Timely - Changing how the world wakes up!!!

The Alarm clock on my phone is the first feature that I use in the morning, despite this mobile phone alarm clocks over the years have been unexciting with the same set of snooze and dismiss buttons that sometimes require a lot of effort to decipher through half open eyes. This changes with Timely a new Alarm clock for your Android phone that drastically improves your waking up experience. Here is why in my opinion Timely is the best alarm clock for your phone or tablet :-

1. Large Snooze Button: Some alarm clocks make it confusing to swipe to the snooze or dismiss button. With Timely you can snooze your alarm without opening your eyes as the snooze button takes over all your screen real estate. [Yes you can sleep more without opening your eyes :)] However, to dismiss your alarm you have to swipe up from the bottom which takes more effort and is more likely to wake you up.


2. Lowers volume once you pick up your phone: This is one of my favorite features on this app which shows the amount of thinking the developers put into this alarm clock. Here is a situation that will help you understand this better  'Your alarm goes off at full volume in the morning and you pick up your phone to dismiss/snooze it, Timely recognizes that you have picked up your phone and instantly reduces the volume of your alarm.' This is a simple but great feature which takes advantage of the sensors that smartphones today are packed with, I wish more apps took advantage of this.


3. Cloud Integration: With everything you do being synced to the cloud in todays world, why would your alarm clock stay behind. You could have timely installed on multiple devices, say on your android phone and tablet so when the alarm goes off at your specified time, it will ring on all your devices and you could dismiss it on the one closest to you and would get dismissed on all of them. Again a simple but great feature.


Apart from these great features Timely is overall a good looking alarm clock that makes waking up a great experience. I would highly recommend getting it on your Android device. 

EDITORIAL: 3 Things you may have missed in the Apple announcement this week

Apple announced 2 new phones earlier this week which was an Apple first. They created 2 new phones from the outgoing iPhone 5 namely the iPhone 5c and 5s to capture different segments of the market. Various blogs have already covered what these phones do so I wont get into that, but here are a few things that you may have missed in the launch announcement :-

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1. iWork for iOS Goes Free with Purchase of a New Device: The announcement may seem small in the grand scheme of things, however, Apple may be laying the ground for a long term strategy with this change. You would have heard that tablets are mainly consumption devices and you cannot get real work done on them. Apple plans to change that with Keynote for iPad, that is designed for a touch screen and may be the best app to create a presentation on the iPad, similarly pages and numbers are targeted at users creating documents and spreadsheets on their iOS devices. I would say its a great strategy that could change how people view their tablets and cause a shift from the current dominant MS office.


2. What you did not C in the iPhone 5c :)

A picture speaks a thousand works so i'll just point you to the one below. Steve jobs would have fired someone or an entire team for doing this :-

These covers are definitely an after thought to counter the highly customizable Moto X.


3. Although Siri does not talk to Google anymore but iOS is definitely going Google :)

You may have noticed that Siri now sounds like a distant cousin to the female voice from Google now and the fact that Siri now gets results for you from Bing. But apart from this more features from iOS 7 are now similar to Android, there are some obvious things like the iOS 7 wallpaper and control center (read notification center) look alike they are also trying to get elements of Google Now. The iPhone launch on Sept 10th also included a slide that showed iOS will now tell you how much time it will take to get to your next meeting, now where have you seen this feature before :)

How to use your Android phone as a scanner

The latest update of Google Drive comes with a great new feature - an inbuilt scanner. Its not like storing a regular photo of the document, the app actually converts the picture of the document into a PDF that is automatically stored to your Google Drive (see example in the screenshot.) The file is also searchable in your drive as the text in your document will also be made searchable.

Follow the steps below to do this on your Android phone.

1. Ensure that you have the latest version of Google Drive on your phone. (You can check on the play store if updates are available)
2. Open Drive and click on the three vertical dots in the right hand corner of your screen.
3. Click on 'Add new.'
4. Choose 'Scan.'
5. The camera will now open and you should click a photo of your document. Please ensure that the document is kept on a flat surface like a table.
6. Once the photo is clicked watch drive convert it into a PDF automatically :)

Congratulations, you just saved money that you would have otherwise spent on buying a scanner :) 

10 min tutorial to get the stock ANDROID look

A lot of readers have asked me how can they get the stock android look (The look that Google created without the customizations added by samsung, htc etc) without rooting their phones. So if your using a non nexus device and want to get the original android look on your phone then follow the steps below:-

Time taken for customizations: 10mins (Approx) 

STAGE ONE - Replacing the Launcher

This will change the primary look and feel of your homescreen as launchers are replaced by most OEMs like Samsung's touchwiz, HTC sense etc.

1. Launcher: Download Nova launcher (I use the free version but you could get the paid one to unlock more features) from the play store.

2. Hit the home button on  your phone it will ask which launcher to use > choose 'Nova Launcher' and choose 'Always.'

3. Next is to change icons to stock android icons, for this go to nova settings > Look and feel > set 'icon theme' to 'stock jelly bean.'

Done, your homescreen should now have the stock android look.

STAGE TWO - Getting the stock android keyboard

Most manufactures also put in a new keyboard along with their launcher. You can now download the default android keyboard that has inbuilt Swype like functionality and a great auto correct.

You can get the Google android keyboard on this link


STAGE THREE - Lock screen

The lock screen on your phone can also be quickly changed to look like the stock android look by installing holo launcher.

If you have completed the steps above then your phone is now much closer to the stock android look. You have the option of reverting back or customizing any time you want .

NOTE: THIS PROCESS WILL NOT VOID YOUR PHONES WARRANTY. 

Flipboard - A beautiful web experience one flip at a time :)

If you're like me and want to read all your news on one device in a beautiful format that looks better than a website, feels better than a magazine and may be the best designed app for a tablet/phone then FLIPBOARD is for you. In simple words it may be the best rss reader or web aggregator for both websites and your social media stream available on both Android and iOS.


If you're already sold then download this app right away on the apple app store or Google Play. If not, then continue reading till your convinced :)

So what value can Flipboard add to your life?

THE WEB CATEGORIZED & AUTO UPDATED 

If you like the web aggregated into sections that interest you (technology, automobiles. news etc) then Flipboard makes it available to you in a beautiful  easy to read and auto updating format which is highly addictive. All you need to do is pick the sections that interest you and rest happens automatically.

ALL YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA IN ONE PLACE

Getting your social media in one place is what many try to do and many more who fail. With Flipboard you get one place and a magazine format for all your social media, you can connect it with Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Give it a try and see all your social media in one place.


WEBSITES OF YOUR CHOICE IN ONE SIMPLE FORMAT

There have been times when i've wished that I could read all my favorite website in a simple format all at one place. Flipboard helps you do that by making various websites available by category, you can choose the one's that you like and they will then appear in your Flipboard stream. This takes away the need to have bookmarks, any other rss reader or your memory :-)

So what are you waiting for, give Flipboard a try now and see the web under a whole new lens.

Review: IBN Live for Android tablets

The 10inch Motorola Xoom is my primary tablet and i've spent years looking for the ideal news app from an Indian media house to use on a regular basis. My search ended with the +IBNLive  app for Android tablets which is by far the best news reading app for Indian content. The UI is built for Android tablets unlike other apps which are designed for a smaller phone screen. Its slick and easy to use with quick navigation. The picture below gives you a view of the home screen of this app.

As you can see the news is divided into neat sections for top stories, politics, cricket etc. The beauty of the app is that you either scroll through the stories within these headers via simple left and right gestures or you click on any section to expand and read all stories in that spread through that page. The app is overall slick and easy to easy and very intuitive.

There is an also an alternative way to see different sections and accessing those stories directly by clicking on the menu button in the top left hand corner. That will bring up the view that you can see in the screenshot below. This brings up a pane that has the stories divided by headers and also a way to see live scores, you can also access the twitter stream of @IBNlive directly from here.

You can also use the app to access the live TV stream for IBN live. But I personally prefer to reading updates in the app vs watching live TV.

The App has dedicated sections for review of Tamil, Telgu and Kanadda cinema. I would have liked a Bollywood section too that would appeal to a larger audience.

While this app looks great on my 10 inch tablet but usability and look and feel drastically fall when I open it on a 7 inch nexus 7. I hope IBN can optimize the app for different screen sizes.

Other than this I did not find any faults on this app and use this every day on my 10inch tablet.

+NDTV also has an android tablet app which is similar to its ipad app but nowhere as slick and quick as this app. Performance of the NDTV android app is also much slower compared to its ipad version. But more on this in a different review :)

Given the large number of low cost Android tablets in India and increased adoption, i'm surprised that large brands like +The Times of India  and +Hindustan Times do not have android tablet specific apps, while both have excellent iPad apps.

Getting the most out of your smartphone camera

In todays smartphone wars there is a better camera phone coming out on a monthly basis. We are continuously hearing about phones with more megapixels, better lenses and deeper colors. However, you can get brilliant pictures out of your current camera phone too by following the golden rule of 'Manual Settings.' In times where DSLR cameras are replacing digicams and everyone is a budding photographer the one camera that is being ignored is the one always in your pocket, by applying a 10th of your knowledge of manual setting you can get brilliant images on your phone. However, the scope of this article is Android camera settings as the iphone does not let you configure manual settings, while the iphone can get great picture quality most of the times with the auto configured camera but with these manual settings on Android you will be surprised byhow AWESOME your 5 megapixel camera can be :)         

Clicked on my Galaxy Nexus 

The settings below are as reflected on the SAMSUNG GALAXY NEXUS running on Android 4.01 Jelly Bean, the setting may wary on other Android Phones. 


1. WHITE BALANCE
This is one setting that can completely change the tone and colors of your photograph. By default it is set at AUTO which is the  phone’s best judgment to take the photo. The flash will go off depending on the situation, the shutter might go faster or slower, and the sensitivity of the sensor might change. Most users never change this setting and this is the biggest reason why the quality of your photos drops.

Below, is an explanation of the various modes available under White Balance and how to use them :-

a) INCANDESCENT: This is the mode that you should be using when your indoors and the dominant light in the room is yellow light being emitted by light bulbs. Switching to this mode will help your phone camera accordingly adjust to the surroundings for more natural colors.

b) DAYLIGHT: The name here is self explanatory, this mode works best when your clicking pictures outdoors in the day. The camera captures the most natural outdoor colors in this mode, you can get really good shots using this.

c) FLUORESCENT: We spoke about yellow light from bulbs in the first mode above. This mode is for a setting which has more white light, the kind that is emitted from tube lights or CFLs. Changing your camera to this mode will help it adapt to its white light surroundings and capture shots that make most of the white light.

d) CLOUDY: Rainy, dark cloudy days have a charm of their own, you can capture beautiful shots by switching your phone camera to this mode, it also works best for most evening shots just before the sun sets.


2. EXPOSURE

This is a setting that most new DSLR users love to play with, it helps you control the amount of light that falls on your camera lens accordingly making your picture brighter on darker. This setting is more complex and advanced on DSLRs but on your phone you can change it in one click. You can increase or decrease the exposure by upto 3 levels on your jelly bean phone. This setting is very useful for shots with low light where you do not want to use flash but want a more natural click, just increase the exposure to the amount that works best for your shot and capture the perfect non flash shot :-) 



3. SCENE MODE 

This setting helps your camera determine what surroundings are you in, it could be a party or enjoying a sunset at the beach. Just let your camera know where you are and it accordingly adapts.

a) AUTO: Most people leave this setting unchanged on their phones and it works fine as your phone automatically adapts to your surroundings, but just like manual setting do the magic in DSLR changing this setting can dramatically improve your shots.

Clicked on my Galaxy Nexus

b) ACTION: This mode is useful when you are clicking pictures of moving objects. It may be a running child, moving car or a football game. Changing your camera to this mode will help it understand that your trying to capture a moving object.

c) NIGHT: Again self explanatory, the GALAXY NEXUS has a camera optimized for low light photography and changing to this mode will give you really nice night shots.

d SUNSET: This is the mode to be in while strolling along a beach after a long day at work, it helps captures the last strokes of light as the sun sets far into the ocean .

e) PARTY: This mode is optimized for parties with a lot of disco lights throwing colors all around. Try it in your next night out :)

NOTE: 'SCENE MODE' AND 'WHITE BALANCE' CANNOT BE USED IN COMBINATION, CHANGING ONE WILL BLOCK YOU FROM CHANGING THE OTHER, USE AS PER YOUR JUDGEMENT AND LIGHT CONDITIONS. 

Lastly use flash wisely. Personally I hate pictures with flash and avoid using it whenever possible. With the manual settings explained above you can get beautiful shots without flash.