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.