@Bose #SoundTrue #headphones for everyone as #Diwali #gifts! Yeah, that's how it is to work at @mysmartprice. 😃 (at Mysmartprice Web Technologies Pvt. Ltd.)
As a MySmartPrice Product Manager, Apurve works to manage the product lifecycle of mobile apps.
I am a people person and Iove working with so many different people in the team on a daily basis. The team here is very warm and honest. With such a positive work atmosphere, you yearn to go to work every morning.
What is it like to work in my office, MySmartPrice?
I lead the content team at MySmartPrice and it give me such immense pleasure to work there. Why? Have a look at this video where my colleague, Apurve Gupta, tries to explain some of the reasons.
Update Your Sony Xperia Z1 (C6902 & C6903) To Firmware Version 14.1.G.2.257 Manually
Sony Xperia Z1 is a great phone, at least on paper. But in a rush to release the device to the market ahead of the Apple iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, Sony shipped the Xperia Z1 with less than stellar firmware version. The camera although had a great hardware, took some hit and miss shots sometimes. Also the battery life was not as great as it should have been.
Now Sony has just released a major update to the Xperia Z1 C6903 (LTE) and Xperia Z1 C6902 (Global HSPA+). Although the Android version is retained to v4.2.2 JellyBean but the firmware is said to be build from scratch (just the rumours, can't confirm). There are improvements to the camera, which now takes images with much less noise. There are improvements to display, fonts and battery life as well as some other bug fixes.
If you own an LTE C6903 Xperia Z1 handset, chances are that you are already getting the OTA update. But the owners of Sony Xperia Z1 C6902 (Global HSPA+) still didn't get the OTA update, it could be days before the OTA update starts rolling to your respective countries. Can't wait till then? Here's how to update your Xperia Z1 manually.
Backup your phone contents completely.
Download the Sony Xperia Z1 14.1.G.2.257 Firmware FTF files (C6902 & C6903) from the given links.
Download the Sony Xperia Flash Tool from here.
Paste the Update FTF File that you've downloaded to the folder named as "Firmware“ included in the Xperia FlashTool
Now open the FlashTool and click on "Flash" & choose the downloaded firmware file.
Click OK and turn off the Xperia Z1.
Now the FlashTool shows the pop up window. You can now connect your Xperia Z1 to your PC. Remember to hold the VOLUME DOWN button while connecting phone to PC.
This process takes a few minutes. Make sure that the USB is not disconnected while this operation is going on.
After the flashing process is completed, the FlashTool displays the message to unplug the device and restart.
Voila! Your Sony Xperia Z1 is updated to the latest version (14.1.G.2.257)
Apple iPhone 5S News, Rumour Round Up & Guesstimates
As per the fresh round of rumours, the Apple iPhone 5S and the Apple iPhone 5C will be announced either on September 10th or on October 25th.
Will be under the hood hardware revision of Apple iPhone 5, as we all know. These are my guesstimates complete with inputs from all trusted sources as reported by various websites.
Flash News: Developer Working On Emulator That Can Run Mac OS X Apps On Linux
Are you like Mac OS X apps and have been wanting a Wine like emulator to run your favourite Mac apps on your Linux machine? Your wish has been heard!
ArsTechnica is reporting that a developer named Luboš Doležel is trying to build and emulator for Linux which can run Apple Mac OS X apps. This emulator, "Darling," has been named after Darwin + Linux + Parsing (executable files).
Darwin is an open source operating system from Apple, which sheds light on some of the back end technologies that are used in Mac OS X and iOS.
I just hope to use Mac OS X apps on Linux, such as iMovie, Pages, Evernote and SnapHeal some day in future!
LG G2 Revealed, Officially This Time. LG's Take On Galaxy S4.
Finally, after a bunch of high quality leaks, followed by the official press shot leak from @evleaks, LG has announced their flagship smartphone for 2013; LG G2.
Yes, they are done with the 'Optimus' branding for their Android smartphones. Good Lord!
LG G2 Technical Specifications:
5.2 Inch FHD 1080p Display, 424 PPI, True HD IPS, Corning Gorilla Glass 3, 450 Nits Brightness.
32 GB Internal Storage (24 GB Free For User), No Micro SD Card Slot & Micro SIM Card Slot.
Android 4.2.2 JellyBean, LG Custom UI.
13 MP AF Camera, OIS [Optical Image Stabilisation], HDR, FHD 1080p @ 60 FPS Video Recording, Stereo Sound Recording, 2.1 MP Front Camera [FHD 1080p @ 30 FPS Video]
Dolby Mobile Sound, Stereo FM Radio.
42 Mbps HSDPA, Wi-Fi ac/b/g/n [Dual Band], Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0 A2DP, NFC, IR Blaster, Micro USB 2.0 [MHL], USB Host & USB OTG.
8.9 MM, 143 Grams & 3000 mAh Battery.
The LG G2 is filled up to the brim with insanely fast internals under the hood, take for example, the fastest SoC in a smartphone till now; Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 with Adreno 330 GPU. But it looks like LG did something overly ambitious by shifting the power button and volume rockers at the back of the phone, just under the camera lens. I don't think people will like this idea. I have personally used the Amazon Kindle with button at the back of the device, and I didn't like it at all.
They say that, they have used GRAM (Graphic RAM) which reduces the power usage by 10% when static images are displayed on screen. They have also used high quality stereo speakers and optical image stabilisation. This makes me feel that they have tried to cram in all the useful features of HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4, along with other features as well.
Coming to the software features, it's like a kitchen sink, as TheVerge describes it. VR Panorama is an interesting camera feature, which I still think won't be used regularly by users.
They are advertising the LG G2 as the most user customisable smartphone yet.
List Of Practically Useful Features:
IR Blaster To Use Phone As Remote Control Other Devices.
Change icons for any app to anything you like.
Guest Mode, so that you can lend your phone to other, if they want to use it, or check it out, without disturbing your personal information.
Add 4th Button to navigation bar.
When will it be releasing in India? No specific date as of now, but may be soon. LG looks committed to launch it on the same time in as many countries as possible. It will be priced north of Rs. 40,000, competing HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 and the upcoming, Samsung Galaxy Note 3.
Will I buy it? No, I won’t buy it. Instead, I will wait for Google Nexus 2013, which will, as per reports, be based on LG G2.
Dropbox Can Achieve Better With App Data Sync Service
People have started using devices with various operating systems and changing their devices frequently. They are finding a need to sync private as well as app data to save themselves of losing data that they have saved over months on a device. Also, even if they keep the data on each of their device manually, there is a chance of ambiguous data.
With Dropbox announcing their slight pivot of focus during DBXÂ event, I feel that they might achieve more than what they have achieved until now. Of what I remember, this is their 2nd pivot.
First they focussed on personal data and keeping them safe in the cloud just in case your PC got crashed.
Then Dropbox focussed on images with features like Camera Upload.
Now they announced that app developers can backup AppData in Dropbox rather than iCloud, SkyDrive or any other platform limited cloud service.
Prior to this announcement, I didn’t find a reason why I should keep using Dropbox rather than using Box which already provides 50 GB of cloud storage for free.
Now I see accepting the thought of paying for such service rather than paying for a service where you can save just your plain data in the cloud.
Apple on the other hand, with their iCloud service charge almost as much as other could backup services, if not more. Also, you can't store plain files on iCloud which is a real pain. And it is a common sight watching warnings of iCloud storage getting filled up because they offer just a meagre 5 GB for free.
Dropbox offers app data sync and trivial file storage options at cheaper price than iCloud. It can become a true competitor to iCloud, only if, Apple doesn't ban it as it did to others.
Dropbox can offer a cheaper option and with better features to sync your AppData. Also, Dropbox is available on almost all the platforms, be it Mac, Linux, Windows, iOS, Android or Windows Phone. So, you can dream of syncing AppData between various platforms. This way, they solve yet another problem by not being platform limited (cough.. iCloud.. cough).
They have announced some new APIs and tools for app developers to ease this process and equip their apps with AppData Sync to Dropbox.
I am all excited about this announcement from Dropbox! Let's see how it shapes up and how app developers take Dropbox into consideration.
So, after a lot of crazy waiting for Nokia EOS happened but Nokia released the long rumoured Nokia 925 "Catwalk" in the live event today. First, let's have a look at specifications, it is very similar to Lumia 920 except the new Aluminium + Polycarbonate design. It is also thinner and lighter than the built-like-and-feels-like-tank Lumia 920.
Nokia Lumia 925 Specifications
4.5 Inch OLED Display, 1280 x 768 Pixels, 332 PPI, Corning Gorilla Glass 2, PureMotion HD+
8.7 MP AF Camera, Dual LED Flash, OIS, F/2.0, Full HD @ 30 FPS Video Recording, Smart Camera App
1.3 MP 720p @ 30 FPS Front-Facing Camera
1.5 GHz Dual-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus Processor, Adreno 225 GPU, 1 GB RAM, 16 GB Storage, No Card Slot
Microsoft Windows Phone 8, Hipstamatic App, FourSquare Integration With Nokia HERE Maps
2000 mAh Battery, 8.8 mm, 135 g
4G LTE, Dual Band Wi-Fi b/g/n, DLNA, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, Micro USB, GLONASS A-GPS, Micro SIM Card Slot
Nokia Smart Camera - It has 4 modes; Best Shot, Action Shot, Drama Shot & Motion Focus.
But all the images from Nokia Smart Camera app will be of 5MP resolution only. All the other Nokia phones running on Windows Phone 8 will get the Nokia Smart Camera app with "Amber" software update.
Amber Software Update - All the new Nokia Lumia series [Lumia 520, 620, 720, 820 & 920] will get Nokia Smart Camera application with "Amber" udpate.
Hipstamatic App - Hipstamatic is releasing an app for Nokia Lumia devices which is similar to Instagram with all the editing and filter options. You can click, edit and upload images on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Flickr, Tumblr &Â INSTAGRAM.
Nokia HERE Maps Update - There is FourSquare integration with Nokia HERE Maps service.
The Nokia Lumia 925 price in India will be around INR 35K when it gets available in either late June or early July.
This is related to their mobile operating systems and services. Although people have fun in comparing both of them but their fundamental strategy is different altogether. I would like to explain them in most simple terms as follows.
Apple
Apple builds services around its devices. Their main source of income are their devices and hardware. Their services like iTunes, App Store, Apple Maps, iCloud and Siri are just those things which make their devices appealable to buyers.
Google
Google builds products (like Android) around its services. Their primary source of income is advertising. They created Android to bring more and more users to their services like GMail, Google Search, YouTube & Google Maps.
Apple builds services around its devices while Google builds products around its services.
Although these companies have been so successful in their strategies that even their secondary sources or what you can refer to as, supporting products are profitable now.
According to the server logs of Android Authority, multiple devices with Android 4.3 are doing the rounds on the Internet.
According to these server logs, Nexus 4, Nexus 7, Nexus 10 and even Galaxy Nexus running Android 4.3 are visible. So it is a good news for Galaxy Nexus owners like me that Google isn’t ditching its last year device and giving it some more life with Android 4.3 version. Also, Android 4.3 will be named JellyBean. Earlier, Gadgetronica reported that there has been delays in Android 5.0 development and Google wanted OEMs to rollout Android 4.2 updates to their devices before releasing Android 5.0.
Another point to be noted is that, server logs show Nexus 4 LTE in them pointing towards LTE version of Google Nexus 4. Other devices running Android 4.3 include Huawei U8819 and Pantech Breakout. In other advancements, the 2 day keynote in Google I/O 2013 event has been cut down to just 1 day which means no possible groundbreaking announcements.
Perfect Specifications For Smartphones In Mid Range Price Segment
This is April 2013 and here are the perfect hardware and software specifications of a smartphone that consumers should be watching for while buying one.
INR 5K-8K (Buy Android)
800MHz / 1GHz Processor (Cortex A5/A8), 256Â MB RAM (512Â MB RAM would be icing on the cake)
3 Inch - 4 Inch Capacitive Multitouch Screen, 320 x 480 Pixels Resolution (Or Higher i.e. 800 x 480 Pixels)
2 MP/ 3 MP Camera, VGA Video Recording
Android 4.0 ICS
Bluetooth 2.x / 3.x, Wi-Fi b/g/n, 7.2Â Mbps HSDPA
1300 mAh Battery Or Higher.
INR 8K-15K (Buy Android Or Nokia Windows Phone)
1GHz Dual Core Processor (Cortex A5/A9), 512Â MB RAM (1GB RAM would be great)
4 Inch - 5 Inch Capacitive Multitouch Screen, 800 x 480 Pixels Resolution (Or Higher i.e. 960 x 540 Pixels or 1280 x 720 Pixels)
5 MP/ 8 MP Autofocus Camera (LED Flash), HD 720p Video Recording
Android 4.0 ICS (Android 4.1 Would Be Awesome) or Windows Phone 8 OS
Bluetooth 3.x / 4.x, Wi-Fi b/g/n, 21Â Mbps HSDPA
1500 mAh Battery or Higher (For Android) & 1300 mAh Battery or Higher (For Windows Phone 8).
Google I/O 2013, the annual developer event by Google. is to be held next month. There are a lot of rumours doing the round about Google I/O 2013 announcements. But here are 5 guesstimates that I think will be mostly true. There may be even more announcements, but these will be the most important from the lot.
Android 5.0 KeyLime Pie - If you have followed the Android releases from the start, you can be pretty sure about the announcement of next Android with version number moving upwards to 5.x and to be named as KeyLime Pie. I am unsure of what features to expect from this new Android version.
Nexus 7 2nd Gen - It is eminent that the time is near for the announcement of the next generation of the Google Nexus 7. It will have a Qualcomm Processor, mostly the Snapdragon 600 variant and the screen will be full HD 1920 x 1080 in resolution. It might also have a back camera after all.
Nexus 10 Wi-Fi + Cellular - The only tablet that comes real close to the Apple iPad is the Google Nexus 10. But it lacks cellular connectivity and that is a huge problem for people who are on the go most of the time. Wi-Fi tethering through your smartphone is a bad option for them because it drains the phone battery. It might be a good option to release a cellular version of the Nexus 10. The new version might also be performing better because there were some issues in the Nexus 10 which made it stutter while web browsing on Chrome and some other occasions.
Google Babel - If you are following Google related news, there have been some leaks of the new upcoming Google Babel instant messaging service. It is being rumoured that this new IM service integrates Google Talk, Google+ Messenger, Google Hangouts and Google Voice in one application. It will be a rival to Apple's own iMessage and FaceTime.
Better Google Now - Love what Google Now does but want it to be more interesting to interact with, like Apple's Siri? Google might just fulfil your wishes with the release of a newer and improved Google Now. Google might also integrate Google Now service in Chrome browser as per the recent leaks.
These are just my guesstimates or you can say, speculations. Let's see what happens in Google I/O this year.
Did you notice the sudden burst in the application installation rate of the 'Tasker' app in Android? This sudden burst occurred in past 24 hours as the developers released a new version of the app. Most of the focus of this new version of Tasker was its design rather than feature additions. This goes on to say that PEOPLE DO CARE ABOUT APP DESIGN & UI!
There is not much in terms of features as you can see it in What's New section of the app description. So I can safely say that it must be the UI that attracted so many folks to install it on their Android smartphones.
Gone are the days when developers considered that only iOS users care about app design and UI.
Google Reader Closing Down Announcement & Aftermath. Best Alternatives Analyzed.
Just when I opened my eyes today, I unlocked my Nexus 4 and there was a notification for unread news on my RSS reader client 'Reader'. The first news I read was, Google announced that they are closing down Google Reader from 1st of July, 2013. I felt very disappointed. Later, I read so many blog posts about what were the reasons cited for closing it down and if RSS will get destroyed after Google Reader dies. I also read about the speculations of why Google is doing this.
Rant About Google: I use Google Reader every minute when I am online. It is like one of the most useful products Google ever made. Of all the products, they had to close this. And ORKUT GETS TO LIVE? Google, are you insane?
After a day of disappointing news and grief about it, I finally started a search for a viable alternative to Google Reader. Of 4 years of experience with RSS reader clients across various platforms (Mac, Android, iOS, Windows and Web), I shortlisted down some of the products which I knew had clients for almost all the platforms that I use.
Use Cases: Android - My personal phone. Windows - My personal laptop. Mac OS X - My work computer. Web - Universal use case.
There were many options such as Twitter, Google Plus, Google Currents, Feedly, Pulse, Taptu and some others. Yes, I even thought to use Twitter to follow news instead of RSS feeds. But it will mix up my news and people I follow on Twitter. So I dropped it. I also dropped Google Currents because it doesn't let me group feeds as I want under custom folders or pages. I shortlisted Feedly. Pulse & Taptu because they had native applications for smartphones and a web based version to use on desktop. Here are my experiences and observations of what can become the best alternative to Google Reader.
Feedly - Very good web based version and iOS client. Android applications is hard to use and its design is non-holo too. Its a no-no for me because I just can't use a non-holo desing app in my Android phone. But they have promised to support people after Google closes down Google Reader with one of their Google Reader Cloned API called Romandy. They are even inviting RSS Client app developers to try out their RSS Feed API. If they update their Android application with Holo design theme, it will be the best Google Reader application. Period. It lets you save all feeds including folders which are customizable and can be arranged alphabetically.
Pulse - Pulse has awesome applications on iOS and Android (yes, with Holo design). Its web based application looks excellent and is responsive too. You can subscribe RSS feeds and arrange them in custom pages according to your liking. But their web interface is lacking some features as of now. You can't mark all as read and you can't set to hide read articles as of now. But they might soon add that feature, especially after a lot of people start using it after the death of Google Reader.
Taptu - Tapu is a lot like Pulse and it has apps for web, iOS and Android. But a lot of features are lacking such as unread counts, hide read articles and the web interface is very confusing to use. I won't count Taptu as a competitor to Pulse and Feedly.
Google Currents - Very limited to Android device and there is no web version. You can't create a page to your liking or rename it as you want. But the interface is really nice and simple.
Flipboard - Flipboard has no web version and you can't know how many unread articles are there. You can't even hide read articles. You can't group the feeds as per your needs. It can't even come close to being a true RSS feeds reader client.
There is still no perfect replacement for Google Reader. But Pulse and Feedly are very close to becoming a viable alternative with cloud syncing, native/web apps, hide read items and showing unread counts. I am still waiting for RSS Clients to use Feedly's API that will supposedly replace/replicate what Google Reader does now. There are rumors that Google is replicating Google Reader functionality into Google Plus to force users to use Google Plus and increase its usage.
Let me know if you find any other convenient solution for replicating the usage of Google Reader..
I Want Android To Win & 5 Things It Needs To Compete
I am a fan of good technology, be it smartphones, tablet PCs or humanly interactive stuff like Siri. In the same way, I like all the modern competitive smartphone operating systems, be it Android, iOS or Windows Phone. I still haven’t got my hands on BB10, so I can’t comment on it yet. I have been using Android from past 3 years and have used 3 Android smartphones for my personal use and innumerable Android devices for short periods of time for reviews and other things. I have been using Android right from the time it started being popular, it was during/after the release of Android 2.0/2.1 Eclair. I won’t waste much of your time and start right away with some features that I want Android to have to be the best mobile operating system in this age.
From time-to-time, I get tempted to switch from Android to iOS or Windows Phone but these features will stop me from switching to a rival platform.
1. Add Pinch To Zoom In Regular EMail Client For God’s Sake - It took Google 3 years, after the introduction of multi-touch screens, to bring 100% zoomed out view & pinch-to-zoom functionality in GMail application.
This feature came to GMail for Android with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean if I am not wrong. Still Google forgot to add the same feature to the regular EMail app. Yes, I get it Google! how you are stopping Android users from using EMail services from other providers, or at least making it hard for fellow Android users to use other mail services. But I seriously want to use other services such as Hotmail and Yahoo. So please let me have the same features and the same usability with which I am using GMail in Android right now.
2. Can I Get Siri-Like Active Voice Assistant In Android? - Yes, I know, Google Now is practically more useful than Siri.
It passively pushes relevant information triggered by time, location or event. But I want Google Now to stop being ‘passive’ and start being a bit more ‘active’.  It should be able to launch even third-party apps, answer my questions with more humour and not only do a plain web search.
3. Dedicated Desktop App For Managing My Android Device - Apple iOS devices have iTunes and Windows Phone has WP App for desktop. I know we are moving towards a completely cloud based future where every thing is over the air, and an Android device can pretty much be managed through Google services on the web. But there are times when I am not connected to the Internet or for that matter, high speed network (Internet/Wi-Fi) and I want to have a physical backup of my Android device, including media, images, videos, apps, games along with app/game states so that when I restore my device, I can resume everything right from where I left it.  Also, that same desktop client can be used to sync media files like music, images, videos and subscribe podcasts.
You keep on buying a lot of firms, why not buy DoubleTwist, which is doing a great job for being the iTunes for Android?
4. Make My Android Device More Secure - What if I lost my Android device or if it gets stolen? Why not have at least a web interface in which, I can log in through my primary Google account, and lock the device, track the device location and beam a message on its screen.
When I spend a heavy amount in buying a great Android device, I should be expecting these security features.
5. Automated Profiles - Have you tried apps such as Locale, Smart Actions or Tasker for Android? They all let some tasks automated such as toggling on or off Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, launch apps, etc.
There should be a default feature in Android which lets define profiles which can automate tasks based on events, location or time to do certain tasks like turning the Wi-Fi on while you are in office or home and turning it off when you are on the move or turn off all power hungry things if battery is low.
Apart from these major things, Google Play Store should have a facility to try apps and games before buying as well as smart-dialing in the dialer. From time-to-time, I get tempted to switch from Android to iOS or Windows Phone but these above mentioned are the features which will stop me from switching to a rival platform.
Anything Half-Baked & Unimpressive is heading for 'emerging markets'.
With CES 2013 taking place this week, many new technologies, products and platforms are showing their faces. What bugs me is that anything that is half-baked, unimpressive and incompetent has been announced as heading for 'emerging markets' like BRIC nations and other similar regions.
Take the example of Intel's new smartphone processors or Mozilla's Firefox OS, they are, as of now, uncompetitive when compared to stronger and fitter competitors like ARM based SoC and Android respectively. Intel's previous attempts with Lava Xolo X900 has failed to garner any kind of consumer interest so they are lowering their goals with single core, dual SIM and dual-standby compatible SoC (System On A Chip). As for Firefox OS, it is build completely to run HTML5 applications and there is lack of applications as well as developer interests.
Why the hell do these guys think that we, consumers for emerging markets would be interested to buy their products even if they are not impressive enough?
A Study On 3 Years Of E-Commerce In India By MySmartPrice
MySmartPrice, India's best price comparison website has released an interesting study which summarizes 3 years of all the important happenings in the Indian E-Commerce space. It talks about funding, mergers and acquisitions.
titsay
stormborns
janainaart
discoholicmusic
origamiaround
ellievsbear
theartofmadeline
jacobvanloon