Category Archives: Tech

Must-Have Android Apps #1

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I come across so many good Android apps now and then that I would love to share, so I thought I’d make random blog posts here every often to share them. Here’s the first one.

#1. Lookmobile

Lookmobile

If you’ve left your phone behind, and would like to access any new SMS, call logs, as well as contacts, this is the app that you absolutely must have! Remember Texty for Chrome? Think of this as an enhanced version that works across all browsers. Some would have privacy issues using this, but well, guess it isn’t for you then. (The website does store all your contacts and SMS for only the current session, and is then erased.)

 

[Market link]

#2. TripAdvisor

A fantastic app for travelers. Gives you information on hotels, restaurants, as well as photos and other details about almost any place you’d like.

goobe

TripAdvisor

[Market link]

 

My search for Navi Mumbai, India

Why I Want A Tablet

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image

I’ve been using an Android phone from the past 4 months now. I like it for the most part. My main activities mostly revolve around texting, calls, and using the Internet. The 3.6″ screen is pretty nice for surfing, BUT, it doesn’t do a good enough job of reading articles and ebooks. That’s where I feel a tablet would be handy.

Sure, you’d argue that carrying a tablet and a phone would be quite troublesome. For most people that would be true. For me, nope. Six days a week I carry my backpack with me. I have an immense need for it. Adding an additional tablet to it would just about me perfect for me. I could catch up on a book or read the news while travelling, and I travel a lot.

What made me realise that a tablet is much better than a phone at reading books and news was the iPad. Actually, the Pulse newsreader application. It’s magnificent. Having the iPad in your hand and reading the Huffington Post makes you feel like you have the hard copy of the Post in your hands, and THAT is simply orgasmic.

I’ve been driven towards an iPad, but cost is obviously one thing that isn’t going to let me have it. I’ve come to terms with that. The iPad isn’t for me. But I’m not going to give up on reading the Huffington Post on a tablet idea. After all, Android tablets are just around the corner (forget the Tab. Samsung and I have a mutual allergy to each other). The supposed Motorola tablet should be a beauty. It probably won’t be very cheap, I get that. So even though a Tablet isn’t for me now, two years down the line, my prediction is that every book and news lover will have a Tablet in his hand, and the costs shall obviously be driven down, THAT’S when a Tablet will be mine. Why settle for a closed book reader (Nook anyone?) when you can have the openness of Android on your tablet.

P.S. – This happens to be my first post from the WordPress app for Android. Mobile blogging at last.

Buy an “Apple iPod Shuffle” for just Rs.180

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No, the title isn’t misleading or wrong. Thanks to the Chinese, it now takes only 180 bucks to be the proud owner of an “Apple” iPod Shuffle. But that isn’t the best part. Get this, you can add your own memory card to it!

Cheap iPod ShuffleWhen I visited Chennai recently (more on that later), @the100rabh and @daaku showed me an mp3 player that they said they bought for just Rs.180! This little Chinese bastard of an iPod Shuffle and Chinese preeminence comes with a pair of earphones and a microUSB cable (for charging purposes) too. Plug in your micro memory card and you’re good to go. You can even use your own 3.5mm headphones.

The sound quality really isn’t that bad if you’re only going to listen to Hindi music, Pop and Hip-Hop genres. Just don’t expect your Metal songs to sound good because this iPod can crank up the treble to insane levels.

Available at Saravana Selvarathnam Textiles, T.Nagar, Chennai. In Red, Black, Silver, and Purple(!!) colours.

The Real Story Behind sk1d.com

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As you all know, @hnprashanth and myself recently launched sk1d.com, a “personal” URL shortening service. What most of you do not know is the real story behind sk1d.com.

As URL shortening got more and more competitive after the explosion of micro-blogging service Twitter, we depended more on more on Tr.im, one of the leading URL shorteners that also offered statistics. Early Monday morning though, Tr.im closed down service. This was all fine and dandy. There are other services like 3.ly, u.nu, and bit.ly (with statistics). The only problem was, Prashanth was using Tr.im as sort of a URL shortener + bookmark service to keep tab of links he shared and liked, in spite of me repeatedly telling him not to. With Tr.im closed down, his collection of links is, well, dead. Lesson learnt.

After all the taunts and teasing, he was looking for a new bookmark service. Delicious was my obvious first suggestion, followed by a tongue-in-cheek comment about setting up a URL shortener on our server. But, he actually took it up as a suggestion and in a few minutes (~10 minutes to be precise), with the help of urlShort (open source URL shortener), I created sk1d.com.

skid_logo

Sk1d.com wasn’t even supposed to be launched to the public. It was sort of supposed to be our little repository of links. I was supposed to password-protect the site too, but one little tweet and to our surprise, people actually started using the service (and liking it too).

We pretty much realise that the service will mostly be used by our friends, but that’s fine with us. Sk1d.com wasn’t even intended for public release, let alone financial gains or traffic. It also means that without the burden on the server, sk1d.com will probably by all means, live longer.

Wanna Try It?

[How To] Batch Convert PNG to JPEG Using Photoshop CS2

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photoshop_sgsLately I’ve been finding myself manually converting PNG files to JPEGs. It can get quite tedious and frankly, boring. I downloaded a couple of apps that could automate the process, but each of them had their quirks. They would either watermark the finished image or limit me to trying them out for a finite number of days. I had to resort to manually editing them using MS Paint, and then saving them as JPEG files. The quality was bad, all thanks to the disastrous MS Paint. So I set out to find a way to convert them using Photoshop. What I ended up was writing my own Action for Photoshop CS2. Continue reading →

We Live in a Synchronized World

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We live in a synchronized world. Yes, we do. A sync here, a sync there, is just what we all need to be completely organized.

sync I’m writing this post after I just synchronized Notes, Contacts, Calendar entries, and To-Do lists between my iPod, n70, Outlook 2007, and Google Calendar. Like, I added an entry to Google Calendar, and it was synchronized to the Outlook and n70 calendars (having a little problem syncing the calendar with the iPod; will sort it out though). Pretty neat, eh? More on how to soon. (It’s going to be a long post. Maybe here. Maybe on the Harmless Geek. Dunno.)

So why sync?

To begin with, why not? Having all your stuff where ever you are is something very convenient, isn’t it? I use my Nokia n70’s calendar a lot. I don’t usually forget birthdays of dear ones mostly because my device reminds me the night before, and on the day itself. Now I can get an SMS reminder as well, besides being able to see it every time I check my mail.

I also jot down a lot of notes – stuff that I need to download or just something that I need to find out more about. Usually, these get lost somewhere amongst the other hundred odd notes. Hence, the need to sync between my computer. Outlook displays the note in a small window when you open it. You can then make it stay “always on top” using the nvidia desktop manager, and BAAM! – you have a sticky!

There are lots of other reasons, but those were (some) of the main reasons as to why sync between devices. Ergo, if you haven’t synced yet – SYNC, SYNC, SYNC damn it! ‘Cause it’s your birth right, you hear?

This also happens to be my first post from Windows Live Writer. It’s pretty nice so far. Saves me a lot of bandwidth and also those annoying ‘post revision’ saves WordPress does.

(P.S. – did you notice how I connect everything together to make everything better? Like using the nvidia manager to create sticky notes. Makes life simpler, without having to install BS software. Yes, yes. I do love myself very much. ;-) )

EDIT: Ended up fcuking up the post a little. I’m learning. :-)