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The Consumer Electronics Show features the works and innovations of the biggest, brightest and most beautiful brains. This year, like every other, the CES showcased the very best of the products which will be launched this year. To rank the products would be a crime against the hardworking people who get the tech to work. Hence, below is a very small list of products among a horde of prize winners:

Faraday Future’s Zero 1 concept car

Faraday Future is the only rival to Tesla’s lightning strikes in field of automobiles. FF Zero 1, the new concept car model at CES 2016, stole the spotlight for a few hours on the first day. The car has futuristic and fantasy design standards, even for today’s existing super car. The closest I have come to a potential description is that, it’s a somewhere between a Batmobile and a Porsche. Being an electric car, the car is supposed to have a 1000hp engine. Let’s just wait and see when this concept turns into reality.

Image Credits: www.popsico.com
Image Credits: www.popsico.com

 

Virtual Reality, not just a Virtual Concept anymore

‘Oculus Rift’ the much awaited VR display headset is now available on pre-order. Virtual Reality is going to take gaming to the next level. VR gives the ability to literally ‘move worlds’. Well, fictional, virtual ones. Oculus Rift is not the only device that made the news in VR category. Samsung came up with a concept ‘Rink’ which is a series of palm controllers, giving hands and fingers in the virtual realm. Also, ‘Vive’, HTC’s virtual reality headset launched last year which has a feature that lets the user walk around in the real room the user is in while being in the virtual world, got a new feature called Chaperone which will cover the real stuff in your room. This view will pop up when the user is too close to the bed or the wall.

LG showcased some display sheets this year with not just great resolution but ones which could be rolled like a sheet of paper.

Image Credits: www.cnet3.cbsistatic.com
Image Credits: www.cnet3.cbsistatic.com

 

Took care of the ladies, too!

Apparently, phones and watches aren’t the only ones that are getting smart. OMsignal, a San Francisco based company has come out with smart bras. They think that women don’t need to wear a smart watch to know their vitals; their everyday clothing can do the same work.

Image Credits: www.techinsider.io
Image Credits: www.techinsider.io

 

Drones, drones, everywhere!

This year drones ruled over the skies at CES 2016. There were over a 100 drones with different designs and features. There was even a passenger carrying drone. Could this lead us to flying cars? We can only wait.

 

Image Credits: www.turner.com
Image Credits: www.turner.com

 

Featured Image Credits: www.gannett-cdm.com

Every New Year our expectations from technology grow more with the question “What’s next?” in our heads. The existing tech, however innovative seems stagnated fueling our desires for a newer generation which is usually termed as “need of today” by the marketing folks and advertising people. Whatever may direct the course of development; there are some moments throughout the year which stun the wits out of people into realizing the epitome of innovation achieved by the technology sector. Some of those spectacular moments expected to put a trance in consumer’s heads in 2016 are:

1.) IoT(Internet-of-Things)

IoT
Image source: http://dataxoom.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/IoT-Featured-image.jpg

Internet and things are among the most common words in English language. Two hyphens and attaching an ‘of’ in the middle of the two words gives rise to a completely new and upcoming field of technology. So what exactly is it?

You may not noticed the most recent ad from Philips where ranbir kapoor impresses shruti hassan by changing the color of his house lighting via his mobile app. Seems so fancy and unnecessary. Now imagine that control over your washing machine, microwave, TV, fridge and every other electronic device or appliance in your home with your personalized mobile app. And by control, I don’t mean changing colour of the appliances. That connectivity between your devices creating their own network is Internet of Things (IoT).

2016 will see major tech conglomerates focusing on convergence of their devices and working towards IoT to bring customers with one device, to well, “rule them all”.

2.) Apple watch and iPhone

Apple Watch
Image source: http://www.apple.com/in/watch

Building up to one of the strongest brands, Apple devices have become among the most anticipated products of any year. 2016 will not see any break in that trend as Apple will be releasing two of its major products: Apple Watch 2.0 and iPhone 7. While Apple Watch 2.0 will be more an upgrade over this year’s newly released Apple Watch, iPhone is expected to bring about some new and exciting features. Rumored to be equipped with fingerprint sensor on screen, wireless charging capabilities, multiple camera and USB-C port instead of power or headphone jacks it is anticipated to be one of ‘THE’ devices of 2016.

3.) Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality
Image source: http://aerometrex.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/AR_aero3dpro-1024×664.jpg

“Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality”.

                                                                                                -Nikos Kazantzakis

Philosophy surrounding Augmented Reality (AR) is very much similar to what Kazantzakis said. AR deals with manipulating perception of the environment surrounding us. It merely supplements the actual reality with computer generated elements such as sound, video graphics by overlaying physical entities with virtual ones. Pokémon Go, the trailer of which created a lot of buzz in 2015, is based on AR. Many companies such Blippar have been working to develop AR so that a greater value to brand user can be provided along with a rich experience. AR has huge implementations in marketing and advertising as it can be used to provide customer with extra information about the product.

4.) Live Streaming

Live Streaming
Image source: http://www.npr.org/assets/news/2015/03/tonedmeerkat.gif

Live streaming videos for apps garnered a lot of attention in 2015. It was a big step forward as it saved a lot of time by eliminating the need to upload video on a host website later than it was shot. Being one of the fastest growing medium, it will give rise to commentators giving live feedback on events in a similar fashion that YouTube stars rose. As 4G enters our country, the prices of 3G are expected to go down creating room for development and deployment of these apps in multitudes. Currently, Meerkat and Periscope are among the two apps that provide live streaming.

5.) Business Drive-in Apps

This year saw a lot of apps which generate business for other businesses. Crown it and MagicPin are among the top two of such apps. As Indian market is warming up more and more to the e-commerce industry, business drive in apps will thrive more as they’ll get small but numerous investments from local businesses to get more consumers to compete with the e-commerce companies.

6.) Linux in 2016

Linux
Image Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/Tux.svg/512px-Tux.svg.png

There is a lot that is going over in the world of Linux. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc. mentioned that he will not mind moving iTunes to android which is based on Linux. So there is a chance that a lot of Apple apps might be available for Android.

The release of Ubuntu phone last year didn’t make the expected dent in the market share of other mobile OS. So there’s a chance that Linux apart from android will not move into mobiles.

7.) Upcoming Smartphones

LG-G4
Image source: http://s3.amazonaws.com/digitaltrends-uploads-prod/2015/05/LG-G4-off.jpg

Smartphone war will continue with new versions of many existing models from various companies coming out this year. LG G5 will carry the banner after G4, Xiaomi Mi 6 will take charge from Xiaomi’s side, One Plus 3 will again try to kill the flagship while iPhone 7 will try to defend its flagship. Nokia and Microsoft will launch their new warriors as Nokia C1 and Lumia 940 & 940XL which may be their final line of defense. Sony will put their bids on Xperia Z6. Let’s all see how.

 

Feature Image Credits: http://smartphone2016.com

While it may not seem so, technology has considerably increased its grip on our lives this past year. While tech in our day to day lives may not have progressed at a visible rate, the sector made great strides in improving our future.

Here are some of the noteworthy highlights of technology in 2015:

  1. Fruits from Apple

Apple came out with quite a few products this year. Some were newer generations of the existing series while others were completely new. The “fruits” from Apple were:

Apple Watch

If it’s one thing that apple is great at, it’s creating a buzz. And this piece of wearable technology generated quite of it. Beginning with rumours in 2011, the existence of a wearable product in design and development was confirmed by the corporation in 2013. Unveiled last year, the watch then finally rolled out this year. It was mostly received positively by the critics with some criticisms hanging around the straps. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc. stated that the sales transcended their expected sales.

Apple Watch
Image source: http://www.apple.com/in/watch

New MacBook

Latest in the series of MacBook, this new laptop is almost a kilogram light than the previous ones. A persistent battery life of about 9 hours (with web browsing) and an amazing 12 inch retina display aren’t all that cover its exciting features. With a new redesigned keyboard that uses a “butterfly mechanism” resulting in less key travel and a USB-C port it has set a new benchmark for laptop manufacturers around the world.

Image source: http://www.apple.com/in/macbook
Image source: http://www.apple.com/in/macbook

Apple iPad Pro 

The biggest ever iPad from Apple challenging the Microsoft’s Surface devices came out this year. It is the only Apple device to come with a stylus, something that Steve Jobs really hated.

Image source: http://www.apple.com/in/ipad-pro
Image source: http://www.apple.com/in/ipad-pro

 

Along with releasing products, Apple also made some policy changes. The “seeds” from Apple this year were:

Swift goes public

An in-house programming language, Swift was made open source in June this year. This was a very bold public move from a very private organisation.

Ad-blocking on iOS

An update to iOS this year, made it possible to install ad-blocking software on their iPhones and iPad. Though it didn’t affect the sales of such products much, it was still quite shocking to the media and advertising industry.

  1. Peeking into Microsoft

Another giant in the big arena of technology, Microsoft released two major products this year:

Windows 10

Windows operating system has the largest customer base in the world. Every Windows user waits for the new release of Windows and the two year wait of users was rewarded handsomely by the company. After coming out in July this year, Windows 7 and 8 users were thrilled to know that the new update would be free for them. One of its most notable feature was Cortana, a digital voice assistant which was previously on Windows 8.1 as well.

 

Image source: https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/windows/features
Image source: https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/windows/features

Microsoft Surface Book

Not exactly a laptop, the Surface Book is a 2 in 1 device with detachable keyboard. It is built with Magnesium and is quite strong. The design and touch were received positively while lacking USB-C ports was criticised.

Image Source: https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/devices/surface-book
Image Source: https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/devices/surface-book
  1. Searching Google

With Satya Nadella acquiring a top position in Microsoft last year, another Indian, Sundar Pichai climbed the ranks of this great tech company and became the CEO of Google. Although it was a very big news for our subcontinent, it was not all that Google did this year. The major highlight from Google is:

Alphabet

The company went under a complete corporate restructuring and came out as Alphabet. The company currently has more than 26 subsidiaries some of which are Google Inc, Google Capital, Calico. Google Inc still is the umbrella corporation for all its internet related businesses. The reason to undergo this change was stated to make the company cleaner and accountable. abc.xyz is the new web address of the company with a letter explaining everything about Alphabet from Larry Paige.

 

Image source: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/aug/11/google-alphabet-why-change-restructuring-what-it-means#img-1
Image source: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/aug/11/google-alphabet-why-change-restructuring-what-it-means#img-1
  1. Smartphones-The Six Wars

Mobile Phones have evolved from mere calling devices to multipurpose computers offering great power in the palm of our hands. The three major smartphone releases this year battling to be the best were: Google Nexus 6P, Apple iPhone 6S and Samsung S6.

Apple Iphone 6S

The “S” upgrade from Apple is usually an update in hardware, but 6S and 6s plus is much more than that. Apple added 3D touch and 4K video recording giving clarity and resolution of phone recorded video a completely new standard.

 

Image source: http://www.apple.com/in/iphone-6s/
Image source: http://www.apple.com/in/iphone-6s/

Google Nexus 6P

Google finally added the fingerprint sensor that Apple has been boasting of since the release of iPhone 5S. The phone has a great battery life and very good camera – something which Nexus series lacked. It is manufactured by Huawei changing from Motorola which released the last version.

Image source: https://store.google.com/product/nexus_6p
Image source: https://store.google.com/product/nexus_6p

Samsung S6

With 16 megapixel camera that is astonishingly fast and the life untangling wireless charging technology, Samsung has again gained its position as a quality manufacturer of Android phones. The ultra-thin metallic design of the phone shows the talents of design team at Samsung.

Image source: http://www.samsung.com/in/consumer/mobile-devices/smartphones/galaxy-s/SM-G920IZDAINS
Image source: http://www.samsung.com/in/consumer/mobile-devices/smartphones/galaxy-s/SM-G920IZDAINS
  1. Behind the wheels

The automobile industry is one of the subsidiaries of technology being affected by the electronic industry, another child of technology. This year there were two major happenings in the industry that rocked and shocked people around the world:

Tesla’s Autopilot

Tesla released a semi-autonomous autopilot system for its cars this year which makes the car self-steer in some situations and parallel park automatically. Tesla is not the first company to venture into the field but what’s amazing is that this was achieved via a software update sent to its cars. So, basically, tesla gave its car the ability to think, well in minimalistic capacity, overnight.

Image source: http://mashable.com/2015/12/11/tesla-restrict-autopilot-report/#qAbz3E9725q7
Image source: http://mashable.com/2015/12/11/tesla-restrict-autopilot-report/#qAbz3E9725q7

Volkswagen Emission Scam 

One of the biggest scam in technology in 2015 was Volkwagen’s emission scam where it was found that more than 5 lakh vehicles in US had a software to cheat the test for emission standards. The scam tainted the company’s image to a great extent indicated by about 20% drop in share value on first day after unveiling the fact to public. They spent around 7.3 billion dollars to recover the cost of scandal. The CEO, Martin Winterkorn resigned as well.

 

Image Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/cfo/2015/09/23/volkswagen-financially-equipped-to-handle-diesel-emissions-scandal/
Image Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/cfo/2015/09/23/volkswagen-financially-equipped-to-handle-diesel-emissions-scandal/
  1. From the rainforests of Amazon

Amazon Echo

One of the best gadgets of the world, Amazon Echo is a beautiful and stunning concoction from the designers at the large conglomerate. With a very unconventional relationship structure, it is a marriage between Bluetooth speaker and Digital voice assistant, Alexa while they both have affairs with various smart home devices such as Philip’s Hue Light to Samsung’s SmartThings. The device plays very well with other smart home device i.e. it integrates very easily with them. You can sync it with your phone and Alexa will take care of the reading and music. It’s no wonder that that the echo of its praises are being sung all across the world.

Image source: http://www.amazon.com/Amazon-SK705DI-Echo/dp/B00X4WHP5E
Image source: http://www.amazon.com/Amazon-SK705DI-Echo/dp/B00X4WHP5E

Amazon Dash Buttons

When amazon rolled these out, people thought that they were being pranked. And why wouldn’t they, it was the 31st of March. Users thought that it the company was playing an early April fool’s Day trick on them. But it wasn’t so. These are actual products. All one needs to do is configure the button to a specific product and quantity. They are connected with the amazon app. Pressing the button will order the products from Amazon.

Image source: http://wnep.com/2015/03/31/amazons-dash-button-lets-you-press-button-to-order-your-favorite-products/
Image source: http://wnep.com/2015/03/31/amazons-dash-button-lets-you-press-button-to-order-your-favorite-products/
  1. Science and Tech

Reusable Rockets

Blue Origin, a company owned by Jeff Bezos CEO of Amazon made a revolutionary advancement in the field of rocket science by developing a rocket, The New Shepherd, which went 62 miles above Earth and landed back on ground. It’s a very significant achievement as rockets cost millions of dollars and they usually end up at the bottom of an ocean after serving their purpose. This remarkable development will save millions of dollars.

Image source: https://www.blueorigin.com/technology
Image source: https://www.blueorigin.com/technology

Breakthrough Energy Coalition

Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Mukesh Ambani and other high profile figures came together this year to create the above mentioned organisation to take a stand on climate change. The organisations aims to provide assistance to governments with matters of renewable energy such as wind and solar energy. They plan to make contributions in amount of 20 billion dollars to the cause.

Image source: http://en.xinfinance.com/html/Industries/Energy/2015/172388.shtml
Image source: http://en.xinfinance.com/html/Industries/Energy/2015/172388.shtml
  1. People in Tech

The return of Jack Dorsey

Those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. The world of tech saw the return of Steve Jobs to Apple in the previous century and it saw something similar in this one. After almost 7 years Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter returned to Twitter after being pushed out. He officially joined this year in October as the CEO.

Image source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/227111
Image source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/227111

End of Ellen Pao’s War

Ellen Pao is very well known for filing gender discrimination suit against Kleiner Perkins, her former employer in 2012. The result of the lawsuit came out this March which was not in her favour. After being the interim CEO of Reddit in 2013, she had to step down even from that position this year after a user revolt against firing a popular employee of link sharing site.

Image source: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/ellen-pao-loses-big-silicon-valley-sex-bias/story?id=29951020
Image source: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/ellen-pao-loses-big-silicon-valley-sex-bias/story?id=29951020

Feature Image Credits: responseit.ca

 

For the past few months, a large number of apps have come up which offer money in the form of recharge, coupons and even cashbacks when someone uses them. Here is a list of such apps which you can use to save money:

1. mCent

mCent
mCent

This is one of the most magnanimous apps in this category. It offers high rewards for downloading new apps which are listed on the dashboard of the app. The money you get is mentioned along the apps. You can redeem the money in form of recharge on your mobile number or someone else’s number anytime. You can even earn through referrals. People have earned over Rs.500 a day!

2. Ladoo

Ladoo
Ladoo

This is yet another app like mCent but instead of just downloading apps, it offers you money for checking ads and completing the mentioned offers. The app doesn’t require any registration; merely completing the given offers can earn you recharge.

3. Crown It

Crown It
Crown It

This app is based on a very different concept and has garnered a lot of attention in the past few days. This 6 month old app gives you money for uploading pictures of bill from various food outlets where you eat. This is how it works: There are various outlets registered on the app. Minimum order amount and percentage of discount that you can get on the total order amount is mentioned along with the details of the outlet. The discount that you get is in form of “crowns”. Currently the conversion rate is 1 crown= Re.1. These crowns can be spent on recharges or on various vouchers. You can even donate your crowns to charities mentioned in the app. There’s one condition: the photo of the bill has to be uploaded from the location of the restaurant or café.

4. MagicPin

MagicPin
MagicPin

This app is similar to Crown It but puts a social spin on it. The way it works is that in addition to a picture of the bill, you have to upload a selfie with food from the outlet you’re at. The home screen of the app is a group chat like interface where various offers around your locality and selfies of users with food items keep coming. This is what you need to do: go to the venue, order food and click a selfie with the food. Post it on the main screen. Click the picture of the bill and get cash in your MagicPin wallet. The best part about MagicPin is that you can redeem the money earned by cashback on the food you’ve ordered. The discounts on the app are pretty good as well. They also have a WhatsApp number on which you can send your selfie and bill photo to get money or cashback.

5. TaskBucks

TaskBucks
TaskBucks

 This app is similar to Ladoo and mCent, i.e it offers money on downloading other apps. Along with that you can also earn money by completing various offers like surveys, quizzes etc. You can also get paid for visiting certain websites and sharing articles with your friends.

These five only scratch the surface of apps that make you money. There are a lot of similar apps out there offering money in the form of recharges, online shopping coupons or vouchers and many people are using combinations of these apps in such a way that they’re practically earning money off them. Use them wisely and let us know of more such apps!

Kavach Chandra

[email protected]

Flats and hostels are the two most conducive environment for great ideas. Facebook was started in a dorm room, Google was a class project and Apple in a garage. KnoDues is one such app, idea of which was conceived when the founders were sharing a flat in Gurgaon. Keeping track of expenses and who paid for what is something that flatmates face on a regular basis. Include the transactions involved in going out for a movie or eating outside with another bunch of friends and the calculations really get out of hand. When Sahil and Saket (founders) faced such problem they thought of an elegant solution for the problem. And two years later, they gave birth to it in form of an app.

KnoDues is a management app that keeps track of transactions and dues involved when you’re going out with your friends. The app starts with one time login where basic information about the user is asked. Home page has a very simple interface. The dues or receivables are mentioned below the user’s name and then there are two main tabs: My Dues and My Events. At the bottom of the page is a plus sign which launches the app into a screen where details about the expenses are to be filled such as amount paid by the user and the type of expense such as movie, drinks, food etc. There is an option to select the people with whom the user wants to share the expense. Friends are added from the phonebook. The next screen leads to a page where users can decide if they want to share the expense evenly or unevenly (done manually). The main screen then shows the amount user has to get or pay to the friends. If the added people are on the app then they are notified within app else they’re notified by text message sent by the KnoDues server. The app is built on a very clean and efficient algorithm. It houses all the expenses related to one contact under the same tab even if the transactions have occurred on different outings or with different groups.

The second tab, My events, is a feature which is basically for trips or long journeys. User can create a trip with friends and add expenses as they go. At the end of the trip an event summary is created indicating who owes whom and how much. The chat like interface of My Events section makes it very appealing. Users registered on the app can view all the transactions of the Event created anytime making the whole affair transparent as well.

The title bar has a menu where user settings such as notification, recent activity and others are listed. There’s also a feedback option named “Helped Us Improve” where users can send emails via third party apps installed on their phones. The interface is very appealing filled with bright shades of blue and dark colours along the edges.

Within a month, the app has garnered over one thousand users which are still increasing on a daily basis. The app is built with well-defined core functionalities which fulfil the purpose of the app very efficiently. This is one app that can avoid long he-paid-who-paid-when-paid conversations with friends over the awkward topic of money.

Platform: Android

The Good:

1. Navigation around the app is very straightforward making it easy for one to add and keeptrack of expenses incurred when hanging out with friends.

2. Simple and small app, loads smoothly without lags.

3. Even though it’s only available for android, users can still send due reminders via messages to their friends having non-android phones.

The Bad:

1. Not available for platforms other than android.

2. Internet Connectivity is always required so checking on expenses when on trips to remote areas will not be possible.

 

Kavach Chandra

[email protected]

Image credits: knowstartup.com

 

If you’re a kid born in 90s, 5pm to 5.30pm holds a very special significance for you. Whatever calamity might be hitting the world, this half an hour was Pokémon time. This phenomenon wasn’t just exclusive to India, it was worldwide. Superman, Batman and Goku might have ruled the hearts of boys but Pokémon was one show that had something for girls as well. Ash was the one hero with whom every boy identified and Misty was a girl that every girl wanted to be. A Pokémon fan, to do this day, will say that Pikachu is the cutest thing that has ever existed. While many of you might say that the franchise has achieved its peak and should retire, the creators don’t think so. With what’s coming, I’d say they are taking it to a whole new level.

From the whole Pokémon experience of tazos, diamond cards, rectangular cards etc there was always this one thing that lacked. However close they came to making it all real for us, there was still something missing. This new game is another attempt to fill that void and by the looks of it, will do the job.

So, the new game is called Pokémon Go and is for android and iOS platform. The trailer was released a little time back and looks really amazing. By the looks of the trailer, the game is going to be an augmented reality game based in the real world. User will be notified on devices if there’s a Pokémon around. The pokémons will be even visible on the screen. Users can trade, battle and do a lot of other stuff with their pokémons. The game is free but there is going to be an in-house store where users can buy stuff. The trailer shows a large battle with Mewtwo where many people come together to fight the legendary Pokémon, which shows that there are going to be such special events. The game will also come with Pokémon wearable watches.

There’s still a lot to discover but from the looks of it, the game looks awesome. Check out the trailer below:

Image Credits- videogamer.com

Kavach Chandra
[email protected]

 

It has been a month since college reopened, and you’re facing the following problems: 1) You’re trying to mentally calculate how many classes to attend this semester to achieve the minimum criteria for taking the examinations; 2) There are times when you save an important file on your hard disk and the computer gets corrupted. You lose the data along with the hope of ever getting it back; 3) Bunking classes leads not only to short attendance but also to lack of notes. Copying notes is too time-consuming and pictures sent over WhatsApp are of low quality; 4) During the exams, everything distracts you, the phone being the biggest culprit of them all; 5) It’s a beautiful day, you and your friends decide to skip classes and go out but before leaving, you take a look at your wallet and it’s empty.

To tackle all these issues and make your college experience simpler and tech-friendly, QWERTY brings to you the following apps:

1.Timble and Attendance Manager
Screenshot_2015-08-01-14-24-39                                                

Your heart will bless the creators of these apps once you use them. At the end of the semester, you won’t have to stress your brain over recalling whether you attended classes the day your friend had her birthday. Both the apps are equally good and have a user-friendly interface. There’s a walkthrough when the app first launches, so it’ll take no time for you to learn how to use it.
Screenshot_2015-08-01-14-24-48
Platform: Android


2.Google Drive and Dropbox
Screenshot_2015-08-01-14-25-50

Losing data of any kind is very frustrating, especially important projects and assignments. These two apps use cloud technology to not only protect your data from getting lost when your physical hard drives fail, but also to make it easier for you to share it with other people. The apps are very straight-forward and easy to use. If you want to share your files, both the apps let you generate links from which the file can be downloaded. Internet connection is mandatory for upload and download, so the downside is that if the file is large, then it might take a lot of time if your connection isn’t good.

Screenshot_2015-08-01-14-25-40
Platform: Android &iOS

3.CamScanner
Screenshot_2015-08-01-14-25-06

This is one app that will help you save money on photocopies of bundles of notes for just some important pages. The app works in a very simple manner: you click the picture of the page, trim the unnecessary edges, and enhance it through the in-built editor and voila! You’ve got a picture which is as good as a scan of the page. You can also create notebooks to package notes of a particular subject. There is also an option to share the notebooks and scans through third-party apps like Dropbox and Gmail by generating a link or sending as attachments.
Platform: Android &iOS

4.Self Control
Screenshot_2015-08-01-14-24-56

A phone to us during exams is like a moth to a flame. Even a notification for app updates makes us lose track of the topic we’ve been reading for the past two hours. This is one app that’ll help you avoid those moments of temptations and deliver you from the evil distraction of phones. The app lets you make a time table and during the time that you’ve kept for study, it turns all other apps off. There is an option to add apps as exceptions which will run even during study time. You can even set the app to prevent you from using the home page during study hours and put your phone on airplane mode. This is one app that you should definitely put to safeguard yourself from your phone during exams.
Platform: Android

5.Toshl
Screenshot_2015-08-01-14-25-26

Money is one thing that should be handled very carefully in college. Spend recklessly and get lectured by parents; spend too less and get called a miser. Balance is the key and this app will help you maintain that balance. The app lets you add any expenses you make at any time. You can enter the amount, set a tag for similar expenses and add a description to help you remember. You can do this every time to make an expense or set a time for the app to remind you daily to put in your expenses. You can also set a budget basis which could be monthly, weekly or daily. Your expenses get deducted from the budget and the app notifies you when you’re close to exhausting your spending limit. You can also add incomes.
Platform: Android & iOS.

Kavach Chandra
[email protected]

Image Credits: networkindia.com

With the amount of travelling that our PM has done in the past year, I am sure that every politically aware and responsible citizen of our nation who voted for him or didn’t, will agree on the fact that one of the most difficult thing to do is to keep themselves updated with the movements of our beloved Namo. There are even memes on the web saying to bring back our PM first rather than the black money he promised to. Seems like the voice of such “responsible Indians” have reached the ears of our PM and to keep everyone in the nation updated with his plans, the PM launched his app on 17th June.

The interface: It has a very decent and elegant interface. If there’s one thing that our PM exudes, it’s confidence. And the app is very coherent with this quality of his. Blue, the colour of harmony and confidence, has been used very tastefully and intelligently by the designers. The app sends out a strong signal to the user that this is going to be the digital legacy of a great and powerful personality.

 

registration screens

After registration, the home page is a News page which features articles telling the latest activities of our PM. It’s a parallax scroll page. Clicking on article takes the user to a new screen which has a sub menu bar under the main menu bar with options ‘web’, ’smart’, ’picture’, ’social’ and ‘video’. Web has the whole article with all the images, quotes and videos. Under smart tab only the textual part of the article is present. Video and Picture tabs contain all the videos and photos related to the article respectively. Under social tab, all the important quotes are shown which can be shared across various social media channels. Users can also change the size of font they want to view the article in and can also add it to read it later section with options in the main menu bar.

 

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There’s an option in the top right corner below the menu bar where you can switch viewing articles according to most recent ones or most popular ones. The menu bar is itself very plain with only three icons: an arrow icon with which you can view the articles by either ascending or descending order, a magnifying glass which is a search option and three dots which when touched opens a box with an array of options. The menu box has around 15 options such as news, interact with PM, messages from PM, speeches, governance, my profile etc.

 

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Exploring the Menu: The app’s purpose is to connect every other person with a phone to the PM and it is very much conveyed through the options it houses in the menu box. There’s an ‘Interact with PM’ option which opens your inbox with messages from PM. There are ‘write to PM’ and ‘give ideas & suggestions’ tabs alongside the inbox. Among other options there is ‘social buzz’ which opens up the PM’s twitter and Facebook page. ‘Blogs’, ‘Speeches’, ‘Interviews’, ‘Media Coverage’ & ‘Infographics’ are some other options which basically encompass PM’s interaction with Media and the Web. Users can also give their feedback about the app.

The app is built around the idea that every user that registers should not only be able to connect with the PM but can also feel connected to the politics of the nation and be a part of decision making process. So to achieve the latter goal of the app, there’s a ‘To-do Tasks’ options where the user has to view videos or read an e-book or answer a multiple choice question , all related to PM in some or the other way. Points are given on completing every task. The user can view their total points under ‘my profile’ option. Users are awarded with badges as the points increase, signifying that the users are becoming more active and more responsible towards decision making process in this nation, the ultimate goal being to become “true-change maker”. The highest badge present so far in the gallery is of SUPER FAN worth 500 points.

Verdict: A very effective and elegant solution by PM to make every Indian citizen more politically aware and connected with the politics of the nation. Hats-off to the design team of the app.

 

The Good:

1. Simple yet extra ordinary interface.

2. Extremely light app.

3. Serves the purpose it is made for.

4. It has an in-built video player so doesn’t redirects to YouTube or any other video streaming application.

 

The Bad:

1. Doesn’t have an in-built browser so user has to use a third party browser every time they want to see content beyond the app.

2. Uninstalling, reinstalling and registering through same username again and again adds to the total points.

 

Image Credits: www.americanbazaaronline.com

 

Kavach Chandra

[email protected]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, the 25th of April, was just another weekend until the hands of the clock struck 11:40:01. An earthquake of magnitude 7.8 struck about 34km away from Lamjung district of Nepal and shook the earth, literally. The tremors of this quake affected many states of India as well and were felt as far as Delhi-NCR. Here are a few examples of how tech companies are doing their bit to provide relief to those affected by the quake:

1. Google’s Person Finder Tool

An open source web application, this service is fairly old but has caught the eye of South Asians after the recent disaster. This quake has affected Google on a very personal level as they lost one of their executives on Mt. Everest. The first deployment of this service took place after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. It took the team about 72 hours to complete and launch the service. In subsequent disasters faced by the world, the service was live within a day and in many cases, within an hour after the calamity occurred. The service is based on 2011 September attacks survival registry and PPIF (People finder interchange format) data standards.

google_person_new The interface is quite simple and easy to understand. There are two options: “I’m looking for someone” and “I have information about someone.” The first option lets you to find information on the person you want to find. The last page with search results has options to mark records as duplicate and to create a record for missing person. Creating a new record will take you to fill a form where details about the missing person are to be filled. Second option lets you fill a form about someone if you have information about their whereabouts. If you’ve information on anyone or are looking for anyone please visit the link below: http://google.org/personfinder/2015-nepal-earthquake

2. Safety Check feature from Facebook

Facebook launched a very simple Safety Check service in which a notification was sent to the people living in the areas affected by earthquake.

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Clicking on the notification directs you to a page where you can click on “mark safe” button in front of your friend’s and family’s name. This sends out the notification to that person and their friends that they are safe.

nepal earthquake

There is an option which lets you tell your friends that you’re in the affected are clicking on it leads to you to page where you can mark yourself safe.

google person finder

 

3. The Humanitarian OpenStreet Team (HOT) was activated by OpenStreetMap

1280px-Hot_logo_with_text This is a very useful service for figuring out and mapping the area affected in any disaster. Volunteers are provided with HOT kits are asked to survey the area on foot. Their movements are recorded in the GPS enabled kits. Receiving the data from the kits helps to build a very detailed map with the infrastructural information about the paths and roads in the area. This helps the rescue teams in choosing better paths and better strategy for their missions.

Kavach Chandra

[email protected]