Android Apps: aCar
Aug 12th
Now that Android phone sales are really starting to pick up (about 200,000 every day), Android developers may actually start seeing revenue coming their way from App sales and not just voluntary donations. Since Google still needs to enable paid app downloads/purchases in most of the countries where Android devices are sold, the potential to earn is definitely bigger than the iPhone App market. However, till now it is just a potential.
It is, however, interesting to see the quality of apps in the Android Market increase in-spite of the currently limited earning potential. One such application that I recently came across More >
Gmail Updated for the Better
Aug 11th
Gmail has been, without a doubt, Google’s best product till date. It has just gotten better. Google has just updated the interface to be more natural and easier to use.
To start with, the frequently used links for Mail, Contacts and Tasks have been moved to the top. This is really useful since the hunting for them can now stop. I always found my self hunting for the “Contacts” link in particular every time I wanted to access that area.
Frequently used links moved to the top of the sidebar. The button for "Compose" added. The UI has also been cleaned up More >
Android Apps: FeedR
Jul 31st
FeedR is my current favourite application for dealing with my Google Reader account on my phone. It has a nice clean interface and almost all the features that you could want in a feed reading application. However, I have been looking at some of the reader apps available for iPhone and thinking that there are no really nice usable apps for Android available out there. Feedr comes pretty close but not quite there.
The main FeedR screen. This is synced with your Google Reader account and will reflect the feeds and folders that you may have there. All the folders/feed bundles More >
Android Apps: Google Places
Jul 31st
Google Places recently became available in the Android Market here in India. This is a screen-shot tour of the app. This application would have been infinitely more usable if Google Navigation worked in India. In it’s current form, its not bad. It looks like the venues and locations are pretty up to date and should be useful if I am in an unfamiliar location and need to find an ATM.
The Google Places categories have all the frequently searched for items. It was able to show all the places near my location pretty accurately
The results screen shows you all the basic More >
Android Apps: SwiftKey
Jul 16th
SwiftKey just came into the Android Market with the promise of 50% faster typing speeds.
SwiftKey is one of the on-screen keyboards that just became available for Android devices. It’s released as a time limited beta and the full version is expected soon. SwiftKey is from a company called TouchType and uses their “Fluency” prediction engine which is apparently available in other text entry systems.
SwiftKey is their keyboard for the Android platform and they claim to increase your current typing speed by 50% by predicting the next word that you may want to type. Effectively reducing the number of taps and More >
Review: Kata DR 467i Camera Laptop Backpack
Jul 12th
I had been itching to get my hands on a comfortable backpack that could accommodate my camera with the additional lenses, cables and other stuff that I like to carry on me with my camera, in addition to a standard 14 or 15 inch laptop. I researched on the internet for the right bag for quite some time. I really didn’t want to go overboard with this selection since I don’t plan to increase my camera gear by any substantial amount, but I also didn’t want to be left wanting for space if I did get a couple of extra More >
First Impression: Lenovo G550
Jul 12th
I got my new laptop a few days ago. The Lenovo G550. I bought this laptop after a lot of research. My budget was south of INR 25000. This didn’t give me as many options as you would have with laptops in between INR 30k to 35k. Some of the other laptops that I disqualified were the Samsung R528 (because of service) and the MSI X340 (because of service and no response from the dealer)
This is strictly a budget laptop with very few frills. However, it was a pleasant surprise once I actually got it. Lets cover the basic specifications.
Model More >Long Term Review: Samsung Galaxy Spica i5700 with Android 2.1
Jul 12th
I have been using the Samsung Galaxy Spica since February 2010. Samsung officially upgraded the original Android 1.6 to 2.1 in May 2010, and I have been using 2.1 on my Spica since then. This is a follow-up post to my previous post on the Spica when I first got it.
My Spica is now running 2.1, and I have to say that its not that much of an upgrade. There are still elements of 1.5 that I really liked. The media player was much better in terms of the interface. The Speed of the window manager, Pantheon, is not good in More >
