All posts by Utkarsh

Solution designer with Firstsource solutions. A post grad in Networks and IT Infrastructure. Technology enthusiast, blogger, webdesigner, Network security aspirant and in love with electronics and gadgets. This blog is an attempt to share what I find interesting... almost anything @Mtaram on twitter and
Apps

Top apps for iPad 2 – picked by Wired

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Which of the 65,000 iPad apps should you download? From utilities to games, here’s Wired.com’s quick list of must-haves for your brand-new iPad 2.

 

Dropbox

 

Dropbox

We rave about Dropbox all the time at Wired.com. That’s because it’s an indispensable addition to the iPad. It is an online storage service that works on an iPad, iPhone, Android phone, or any Windows or Mac PC. Your Dropbox folder is where you put all the files you want to access with any device, and the service automatically syncs so they’re available to you everywhere.

Say, for example, that you’re a student with a Mac and you want to read research papers on any of your devices. On your Mac, drop some PDFs in your Dropbox folder, then on the iPad launch the Dropbox app and you can read those PDFs on the tablet while you’re on the bus. You could also launch the PDFs with the Dropbox app on an Android smartphone or iPhone.

Besides PDFs, you can put video, pictures and music in your Dropbox, too. You have to have this app: It’ll save you a ton of time that you’d otherwise waste syncing to iTunes over USB.

Free, download link.

 

Air Video

 

Air Video

Let’s say you’ve got a lot of video files on your PC that aren’t iTunes-compatible, or were acquired through (ahem) less than legal means. With AirVideo, you can quickly set up a server on your PC and choose a folder that you want to share with your iPad.

Then hop on your iPad and launch AirVideo, and you can instantly stream most videos inside that folder. AirVideo will even live-convert videos while you’re watching, so it’s all an instant, seamless experience.

$3, download link.

 

Friendly

 

Friendly

There isn’t an official Facebook app made just for the iPad. Until Facebook comes up with something better, Friendly is basically the best option.

It’s polished and its looks resemble Facebook’s own style, so you’ll feel right at home. After you log in with your Facebook ID, you’ll be wasting time stalking your Facebook buddies in no time.

Free, download link.

 

GarageBand

 

GarageBand

Made by Apple, the GarageBand app is simply stunning. The app packs a virtual piano, guitar, bass guitar and drum set to record songs.

Especially neat are Apple’s “Smart” instruments, which contain preset chords and rhythms for each instrument, so anything you play can sound good. This way, people of all ages will be able to pick up an iPad and compose some neat tunes.

$5, download link.

 

Infinity Blade

 

Infinity Blade

Originally made for the iPhone, Infinity Blade has been rescaled and beefed up for the iPad. While it works on the first-generation iPad, it’s even better on the iPad 2.

This 3-D sword-fighting game puts the iPad 2’s powerful graphics processor to good use. Swipe your fingers on the touchscreen to attack, parry or dodge. It’s a superfun game that should provide hours of entertainment.

$6, download link

 

Instapaper

 

Instapaper

We’ve featured Instapaper before, but we have to mention it again, because it’s just too crucial. Reading through a web browser can be a chore, with all those distracting ads, ugly sidebars, etc.

Hit Instapaper’s “Read Later” button on your PC web browser to add a page to your reading list. Then on your iPad you can launch the Instapaper app to read everything you’ve saved with just the words and pictures, stripped of all the junk.

It’s great for concentrating, and it might just change the way you read.

$5, download link.

 

Flipboard

 

Flipboard

We can’t get enough of Flipboard, a beautiful social magazine. Fundamentally, it scrapes content from URLs shared on Twitter, Facebook and RSS feeds.

But that doesn’t do justice to the elegant way it lays out the stories for easy browsing. It’s even better on the iPad 2 now because of the performance boost.

Wired.com is an official partner of Flipboard, too, so you’ll notice our site’s content has been optimized for Flipboard.

Free, download link.

 

PenUltimate

 

PenUltimate

If you come up with a great idea, you can quickly jot it down in this note-taking app that acts a a virtual Field Notes notepad. Unlike other note apps, where you have to type, PenUltimate just lets you scribble on the screen with your finger (or a stylus).

We love it because the design and overall feel of the app is just slick.

$2, download link.

 

TuneInRadio

 

TuneInRadio

Listen to all your favorite online radio stations with this app. Plus, you can use this app to set an alarm to play your favorite station in the morning.

As there’s no built-in alarm app on the iPad, this should come handy. Sure, you’ve just turned your iPad into a $500 clock radio, but you can’t pick up the clock radio and read Google News on it, too, can you?

$1, download link.

 

World of Goo

 

World of Goo

This cutesy puzzle game involves stretching black blobs of goo at geometric angles to reach a goal point (a pipe that sucks up the goo). The sharp graphics and clever sound effects are a nice treat for a game that challenges your noggin.

$5, download link.

Facebook

Facebook for Business – enhancing business with social media

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Facebook on Tuesday debuted a step-by-step online guide aimed at helping small businesses use the social networking site. The company is billing the new webpage, found at Facebook.com/business, as an “online education center” that gives directions on such things as how to set up a profile page, create targeted ads and deals, and interact with customer feedback online.

The timing is interesting, as it comes just a week after Google began shutting off all company profiles on its Google+ social network. The search engine giant says it’s just company policy to restrict Google+ access to individual users, a stance that has inspired a good deal of controversy in recent days.

Facebook’s new business webpage does not come along with any new features — it simply puts a lot of information that may be handy for small businesses in one place. Perhaps most importantly, it serves as a nicely timed reminder that unlike Google+, Facebook encourages companies to use its service for company branding.

 

Mobile

Samsung beats iPhone in Android sales

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Samsung Electronics Co, maker of the Galaxy mobile phone, may have surpassed Nokia and Apple Inc in smartphone sales for the first time on demand for devices that run on Android software, a research company said.

Samsung is estimated to have sold between 18 million and 21 million smartphones globally in the April-June quarter, compared with 16.7 million for Nokia and 20.3 million iPhones, Neil Mawston, a London-based analyst at Strategy Analytics, a research company based in Boston, said in an emailed response to questions on July 22. The data exclude tablet-computer sales.

The estimates show Google Inc’s Android is gaining ground on Apple in smartphones as Nokia, which is turning to Microsoft Corp for software support, struggles to keep up with the pace. Samsung, which also produces low-end phones that aren’t capable of downloading applications, has said it aims to more than double sales of high-end devices this year.

Read more here

Android, Apps, Mobile

Angry Birds bonus level for Galaxy S2

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The much-hyped Galaxy S II, which was launched in India about a month ago, is now widely available in the country and is proving to be as popular as it was predicted. Nevertheless, Samsung seems ever so eager to improve on what has been one of the best smartphones made by the company till date. The company is undertaking various media and commercial stunts to popularize the handset in the market. It is gearing up for a space launch of the handset on July 15, therefore it is for sure that Samsung is trying out every method in the book to grab attention. That could be, because one of the major markets for smartphones, North America is still awaiting the launch of the handset. Now, maker of Angry Birds, Rovio is offering an exclusive level for the owners of the Samsung Galaxy S II handsets around the world.

Galaxy S II Owners Get An Exclusive Angry Birds Pignic Level


This level can be accessed with the Angry Birds Pignic update, and will be hidden in the form of a golden egg in the game. When the golden egg is accessed by the user, they will be taken to a different location miles above in space, which is a changed and a never before seen environment. The kamikaze birds will then fight against the pigs in zero gravity. Rovio has uploaded a video demonstrating how to access the level and do a lot more.

Social NW

Zynga $ 1 Billion IPO

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Zynga, the online game developer that made Facebook a safe haven for desk-bound farmers and wannabe Mafia hit men, has decided to cash in on all the fun with an initial public offering filing Friday that expects to raise $1 billion.

Zynga’s S-1 SEC filing begins with a chatty, casual appeal from founder and CEO Mark Pincus: “At Zynga, we feel a personal connection to our games through our friends and family. I love that my brother-in-law, who has five kids and no free time, religiously plays our game Words with Friends.”

But the filing also confirms that it is not all fun and games at the 4-year-old company, which has 2,000 employees and boasts 60 million daily active users. There’s a big differentiator from some other red-hot tech IPOs that have exploded in value on their first day of trading in 2011.

They make money. About $90 million on revenues of nearly $600 million last year.

Zynga hopes to raise as much as $2 billion in a public debut that could value it at as much as $20 billion, “people close to the deal” told the Wall Street Journal. This probably will not be a game of chance for Zynga, what the prevailing “What dot-com bust?” attitude on Wall Street for internet, tech and similar IPOs.

Facebook

Facebook’s awsome launch next week

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Chief Executive and founder Mark Zuckerberg told reporters in a visit to Facebook’s Seattle office on Wednesday that the company planned to “launch something awesome” next week.

He said the project had been developed at the 40-person Seattle office, Facebook’s only major engineering center outside of its Palo Alto, California headquarters.

There has been speculation in technology blogs in recent weeks about various mobile products in development at Facebook, including the release of a long-awaited Facebook app for Apple Inc’s iPad and a specialized app for photo-sharing on the iPhone.

Facebook’s Seattle office has made a mark on the company’s mobile efforts, playing a central role in the development of Facebook’s unified mobile site, unveiled in March.

Technology

Sentinel – security app for women

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MindHelix Technologies LLP, a Kochi based IT company, has launched an app called SENTINEL which is the first app designed with women’s security in mind. The app can send instant alerts in case of any problems. A forced power-off of the phone or an improper exit of the application will trigger an alert to be sent. Prolonged signal loss will also cause a ‘fail safe’ alert SMS and email to be sent from the company’s server.

Sentinel can send multiple SMS and e-mail alerts to preconfigured numbers and e-mail ids. The alerts would include last known location, direction of travel, mode of transportation and vehicle number (which the user can enter). The app has been designed for smart phones including all devices with Android, Blackberry, Symbian, iOS and Java operating systems. The application was designed with the urban woman in mind and requires a continuous cellphone signal.

The free app can be downloaded from http://sentinel.mindhelix.com/

Gadgets

Can a tablet replace Laptop

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If you’re tired of lugging around your laptop and tablet everywhere you go — or admiring your buddy’s new tablet — you may be wondering: Can a tablet PC simply replace your laptop?

The short answer: It depends. There’s no doubt that tablets are lighter and have a longer battery life than most laptops. On the other hand, tablets can tie the hands of power users who need to get more demanding work — like creating content — done on the go.

To figure out what’s right for you, here’s what to consider before you buy a tablet or leave your laptop behind for good.

Mobile

N9 not to be launched in India

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Nokia has a strong base in India and some African nations. Countries such as the U.S. and the U.K. haven’t had a Nokia fan base since some time now (with Android and iOS being the possible culprits). It is not a surprise, because developing nations have always been more receptive to Nokia handsets, mainly because of the strong build quality, and trust with the company. But now, it seems like Nokia has put all of the above countries in its low priority list. The Nokia N9 availability page doesn’t have India, U.S., U.K., or any of the African nations. This news comes as a shocker to many, since Nokia has had a very strong hold in these markets.

The Nokia N9

The absence of countries such as the United States is understandable, because Nokia has no carrier support for its devices yet, and it could take some time till Nokia gets to an agreement with the carriers in the U.S. And as far as India is concerned, the company may follow the strategy it followed while launching the N900, which was made available in the Indian market, a few months after other countries got it.

There is still some confusion over the launch of the Nokia N9. Some reports claim that the device could be launched within a month from now, while others speculate that it could take longer. Either way, excited fans in the country will have to be content with videos and photos till it’s made available. Although it is hoped that Nokia could add a bunch of countries to that list within a few days. But until then it’s disappointment all over. Users can keep an eye on the availability page over at Nokia.

These countries will be getting the phone first: Austria, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Finland, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Malaysia, New Zealand, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, and Vietnam.

Technology

AMD quits benchmark group

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http://mynokiablog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/amd-logo.jpgAdvanced Micro Devices has quit a PC industry consortium, implying the integrity of a widely used benchmark is biased toward Intel chips.

In a blog Wednesday, an AMD executive provided a long explanation about why AMD has quit the BAPCo industry consortium, which develops and distributes the SYSmark benchmark.

“Customers need clear and reliable measurements to understand the expected performance and value of their systems,” Nigel Dessau, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at AMD, said in a statement. “AMD does not believe SM2012 (SYSMark 2012) achieves this objective. Hence AMD cannot endorse or support SM2012 or remain part of the BAPCo consortium.”

Graphics chip supplier Nvidia has also quit the group. The company confirmed to CNET that it has quit but declined to comment further.

AMD’s argument revolves around the lack of emphasis on what is called general-purpose computing on graphics processing units, or GPGPU. This is an evolving computing paradigm that attaches increasing importance to the GPU for accelerating common tasks such as encoding/decoding of video and audio and Web browsing.

Read more @ CNET NEWS