (and only) camera, pulling it down a few notches. The camera has neither flash nor auto-focus. Clearly, it’s sort of just there. The battery is a 1200 mAh and adequate for what you’ll be able to do with the phone. Overall, a good intro-Android smartphone; one which will make for an everyday workable, no-fuss device.Beam Me Up, GalaxyGet ready for some serious ceiling gazing. Samsung’s Galaxy Beam GT-I8530, the projector smartphone, is finally in India and, luckily, one doesn’t pay a huge premium for what you might think is a novelty or specialist phone. At Rs 29,999 (please, let’s call that 30,000) it’s doable, if you can think of interesting things to beam around and enough situations in which to use projection. If you get a good deal on it — why not. A tailor-made Beam situation, if we go by the blissful-family promo video, would be when you lie back in bed with your kid and tell a bedtime, story complete with pictures or video up on the ceiling. Children will love that, though I’m not sure it’ll put them off to sleep. The Beam has a solid feel without being too heavy. The body has a yellow strip running around it, giving it a sporty look. It also has a nice soft rubbery back and a 4-inch screen, but just a 5MP camera. One would have thought the projector would be paired with a better camera so you have more personal material to beam. The Pico projector is on the top of the phone (where else) and has a dedicated button to beam your screen instantly. The projector is 15 lumens and can give you a 50-inch display, projecting up to 2 meters. That’s as big as a big TV, though not as bright and crisp. The Beam is an otherwise typical Samsung Android phone. Amazingly, it still runs on Android 2.3 or Gingerbread — now two versions old. It’s powered by a 1 GHz dual-core processor and 768 MB of RAM. Internal storage is 8GB but there’s a micro SD slot so you can increase your space up to 32GB. There’s a 2000mAh battery which should give over 3 hours of video-playing and beaming. Really worth considering if you don’t mind your phone being a few versions behind on Android. (This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 27-08-2012)
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Android users, here’s a way to unclutter your home screens and clutter your notifications drop down instead. The app, 1Tap Quick Bar, lets you customise your notifications area somewhat by adding little icons in the drop down for things you need quickly. I change my text input method often because there’s either a word that’s just refusing to be recognised or because it’s just easier to input a certain way under some conditions. So I put in an icon to give me quick access to the changing input menu. You can get the same thing by long-pressing, of course, but I thought I would experiment this way as well. After all, that’s what Android is all about. I also put in an icon to stop the screen from timing out altogether because that’s really helpful while you’re reading something. Just tap again to de-activate. 1Tap lets you put icons for settings, applications, recently accessed items, shortcuts (to peoples’ phone numbers etc) and some other functions such as recording or moving to a next song. Just tap the + sign to add an item and tap the item on the bar to remove it. When you exit the app, choosing to apply the changes you made, the bar will appear in the notifications area, always within reach.The google search app for iphone or ipad has got some exclusive features and fast access to gmail and docsThe app is free if you want one Quick Bar. If you want more, you have two levels of upgrade, the first to get you two bars and the second to get you unlimited bars. This app may behave somewhat differently on different phones and versions of Android. Users with newer versions of Android, especially Jelly Bean, may not want to bother. Cool Things Google DoesThere are many hidden gems in the world’s favourite search engine, some old and some new. When you start to use them, you realise how useful they are. For instance, just type in a flight number into the search box. In an instant, you get the flight status and other details. You should be signed in and your location visible to Google so that you get relevant flight information.Also type in Calculator into the search box. If you’re the type who needs a scientific calculator often on the go, you’ll find one available right there on Google. Type in weather. Immediately you see the weather in your location for the day and the forecast for the week. The weather information behaves differently depending on different apps. If you use the Google app on the iPad or iPhone, type in weather and then tap the vertical bars on the top right of the screen. You can now see many pages of beautifully laid out information and you can swipe and tap to get to any that you want to take a closer look at. But by far, one of the coolest things is the Handwrite option, though hardened techies scoff at anyone getting excited over handwriting recognition because it remains imperfect to this day. Handwrite can be enabled by getting into the browser on a touch screen device, going to Search Settings and checking the Enable box next to Handwrite. Save and come out to the regular search page. Now, you will see a new toolbar at the bottom of the screen and you can write anywhere on the screen with your finger to search. You have a space bar, a delete, and you can always tap on the Handwrite button to turn it off. Handwrite stays active on the search results page but will turn off if you make a move to type in the search box. Handwrite will work on any browser that lets you get to the search settings including Dolphin and Safari. LiquiPad HDAnd here’s a perfect time-waster. Or de-stresser, if you want to look at it that way. LiquiPad HD (not to be confused with Liquid Pad) turns your iPad into a watery delight. The screen, with beautiful background pictures, turns all watery and responds to your touch as if it were water, with the appropriate sounds. There are actually several modes to choose from for different effects, such as oil, syrup and gel. It goes quite still and stops rippling or making watery sounds when you put it down. For something essentially nonsensical, though pretty, this app shouldn’t cost $1.99. But unfortunately it does. Still, if you’re an app addict…(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 27-08-2012)
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Samsung’s Galaxy Note, the famous “phabet” was quite a hit in India. For a gadget that immediately caused many to laugh at its in-between size making it a phone that was too big and a tablet that was too small, the 5.3 inch Note went on to sell over 10 million units – and will probably continue to do so. It was when you held it in your hands that the penny dropped. It had a way of feeling just right, and its slim little stylus, the S-Pen, added a layer of functionality for anyone who wanted it. A lot of people also poked fun at the stylus, saying that it was rewinding to an earlier time in tech history, but even that didn’t put a dent in its sales. It had obviously hit some sort of sweet spot with its size and specs. With that sort of success, it was inevitable that there would be another Note. Or several, in fact. And finally there was one. But it doesn’t quite come from the phabet family, except for the S-Pen. The successor to the 5.3 inch Note is yet to reveal itself. Today, about two weeks after the launch in the US and UK, Samsung debuted the bigger Note, the 10.1, in India. It’s known as the Galaxy Note 800 and the tech media got a quick look at it. Pick it up and it immediately feels light (more so than the third generation iPad for sure) and extremely “plastic-ky.” Not many people can understand Samsung’s passion for plastic that doesn’t feel premium, and with 10.1 inches of it, it’s noticeable in much the same way as it is on the Galaxy S3 smartphone. Others have shown that plastic can be done more elegantly, but Samsung seems to have an attachment to the new shiny variety. For devices that sell readily in any case, one can’t help wondering if maybe they would fly off the shelves even faster if only they weren’t so plastic down to the soul. Well, that white Note 800 actually looks like a giant Galaxy S3 and opens to the same watery blue theme, enhancing the sameness. The screen looked bright and vibrant but a closer look will be needed to see whether the image remains sharp when you use it. The overall look is for a moment also reminiscent of the iPad but perhaps that’s best left to the courts to decide. Samsung is currently fighting it out in court with Apple who says its arch rival has blatantly lifted off design and other elements in what is an infringement of copyright. In any case, no tablet outside of the very low cost bracket can hope to come into the market without everyone wondering whether it will be a thorn in the side of the still-dominant iPad. The Note 800 isn’t a budget tab at all but costs Rs.39,990 for a 16GB version. The user can expand it to 32SB with the micro SD slot. Other specs include 1.4GHz quad-core Exnyos processor, 2GB of RAM and there’s 1280x800p resolution on the display. The battery is a 7000 mAh but how many hours it lasts one will have to see. The camera, the results of which looked surprisingly clear and sharp, is a 5-megapixel primary and 1.9-megapixel secondary. Samsung is really pushing the addition of the little S-Pen that is tucked into the side of the tablet, working with a Waccom digitizer on the device. They are claiming that it the S-Pen is what makes the tablet super special, allowing artists, fashion designers, architects etc to really unleash their creativity. They also expect the Note 800 to be just what students want. The S-Pen is pressure sensitive for some uses, but as much good as using a finger in others. There are not enough S-Pen optimized apps to make use of the fine control of the stylus. Six of the apps on the tablet allow it to work in a split-screen mode. The Note 800 runs on Ice Cream Sandwich and Samsung’s own TouchWhiz interface and as is typical, there can be an interminable wait for the upgrade to Jelly Bean, the newest Android version. The Note 800 not only may have a tough time standing up against the iPad but will compete against some of its own tablets, including the 10.1 minus an S-Pen.
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The days when computer users had to obsess over the quantum of storage are gone. Today, a terabyte or two isn't even in question and it isn't enough in any case. Users now have a multitude of devices, and a new need to access practically all their documents, photographs, music, movies and other odds and ends on all their gadgets. Start-ups, followed by the tech giants, figured out that offering online storage was not only part of keeping up with the trend of moving to the cloud, but that it was a good way to tie them in to new services. And, as is inevitable, there began a battle royale for supremacy in storage, cloud style. Send To DropboxIt would seem logical that traditional storage companies that have been making hard drives and flash drives should head to cloud services. But that didn't happen. Instead, a start-up called Dropbox dropped in out of nowhere and easy personal storage was born. It was wildly popular as it offered 2GB free storage to anyone who signed up for a free account. Today's storage-gobblers would make a quick meal of that, of course, but more storage can be had by inviting others to sign up, and bullying them into downloading Dropbox. Users can get up to 18GB. On top of that, various mobile devices, like some of HTC's smartphones, lead straight to Dropbox for 25GB of additional storage. Beyond that, you can get 100, 200 or 500GB for a fee. For businesses, there is a separate set of space and pricing schemes. Every platform — web browser, PC app, Android, BlackBerry or iOS — has Dropbox apps. And other apps support it. It's really with Dropbox that users got their first taste of the cloud. What works for it is the sheer ease of use. Just drop a file into the Dropbox folder and access it anywhere — about 50 million multi-gadget users rely on it. Now tech companies are waking up and getting deadly serious about their cloud services. A SkyDrive For AllMicrosoft's cloud sync and storage offering, SkyDrive, has been around a long time. But it hasn't been a critical part of everyday use of Windows and Office. The release of Windows 8 and Office 2013 previews, however, changes everything. One: moving from being tethered to the PC to other devices, specifically tablets and phones. Two: a shift from keyboard to touch; Microsoft's new environments are "Touch First". Three: availability of services and data everywhere. Where once MS Office was tied irrevocably to a specific machine, it's now to be tied to the user; the data must be accessible from every device possible — even those made by competitors such as Apple. By default, Office 2013 files will save to the cloud, though you can change that. Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote will save files to the cloud and allow sharing. SkyDrive has now become an essential part of Windows phones, but the full-fledged programmes offer more than the online tools. SkyDrive's advantages over, say, a Dropbox, are obvious. Here, files can be created and edited, and not just stored. Individual users can start off with 7GB free. Later, when pricing for Windows 8 and new versions of Office are frozen, individual users will pay for additional space. Many users may at first resist Micrososft's shift — from software-in-a-box to software-as-a-service. But the convenience of getting data across devices will likely be too good to ignore. Your Files, Gone Google What of Google? Google has always been about cloud in one way or the other. Google Docs, for instance, has always been a way to share files. But it's not easy to use. Nor has it been a favourite for backing up files and was, in any case, separate from Picasa for photos. But in April this year, after a wait of 5-6 years, Google launched Google Drive, integrating Google Docs into Google Drive, and then Drive into its Chrome OS. Google is tying its different offerings into cloud services as it pushes its Android-based tablets and smartphones. Google Drive for OS arrived quickly enough. Drive doesn't, however, stream your content. Sync, Save, Store, ShareApple, along with its lower-than-expectations Q3 earnings, announced that it has 150 million iCloud users. This, it says, will only increase with the launch of iOS 6 for mobile devices. Apple relates absolutely everything to iCloud: contacts, calendar, music, photos, documents and apps. Many apps also save straight to iCloud. So you can pick up on a MacBook where you left off on an iPad. But iCloud is only for Apple products, and doesn't talk to other services as easily. The companies that super-control our devices will want to tie users to their own cloud services. But users can always go for a combination of services — free or paid space, what data to put where (say, music versus work documents). There are various alternative cloud services as well. SugarSync is on several platforms and lets you password-protect files and folders. Insync syncs with Google Drive; LiveDrive allows automatic backup, albeit at a price. Box, which got a new round of funding this week, focuses on file sharing, caters to both enterprise and personal users, and offers free 5GB to start with. break-page-breakWorrisome Clouds While cloud services battle it out for users' mind space, and maybe a share of their wallets, enterprises, unsurprisingly, will want control over where their data goes. Their biggest worry: security, and rightly so. But so it is for users who store personal data. Recently, Dropbox users found that they could log into others' accounts with any password. While Dropbox's responsiveness was exemplary, the vulnerability is evident. With recent cases of massive security breaches it is obvious that even large companies are accessible targets for malware-makers and scamsters. Privacy is no less a concern. We know that Microsoft is monitoring (at least by an automated method) users' files on SkyDrive. The extent of the access and how it will be used are things we don't know. Technology's big names have not been beyond finding innovative ways to use personal information for profit. Just as worrisome is the possibility of total loss of data. Microsoft suspended some SkyDrive users' accounts for apparent violation of guidelines on what could be uploaded. This led not only to loss of data but also loss of services connected with the users' Windows Live ID. All companies have to walk the tightrope between keeping users' files safe and private and yet disallowing clearly illegal activities. And that cannot be done without some compromises. With the launch of Google Drive, there was an immediate backlash of worry over how Google will use personal data. But users soon realised that it is the same with every service. Another worry, specifically in India, is that users need predictable and ample bandwidth. They need to get what they pay for to ensure that their ‘sizeable' files are always at hand. But that is neither promised nor guaranteed and combined with the absence of Wi-Fi zones, relying on the cloud will mean hit-or-miss scenarios.malabhargava(at)bworldmail(dot)com(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 06-08-2012)
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Can’t think of what exercise will bring your weight down and keep you fit? Go walking. It’s a whole-body exercise, and if you walk briskly for a good 45 minutes, you’ll get a worthwhile workout as long as you stick to it three to four times a week.But then, summer gets in the way. And perhaps even the monsoon. Our favourite parks turn to slush and the danger of slipping becomes very real, that’s if we’re able to move at all. In fact, you might even say that there are a mere three or four months when one can walk or jog happily in most parts of the country.You could always swim, but unless you have a heated pool and some sunlight protection, it can’t be your year-round exercise either.One option: you could walk at home. But walking on a treadmill can get boring. Also, poorly made treadmills can cause injury, and the good ones cost the earth. Of course you could go to the gym. Or you couldn’t, because you are too lazy to.An interesting walk-at-home option is to pick up a guided walk DVD and use that any time you can’t do the real thing. Indoor walk-ing, interestingly, needs little space. Just where you’re standing and a couple of feet all around. Walking instructor Leslie Sansone, for example, has dozens of walking programmes on DVD, available for an average of $10. Typically, the programmes have four basic moves that anyone can do: knee lifts, kicks, step-togethers and kick-backs. Then there are minor squats, lunges and plies, interspersed with walking in short intervals. And before you know it, half an hour is up and you’ve covered the miles the programme says you have — anything from 1 to 5. The more difficult programmes involve resistance bands or light weights. These are particularly nice because you can start off without the props and add them when you want to step up the challenge. There are also easier walks for older people and for those with specific problems. Some walks include jogging for a better cardio workout. Some are designed for weight loss, and some for general fitness. In her DVDs, Sansone keeps talking to motivate you; something you will just have to get accustomed to as there’s no music-only option. Sansone is a prolific instructor, but there are several others, such as Denise Austin. As protection, make sure your movements are cushioned. Good shoes, and perhaps on a wooden floor or a folded-over yoga mat will help protect your knees.(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 20-08-2012)
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Slide to Select SlideWriter solves one part of the overall nuisance of typing naturally on a glass keyboard with its accompanying problems of selecting text and navigating the cursor around for editing. It has a regular keyboard except for one nice difference: a subtle shaded bar appears on top of the length of the keyboard when you touch that area. When you slide your finger along the bar, your cursor moves on the page. It only moves sideways, not up and down. Using two fingers will move the cursor faster. Also, when you double tap, the nearest word gets selected and handles appear on the bar to match the ones on the selected word. You can slide them to increase or decrease your selected content. You can share text on Twitter or via email. Its own interface is clean with big text, which is easy on the eye.Instant Gratification An absolute must-have app is the much-loved TuneIn Radio. It's available for most mobile platforms in both free and paid versions. TuneIn had over 50,000 stations and recently added 500 more. With such a huge number, you obviously get good and bad, talk and music, clear and fuzzy and every category under the sun. You may come across stations that won't play in India, but for the most part, they do. When you like a station, you can preset it for quick access later. It shows information, related stations, and sometimes a schedule. But by far the best feature is how you can find something to suit your mood in barely a minute. With the paid version, you can record a session of music. You can't share or move the recordings from the TuneIn app because of copyright issues, but you can delete them. You also can't sync across devices or pre-schedule a recording, but these are minor hardships considering the world of music you get for instant gratification. Stay Linked With so much happening in apps for other social networks, LinkedIn needed some love too. And Hookflash gives it just that. This Canadian company has created an iPad app (free) that lets a LinkedIn user connect with people in his or her network with a single touch. You can choose to message, but, more important, you can video call your contact — in HD. If your contact isn't a Hookflash user, you can send an invite; if the person isn't online, you can send a notification and can talk later. It's like Skype and other VOIP calling solutions, but from within the LinkedIn environment. In a way, Hookflash competes with LinkedIn's own app that has more features, but not calling. Hookflash is a great tool for active LinkedIn users. In time, it will be available on other platforms as well.(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 23-07-2012)
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There are many thin smartphones around. But the HTC One S manages to combine its mere 7.8 mm thickness with solidity. There's no compromise on its premium feel when you hold it, especially as your fingers caress the smooth, scratch-resistant metal back. It's designed to be understated, its 4.3-inch screen lightly bordered by a quiet grey casing. The HTC One S looks like just the phone for someone who doesn't want to flash gadgets about. The One S comes from HTC's newest series of smartphones, all of which have similar software specs: Ice Cream Sandwich, HTC's own interface, Sense, in its latest version, Bluetooth 4.0 and more in the way settings and widgets are handled. The phones are quite different in hardware and design, and make a good mid-range option. Unfortunately, there's nothing understated or mid-range about its price though: it costs Rs 33,590, placing it in the premium range. The One S has a nice easy-on-the-eye screen (though Pentile) and an 8 megapixel camera with an easy interface. Low-light pictures are grim. The One S has a dual core processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB onboard storage (not all of that is available to the user) and a 1,650 mAh battery which lasts about a day. There's no option for a micro SD card and you can't get at that battery inside the phone's unibody — an unfair trend considering Android phones drink battery juice by the second.A Dash Of Android HipIn a world where Android phones look like replicas of each other, the Sony Xperia U has its own style. The blackness of the 3.5 inch screen when it's asleep is offset by a bright plastic cap that fits at its bottom. There are many colours and you can replace them. When you wake up the screen, which is nice enough, you can set a theme to go with the plastic cap. Not only that, there's a translucent strip atop the cap that lights up to match the theme. The Xperia U is the smallest (so far) in the NXT line from Sony but it runs on a dual-core 1GHz processor. It's fast and responsive. Yet, instead of the Ice Cream Sandwich it should have been having for lunch, the U comes with the older version of Android, Gingerbread. That, of course, is the fate of most Android phones at the moment. An update could turn up soon as the Xperia S has just received one. Don't buy this phone for its camera. Unlike the Xperia S, the U has a 5 megapixel camera that is passable in daylight but poor in low light. But it does have a secondary camera, unlike the HTC One V with which it's often compared. Shockingly though, the Xperia U doesn't have a micro SD card, which you do need as there's only 4GB of user-allowed space on the device. Meanwhile, the software and interface on the phone is neat, but with rather small text, a point that doesn't bother those who are young and not squinting through bifocals. In most other ways, it's a standard Android phone and a good one to consider at Rs 17,399, if one can't afford the hyper-expensive premium superphones.3D On The GoThe LG Optimus 3D Max is a slab of a phone. Unrelentingly rectangular, it looks the epitome of Androidness. It has the same "undersigned" look as the Galaxy SII, which continues to sell, design or no design. But the 3D Max has raised edges that take away from the comfort of its being held. It has a 4.3-inch screen with 480 x 800 resolution. It runs on a 1.2GHz OMAP4430 dual core processor with 1GB of RAM, 8 GB internal storage and a micro-SD slot. It has two 5MP cameras on the back, and has a 1,520mAh user-accessible battery. The 3D Max is, quite obviously, centered on 3D which you can shoot and view. In fact, you can also convert high quality 2D graphics to 3D with an application. You don't need glasses to see stuff in 3D. Pick a 3D video (there are some on the phone to begin with) and you can see the depth quite readily, though perhaps not altogether flawlessly. It runs the Gingerbread, but it plays video without any hiccups. It's priced at Rs 30,500.Seven Inches Of 3GAnother 7-inch "low-cost" tab just joined the crowded space of budget Android tablets. Whether the Nexus 7 from Google will come and blow these away, we shall have to see. But it's possible that rural and small-town customers will go for whatever they find nearest at hand. That's what Zync Global is hoping will happen to its newly launched Z-999 Rs 11,990 tablet. The slim tablet's unique selling points, says Zync director Ashish Garg, is that it runs Android 4.0 (a feat that only one in 10 phones have managed so far), has 3G connectivity — in addition to Wi Fi — via a Sim card, and a 4200 mAh battery that can last through five hours of video or 10 hours of regular use. There is a 2 megapixel camera and a secondary 0.3 megapixel one. It runs on a 1.5 GHz single-core ARM Cortex A8 processor but on first impression didn't seem to be quick. Thankfully, it does have capacitive touch screen with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. It has an onboard storage of 8 GB and runs on 512 MB RAM. There is an expandable card option.(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 23-07-2012)
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Paper Everybody's talking about a free app called Paper. It gives you, well... paper! But it's slick and smooth and uses a touch of pinch and zoom to open and close your files, which here are called whatever you want to call them, but they're about 10 pages each. You get, with this paper, a set of six tools. But here's the catch: these are not free. Except one rather lovely thick-and-thin drawing pen and an eraser. Oh, and a handful of colours. The remaining tools, all pen-like, are for sketching finely, drawing thick and quick diagrams, colouring in nice cloudy splotches, and making outlines. Each of these tools costs $1.99, which is not only expensive but unfair. Surely it would be better to be an upfront paid app, and not get users to pay for each separate tool. But, that said, you can get away with the free tool and, say, one more and do very well.In Paper, you can create very quick sketches and line drawings that look very good and you can jot down ideas to share with others via email, Facebook, Twitter, or post to your Tumblr. This means each page will go out as a single image — not as a collection of pages or a file. You can make charts in a casual freehand way and use the image in your presentations. Paper is one of those apps that has to be used for its appeal to be understood. It's best thought of as being really tablety and slick. But it could have had more choices for what it costs after you buy all the tools. Should you be interested, this app is for the iPad and is not to be confused with another app by the same name but not by the same developer, 53. The other Paper is just a whiteboard. SnapguideThere's another social network in the making. And this one is useful. For now, it's a free app for the iPhone, though it looks just fine on the iPad. Think of Snapguide as the Instagram of how-tos. The app is a nice and easy platform to create guides on anything at all, on the go. You can take pictures or videos, write out simple steps and you can have a guide ready to go up on the network within minutes. Just as with Instagram, you can follow people. And everything else that people can think of, from origami to five ways to tie a scarf. It's very new on the block and so there aren't a huge number of guides yet. It'll be interesting to see if this idea gains traction with businesses or becomes as addictive as Pinterest and Instagram. Anti-Spam SMS ProAn Android phone app blocks all those annoying unsolicited messages trying to sell you real estate on Sunday afternoons, and all other afternoons for that matter, flouting Trai rules and getting past your provider's DND filters. It doesn't stop calls, but allows you to put numbers in a blacklist to block them. There are also some bulk actions you can take such as blocking messages from all numbers not in your contact list. Too bad if a spammer uses multiple numbers. You can select numbers from among your contacts and call logs to blacklist. Also, you can enter a bunch of keywords to block. ‘Apartments' could take care of a lot of your nuisance messages. One tap can turn the app's functioning off in case you do want to receive all SMSs.mala(at)pobox(dot)com, (at)malabhargava on Twitter (This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 11-06-2012)
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Standing on a stage, talking nineteen to the dozen, is a young man. A few paces away is his audience: rapt, amused, amazed and completely in his power. Every so often he elicits a fit of giggles from those listening to him. Also spontaneous and delighted applause…The young man is Karan Singh and he is a magician, illusionist, hypnotist, artist and mind-reader. He has to give his audience a "shocking" experience they won't forget in a hurry. And it has to be a fresh set of tricks each time, for no performer can afford to let his act go stale. Karan can tell you what card you're holding just by looking at you. But he has to build new stories and activities around his amazing skill of being able to look inside your head. So he's constantly scanning the world around him for anything to stimulate a new idea. It could come upon him during a coffee break, while standing in a queue, or talking with friends. But he's ready for these ideas and doesn't let them pass him by. He captures every passing idea in the cross-platform, note-taking app, Evernote. It's downloadable on your computer, tablet, phone and even an iPod. In fact, a user needs to put Evernote on all the devices to have that central place in which to put everything. It's there on all operating systems, making it one of the most available and accessible apps out there. Whatever you do also synchronises across your Evernote apps, making it possible to pick up where you left off on any of your devices. Evernote has been around since 2008, but it's an interesting example of a product that is constantly trying to develop, adapt or morph to keep pace with changing needs in a mobile world. A few days ago, Evernote overhauled its Android version, becoming infinitely more attractive and friendly and ready to use at a tap. Last month, Evernote also went and acquired Penultimate, a popular handwriting app, along with its maker. And just before that, there was the acquisition of Skitch, adding animation, shapes and sketch capabilities. Evernote is always on the lookout for a nice new app to buy, which is how it came to be a suite of apps rather than a single uni-functional thing. Evernote borders on the complex precisely because there are so many things you can do "in" it. It's not always intuitive, but those who've got past the initial figuring out refuse to use anything else. THE INTEGRATION OF MANY FUNCTIONS ON A ROBUST PLATFORM MAKES 30 MILLION USERS HAPPILY DEPENDENT ON EVERNOTE Apart from just typing in notes, you can sketch, take or import photos, put in audio notes, jot down ideas, recognise text from captured images and clip things from webpages — or the whole web page. The Web Clipper, for which you can put a bookmarklet on your browser on the PC, makes collecting research in one "notebook" easy. You can put in anything you don't want to lose track of and you can search for it when you want to call it up. Abhishek Baxi, a fellow tech journalist and ardent Evernote user (on PC and Windows Phone, which he thinks is the best platform for the app) put it to use to ensure his wedding went off like clockwork. "It was a small, but crucial tool that ensured my wedding went off smoothly; with happy relatives and cherished memories," he says. Abhishek, who uses Evernote for work, began to use it for his wedding plans the moment the date was set. It was then that the pressure of organising everything suddenly came to the fore. "That was when I created a separate ‘wedding' notebook in my Evernote account," he says. "Following tradition, while my mum was having the final word, I was the person organising everything from bookings, invitee lists, wedding attire, family giveaways, caterers and even the finances." He even shared a notebook with a friend who was helping him with wedding-related shopping. Collaboration with others is another important aspect of Evernote because you can share, comment and add to content. The add-on apps bring in new capabilities to the ecosystem. For instance, Evernote Hello (unfortunately only on the iPhone) lets you take a picture of a person you meet, add contact information, and then jot down notes. This way, you can keep information on every meeting if you want to. All of what you do in Evernote is tied into an account that you sign up for. There's a free and premium version ($45 a year), depending on amount of space and usage. The free version has limited access to files offline — remember this is a cloud-based service. Taken individually, you'll find the functionalities in this app available elsewhere too. There are thousands of full-featured note-taking apps that include text, writing, pictures, audio memos and more. There are also people widgets and scrapbooking apps. It's the integration of everything together on a robust platform that makes its almost 30 million users happily dependent on it. Evernote recently announced a $70-million Series D investment led by Meritech Capital and CBC Capital, meant to be used to expand the company with acquisitions. Their footprint is increasing, extending from China to the US. Evernote is fairly active in India and Troy Malone, general manager, Asia-Pacific, at Evernote, visits India often, especially to meet developers to create localised or otherwise innovative features and apps for the product.(The author can be reached at mala(at)pobox(dot)com, (at)malabhargava on Twitter) (This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 04-06-2012)
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With our mobile devices in hand, we're always, always online. And that pretty much means reading material flies at us from all directions. If we were to stop and read everything we wanted to, we'd get nothing else done. And that's why we have reading apps.Reading apps do three things: They let you save things to read whenever, including offline; they let you read in comfort by parsing content to get rid of other clutter on a web page and making other changes to the way text looks; and they let you email or share content with the world.As with everything, there is more than one application that handles your reading. But three of them are really battling it out for your attention right now: Instapaper, Pocket (ex Read It Later) and Readability. There are others, like Spool and Longform, but they're still to become real alternatives to the big three. READABILITY Zaps clutter and saves web articles for an easy read For a while there, Instapaper for iOS and on the web through your PC, was the clear winner among the three apps. In some ways, it still is, because it's the one that is most supported by other apps. Look at the sharing options on any other content-related app and you'll find there's an inevitable option to send to Instapaper. Getting your reading material into Instapaper is in fact one of the easiest things about it. If you're on the PC or laptop, just log in to your Instapaper account and put the bookmarklet on the browser. Then, click to send anything to the app for reading later. In fact, if you copy a URL to the clipboard on your iPhone, iPod or iPad and then open the app, you will be given the option of adding that URL to your list.Instapaper is a much-loved app with many loyal users who also support the equally-liked creator, Marco Arment, by paying $4.99. A recent update to the app has brought better formatting, more fonts and animated page flipping among others. There are some options for additional features such as text search. This month, Instapaper arrived in Android, licensed but not created by the same developer. POCKET Manage a reading list of articles from the Internet Pocket does much of what Instapaper does. Both — or rather, all three —will let you set brightness from within the app, change fonts, modify text alignment, change from dark to light or use sepia for better reading comfort, and most importantly, change text size for easier reading. But Pocket is more charismatic, and has a more gesture-based and much prettier home screen. And yes, these things do matter. Pocket organises articles in tiles so that they feel magazine-like and you tap to get into full reading mode. People have always felt Pocket looks better. The app also lets you tag articles and search for them. What Instapaper has over Pocket is much wider support from other apps so that there's never any doubt you can save something to Instapaper. Pocket, on the other hand, also saves other content forms such as videos and so is quite a good bookmarking option. On top of that, Pocket is free and is available on multiple platforms. Readability, also free, is the other app that has been around for a long time and was seen on computers before mobile devices became so popular. INSTAPAPER Save long web pages for later offline reading Many think of it as a network rather than a standalone app, syncing across devices. Readability had one of the first few mainstream uses of the Bookmarklet — a little button you can drag and drop on to your browser and use for instant access to a site or feature. Readability would, with a click, reformat your web page for a customised reading experience, including turning the background a soothing grey-black and the text white for reading without much glare from the screen. Sending to Readability isn't as commonly found in other apps as are the first two apps, but on the other hand, Readability has tie-ups with many apps and is automatically available with them. If you're a user of Tweetbot on the iPad or iPhone, you can set the Twitter app to go to Readability for all links that you click. This makes for quicker reading via Twitter, which can otherwise be a time-consuming activity because of the poor signal to noise ratio there. Also, try the amazing browser, Maven, on iOS, and see how a little Reader button converts the webpage to Readability format for easier reading. Both Pocket and Readability are beginning to catch up with Instapaper in popularity and support from other apps. Ultimately, which one you prefer depends on what's most important in your reading experience. For some, it may be the way a page is parsed, for others, a particular font or how the app syncs with other devices or how quickly it works. Many people who consume vast quantities of reading material have more than one of these apps, choosing whichever they feel like on whichever device they happen to be using for reading whenever.(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 09-07-2012)
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