Top 19 Free Android Apps for your smartphone. Some are worth paying!

The Android Market is a nightmare to navigate compared with the iTunes App Store. Some of the Google Android Apps comes free and as standard installation, like the Google Search and Google Maps. For instance:

• Google Search (free) is a huge time saver, thanks to the voice-search function. Eg.Ask it for Wikipedia entries and it fetches. Speak the name of a retailer and it finds the nearest location. 
• Google Maps (also free) , provides good turn by turn guidance.

Here is a list of top Android Apps, including mostly free ones. Hope you will find this definitely worthwhile to use. 

1. GOOGLE SHOPPER (FREE) As mentioned in last week’s column, this app can save you hundreds of dollars by helping you find better prices nearby or online. Scan a bar code and the app takes it from there. If the scan doesn’t work, you can speak the product’s name and the app finds the product.
2. GOOGLE SKY MAP (FREE) Some serious eye candy that you’ll want to activate on the next cloudless night. Point your device toward the heavens and Sky Map puts a label on every celestial body you see — and some you can’t.
3. REMOTEDROID (FREE) Turns your phone into a wireless trackpad and mouse. You might not want to use the tiny keypad to input text, but if your computer lacks a trackpad — or if you’d like to liberate your trackpad from its spot — this will make your day.
4. CARDIOTRAINER (FREE) Arguably better than any fitness app on the iPhone, CardioTrainer is an Android-only program that tracks your fitness regimen and calorie consumption. It includes a music management feature to keep your workout tunes fresh.
5. SOUNDHOUND (FREE AND $5) It’s Android’s best showoff app after Sky Map. Open SoundHound and it identifies nearly any song — even some you hum. It also finds lyrics and YouTube videos of song performances. The $5 version lets you identify an unlimited number of tunes. Users of the free version get five songs a month.
6. EVERNOTE (FREE) Can’t afford a personal assistant? This will help. Evernote is a mobile notepad that synchronizes with desktop and browser software (also free). Use your smartphone to take a photo, record a voice memo or jot down a note, and the next time you open Evernote on your desktop computer, your mobile notes appear (and vice versa). The free version stores a fair amount of information, but $45 a year buys unlimited storage.
7. URBANSPOON (FREE) Great for those with empty stomachs, full wallets and no ideas. Spin Urbanspoon’s slot machine and it offers restaurant suggestions. You can also choose certain attributes — like moderate prices and bistro food — and selections appear. The app includes reviews, contact information, maps and directions.
8. QUICKOFFICE MOBILE SUITE ($10) You can read Word, Excel or Powerpoint documents on an Android phone, but you can’t edit them without dedicated apps. Quickoffice is, so far, the best of these apps. It lets you create documents in a pinch, but the app’s strength is letting you get bits of work done away from the office.
9. SLACKER (FREE) You’ve most likely heard of Pandora, the great personalized radio service. Slacker is better, with a deeper catalog of songs. And unlike the Web version, you can download hours of music to your phone and listen when you are offline. (That feature is free to try, but a $4 monthly fee applies thereafter.)
10. FXCAMERA (FREE) Android doesn’t have anything quite like Hipstamatic, the iPhone app that creates beautiful effects for your photos. FxCamera is close, with several cool filters to choose from, and quick sharing to Facebook.

Image courtesy: Taranfx.com. Also, giving due courtesy to NYtimes and my android friends and fans who reviewed the same, honorable Mention also to the following apps:

1. Glympse (free; open the app, hit a couple of buttons and Glympse lets a friend temporarily track your location); 
2. Angry Birds (free; not as slick as the iPhone version); 
3. Weather Channel (free; offers better forecasts than your phone’s standard weather app); 
4. Epicurious (free; find professionally tested recipes, with reviews and shopping lists — the free BigOven app is also very good); 
5. FlightTrack ($5; track any flight and get delay forecasts, seat suggestions and gate information); 
6. Yelp (free; find local services, restaurants and bars, including reviews); 
7. Layar (free; see customized information about your surroundings);
8. Qik (free; broadcast live video from your phone to a Web site) ; 
9. DroidLight (free; it’s a flashlight, a strobe light or a message board in a crowded club — indispensable).

Let me know by writing in your comments and user experience. Also give any new apps to try.

IT boom and job surge in 2011. How it will affect you?

Graduating from college in 2010-2011? Looking for a career or role change? Looking for the boom in IT? Moving to cloud services and mobile advertisements?  IDC forecasts worldwide IT spending will be $1.6tn (£1.02tn) in 2011, an increase of 5.7% over 2010, as reported by Computer weekly.

IDC expects hardware spending will grow 7.8% year-on-year, and 12.8% growth will show in software and services.

The biggest growth area will be in public cloud services, according to IDC. Organisations will move a wider range of business applications into the cloud and SME business cloud use is predicted to surge in 2011.

Mobile technology and service delivery are also set to experience major demand from users in 2011, according to IDC.

Frank Gens, senior vice-president and chief analyst at IDC, said, "We'll see the IT industry revolve more and more around the build-out and adoption of mobility, cloud-based application and service delivery, and value-generating overlays of social business and pervasive analytics."

IDC expects nearly 25 billion mobile apps will be downloaded in 2011, up from just over 10 billion in 2010. Over time, the still-emerging apps ecosystems promises to fundamentally restructure the channels for all digital content and services to consumers, it said.

IDC also predicts major IT firms will snap up social software providers during 2011, in a bid to jump-start or increase their social business footprints.

White space wireless - WiFi on steroids for devices

HAVE you ever wondered, about those missing channels on old television sets (not long ago the popular BPL television sets in India)? Apart from channel two, the rest of the original VHF channels on the dial were usually just the odd numbers from three to 13. That was because, in over-the-air VHF broadcasting, the channel between two analogue stations had to be left unused so that it would not interfere with adjacent ones. When UHF broadcasting came along, empty “guard bands” were added to each channel for the same reason. In some places, this so-called “white space” of unused frequencies separating working channels amounted to as much as 70% of the total bandwidth available for television broadcasting. 

Mobile phone companies and other would-be users of wireless spectrum have long lusted after television’s empty airwaves. This week, after two years of haggling and testing, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in Washington, DC, finally gave the go-ahead for others in America to use them. 

In November 2008, the FCC voted to reallocate the various segments of white space and unused channels between 54 megahertz and 806 megahertz (channels two to 69) that would no longer be needed when the last of the country’s analogue television transmitters switched to digital broadcasting in June 2009. Unlike analogue transmissions, digital signals do not “bleed” into one another and can therefore be packed closer together. 

As a consequence, television broadcasters now need little more than half the spectrum they hogged before switching to digital transmission. That has not stopped them fighting tooth and claw to hang onto their unused white space. Most had grand plans for using such frequencies, after going digital, to sell information services to the public.

That is not to be. Instead, the FCC has used the switch to digital television as an opportunity to free huge swathes of bandwidth for others to use. The most valuable frequencies of all—those in the 700 megahertz band (channels 52 to 69)—have been auctioned off to mobile phone companies. Between them, Verizon, AT&T and others paid close on $20 billion to clinch this prime spectrum. 

The reason these channels are so valuable—and why they were chosen for terrestrial television in the first place—is because their signals travel for kilometres, can carry a lot of information, are unaffected by weather and foliage, go through walls and penetrate all the nooks and crannies within the bowels of buildings. They will allow mobile carriers to cover, from a single tower, up to ten times the area possible from a tower using existing frequencies. Dropped calls should then become a thing of the past.

By contrast, the white space freed up below 700 megahertz is to be made available for unlicensed use by the public. Unlicensed does not mean free. Network infrastructure will still have to be built. But a new breed of wireless internet service providers using white-space frequencies will not have to pay for their spectrum. They should therefore be able to offer high-speed broadband at far lower rates than today. It also means that start-up firms lacking the deep pockets of incumbents should be able to get a foot in the door.

Indeed, by opening up television’s white space to the public, the FCC hopes to trigger another wireless revolution—one potentially bigger than the wave of innovation unleashed a decade or so ago when Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other wireless technologies embraced the unlicensed 2.4 gigahertz band reserved previously for microwave ovens, baby alarms and remote openers for garage doors. 

The difference this time is that the frequencies being released will allow larger chunks of data to be moved further and faster. The latest version of Wi-Fi (802.11n) shuttles data at 160 to 300 megabits a second. White-space devices are expected to be able to zip data along at 400 to 800 megabits a second once they start using the same tricks as the latest forms of WiFi. And while Wi-Fi signals peter out after 100 metres (330 feet) or so, their white-space equivalents could have ranges measured in kilometres. 

Microsoft, an active proponent of white-space wireless, is using just two of its experimental “White-Fi” transmitters to blanket the company’s entire 200-hectare campus at Redmond, Washington, in place of the thousands of Wi-Fi routers that would otherwise have been needed. No wonder white-space is being referred to as “Wi-Fi on steroids”.

Enthusiasts talk about white-space devices offering a “third pipe” for access to the internet, to rival cable and telephone broadband. Others see white-space as providing an alternative to mobile telephony. When wireless hotspots cover entire neighborhoods rather than mere coffee shops, who needs a mobile-phone contract? A smart phone running Skype or something similar would be essentially free of usage charges and unfettered by all the restrictions that carriers impose. 

Such thoughts have doubtless crossed many a mind at Google. Not having to put up with carrier-required compromises that hobble functions and features, owners of Android smart phones would be free to use the full power of their devices to surf the web for information, social networking and entertainment—and, in so doing, rake in billions more advertising dollars for Google. That, after all, was why the search company developed its free Android operating system in the first place. It is not impossible to envisage Google—in partnership with, say, Spectrum Bridge, a company in Florida that has installed several demonstration systems which use white-space technology to blanket whole communities—emerging as a mobile operator in its own right one day.

Before any of that can happen, however, a lot of technical problems have to be licked. For one thing, white-space transmitters not only have to avoid interfering with local television stations, but also with the wireless microphones used in conference halls, sports arenas, karaoke bars, theatres and churches. As a white-space gizmo moves around a city, the channels it can use will change depending on how close it gets to various television stations. The central access tower it communicates with may then have to hop from one channel to another—and check with all the other client devices using it to see if they can follow suit. If a newcomer then joins the network (client devices are expected to be joining and leaving continuously) and happens to be near a transmitter, the tower and its various clients will have to scramble to find yet another channel they can all use without causing interference. The computational problem is not exactly insignificant.

Under pressure from television broadcasters, the FCC originally proposed that all white-space devices used during the trial period would have to adopt, as an added precaution, a redundant belt-and-braces approach to avoiding interference. One method involved using electronic detectors to sense other transmitters in the area; the other relied on using GPS signals to determine the device's exact location, and then to query a central database to find out what channels were free in that area. Microsoft has created one such geolocation database. Google has offered to build another.

To date, the white-space prototypes used in the feasibility trials have had little trouble sensing occupied television channels. In general, they have picked them up at signal strengths less than a thousandth of that needed to display an image on a TV screen. In other words, they would be able to hop off an occupied channel and onto a vacant one before causing so much as a blip on television sets in the area. Even so, the equipment makers argue that, while doable, all this sensing palaver makes white-space devices needlessly complicated and expensive. 

The FCC seems to agree. At its meeting on September 23rd, the commissioners voted unanimously to ditch the spectrum-sensing requirement and let device makers rely solely on interrogating the online databases to find vacant channels. Meanwhile, wireless microphones are to be allocated two separate channels of their own.

Given the go-ahead they were hoping for, equipment makers now expect that the chip-sets needed to make the system work in phones, laptops, tablets, e-readers and other gadgets will start trickling out over the next year or so. White-space consumer products could then hit the retail market by late 2012. If the introduction of Wi-Fi is anything to go by, white-space will change the way people live, work and play more than anyone can currently imagine.

Article of interest from The Economist.

8 Technology Principles simplified animation model. See for yourself how gear transimission occurs!

Complicated Mechanisms, explained in simple animations.Credited to different technology sites in the net.


1.Sewing Machine

2.Manual Transmission Mechanism

The mechanism also called as “stick shift” is used in cars to change gears manually

3.Radial Engines

Radial engines are used in aircrafts having propeller connected to the shaft delivering power in order to produce thrust its basic mechanism is as follows

4.Steam engine Principle
Steam engine once used in locomotives was based on the reciprocating principle as shown below

5.Maltese Cross Mechanism

this type of mechanism is used in clocks to power the second hand movement.


6.Torpedo-Boat destroyer System

This system is used to destroy fleet in naval military operations.


7.Rotary Engine

Also called as Wankel engine is a type of internal combustion engine has a unique design that converts pressure into rotating motion instead of reciprocating pistons

8.Constant Velocity Joint

This mechanism is used in the front wheel drive cars

India: Science and Technology Problems to be solved

Technology Review India is now anchoring TRI Grand Challenges aimed at finding innovative technologies and solutions relevant to solving some of the most urgent challenges facing the nation.
Agriculture:

• Saving the FoodSolution to the impeding food crisis in the coming years through improvements in food processing technologies.

Environment: 

• Solid Waste Management - Urban India is likely to face a massive waste disposal crisis in the years to come.

Healthcare: 

• Accessible Rural Healthcare - Making rural healthcare through telemedicine affordable and accessible.
• Smart System for Maternal Healthcare - Improve the usefulness of maternal healthcare through portable diagnostics and a smart system.

Energy: 

• Efficient Solar Technologies - Adding 16,000 MW capacity will reduce PV module costs by only 20 percent. PV modules account for 50-70 percent of the cost.
• Power-saving Conventional Systems - Increasing energy efficiency of conventional systems.

Water: 

• Clean Potable Water - How to ensure supply of quality water to all?

Security: 

• Datamining for Internal Security - Business intelligence and datamining will help in preemption

Education: 

• Smart Learning - Enhancing teacher efficiencies and monitoring learning outcomes in schools.

Infrastructure: 

• Smart Civic Administration - Municipalities find it difficult to maintain large cities, primarily due to lack of an easy mechanism to capture the pain points.

There are more pressing issues which need the attention of young enterprising scientists in India. Let this be a beginning!

Chatroulette.com gets strangers meet unaware? Businessmodel for smart girls and boys!

Another timepass site for those who are glued to internet is chatroulette.com


It is fun, dangerous and could bring in a new social order!


A social order where strangers come and meet as they like and unless contact details exchanged, there is never a chance to meet again! If the model is clicked and becomes a viable business model for the smart girls and boys out there from universities and startups, soon established companies would co-opt this!


Check this site and enjoy!

Where to buy cheap and best domain names and web hosting in Indian rupees? And what to look for?

Best prices for domain name registration and website hosting. Here are few web sites where you could check for good bargain prices in Indian rupees:

1. bbchost (recommended by me and friends who use this site)
2. google apps  (recommended and used by me and friends)
3. GoDaddy India (reputed)
4. indialinks (good deals. check it out)
5. chillydomains 

Other well known names for a comparison of charges and services are net4domains.com, domain.Indiatimes.com, networksolutions.com, eWebGuru.com, InLandHost.net, famehosting, UnlimitedGB.com, HostSo.com, Dollar2Host.in, WebHostingWorld.Net, WebComIndia.net.

Tip: How to find who owns a website or domain name: whois.net 

Tip: If you want to manage with a free domain name, whic heven supports favicon. Favicons are the icons which will be displayed in your web browsers addressbar, just beside your website name. Check this for yourself: freedomain.co.nr


Tip:When you go for domain registration, look for:

• Free DNS and management
• Unlimited domains, subdomains etc
• Web Forwarding
• Check for any hidden charges
• Renewal charges and grace period for renewal payment

Tip:When you need web hosting, depending on your requirements, look for:

• Prompt Service (Call centre and email) 
• Uptime guarantee and reputation
• Bandwidth
• Space available
• Accessories like email support and other services
• Check for any hidden charges, maintenance and renewal charges
• SSL and Secure site support
• Hosting Solutions with Email Hosting Dedicated server support
• Reseller and partner programs

Happy domain registration, hosting and website building or blogging! Share your tips and comments to benefit others!

Mobile phones of 2015 : Flexible, self cleaning, advanced motion recognition - based on nanotechnology

The concept introduces revolutionary steps in developing a generation of mobile devices that will create totally new methods of wireless communication. According to the vision, a mobile phone will be made of flexible and transparent electronics that will make it possible to stretch a device into a suitable form and appearance that is in accordance with the intended usage.


Thanks to nanotechnology the surface of the mobile phone of the future can be self-cleaning material. The surface can also operate as a solar cell that keeps the highly developed and small batteries of the telephone always charged. Moreover, the telephone could include sensors that gather information about their environment, helping users to protect themselves against pollution and harmful substances.


Read more on this:mobile:sneham.in : Mobile phones of 2015 : Flexible, self cleaning, advanced motion recognition - based on nanotechnology


Do see the video given in this page to have a feel of morph concept.Nokia had earlier said that such phones will be the norm by 2015.

How Google would change your life?

The future dimensions are moving out of the Google keyword search box, with their advancements in voice and image recognition research - it will open new markets for google and would be life changing for YOU!

Google's commitment to new modes of search for users:voice, location and sight resulted from their focus on four aspects of search:  modes, media, language, and personalization. Few of their interesting initiatives listed below, with details from their site:

• Real-time information in Google search results
• Google Goggles - visual search
• Location-based search in Google Maps for mobile
• In-conversation voice translation across languages 

Real-time information in your search results
Google has added real-time results to its search results pages for desktop computers, iPhone, and Android devices.This is being made possible in part through a series of content partnerships as well.

'Google Goggles' visual search
You can submit pictures rather that keywords as queries.This is in experimental stage now and can recognise only certain objects.Google announced that they already have the capability to do facial recognition, of which implementation is delayed now due to privacy implications.

Location-based search
In a new cloud driven era, Google's location-based search will be able to provide information about whether requested products are in-stock at shops willing to share inventory data with Google.This will be a valuable service for traders.See the "Favourite Places" initiatives at Google site with provision of QR code technology(which function similar to barcodes).

Universal translation on mobile devices
This instant voice translation service could function as an interpreter for every one.

Such expanding possibilities via mobile devices, would impact heavily where you decide to eat, shop and live anywhere in the world!

How long 'Google' would last?

Google knows about you! And it has each of your movements in the digital world and most of your online footprint! Does this warns you of some thing? See also, one of the articles on Google in "Technology and future Trends from Sneham.in": how-google-would-change-your-life

You need Google! And while you appreciate the kind of innovation and simplicity it brings in to change the way you live, it is becoming all encompassive and powerful day by day - to the extent of being inevitable for your daily life and being synonymous to internet! Now, it is clear that Google is on a roll and is simply loved by all! 

Google needs You too! Google keeps its code of conduct as 'Dont Be Evil' and says that  it tries to protect end user privacy as a top priority! 

How long Google would last? Already there are several instances, where government authorities across the world approaches Google for user data to prove their cases.Results were mixed and some resulted in long negotiations. As Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, says if Google compromises its data, it will loose its appeal and usefulness to its users and would loss out to competitors! Yes, we do trust him and the current code of conduct of the company.But the moment, management policies and priorities change in a fiercely competitive corporate world or some high government authorities decide that YOUR data could be misused or reviewed, end user life would definitely be affected!

So far So good! However, this would last only till:

• Google gives away to enduser mistrust, hate communities or opensource initiative 
• Google monopoly gets split by goverment authorities
• Google is overtaken by some gamechanging avatars with a disruptive technology and on a new domain!

Earnestly wish that, it should be the last! Till then, you can be in a comfortable Google awe!

Human Genome Sequencing technology and predictive medicine - an emerging field for future

The Human Genome Sequencing is to determine the primary structure of chemical base pairs which make up DNA and to identify and map approximately 20-25 thousand genes of the human genome from both a functional and physical standpoint.

The first available assembly of the genome was completed in year 2000 by the UCSC Genome Bioinformatics Group(genome.ucsc.edu).Towards the end of 2009,India's CSIR scientists working with the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) in New Delhi decoded the genome of a 52-year-old man from Jharkhand after nine weeks of study -a first in the country. The feat has helped India join a select club of countries -- the US, UK, Canada, Korea and China.

Benefits of Human Genome Sequencing 

Genetic sequencing will help in early diagnosis and management of diseases, including cancer. Persons with genetic profiling will get an indication of diseases to come. It is significant as the ability to assemble the genome shows our capability to study the variations in genes and, thus, will revolutionize future disease predictions and treatment methodologies.

It is a great development as genomics has the potential to bring down the cost of healthcare by offering specific drugs by identifying the gene mutation, and can also predict the onset of a disease. Companies can make more accurate drugs for specific populations.

1. The detailed knowledge of the human genome will provide new avenues for advances in medicine and biotechnology.
2. It can significantly help the etiologies for cancers, Alzheimer's disease and other areas of clinical interest.
3. The analysis of similarities between DNA sequences from different organisms is also opening new avenues in the study of evolution.

Genomics and proteomics data are being sought along with clinical trial data for many of the latest drug approvals by US drug regulatory agency FDA (Food and Drug Administration - fda.gov) 

Emerging field of research and industry in India 

Biocon, Reliance Life Sciences,TCAG etc have set up advanced infrastructure and highly experienced research team to conduct high-end molecular diagnostics, genomic studies, gene-based research services and innovative drugs. 

Accurate and affordable treatment in future 

Scientists can find precisely what leads to the next damage in one's cells, predict mutations in the gene and can pinpoint the disease that the person may get or the son/daughter will be prone to. Genomic tools and analysis will help to develop personalised medicine or designer drugs for accurate treatment.

Next Generation AMOLED display technologies

Active-matrix OLED (Active-matrix organic light-emitting diode or AMOLED) is a display technology for use in mobile devices such as mobile phones. OLED describes a specific type of ultra thin, ultra bright display technology which doesn't require a backlight and Active-Matrix refers to the technology behind the addressing of pixels. AMOLED technology continues to make progress towards low-power and low-cost large size (e.g. 40-inch) for applications such as TV.


Technical explanation
An active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) display consists of OLED pixels that have been deposited or integrated onto a thin film transistor (TFT) array to form a matrix of pixels that generate light upon electrical activation, which functions as a series of switches to control the current flowing to each of the pixels.


Typically, this continuous current flow is controlled by at least two TFTs at each pixel, one to start and stop the charging of a storage capacitor and the second to provide a voltage source at the level needed to create a constant current to the pixel and eliminating need for the very high currents required for passive OLED matrix operation.


Characteristics
Active-matrix OLED displays provide higher refresh rate than their passive-matrix OLED counterparts, and they consume significantly less power.This advantage makes active-matrix OLEDs well suited for portable electronics, where power consumption is critical to battery life. The amount of power the display consumes varies significantly depending on the color and brightness shown.


When the display gets bent with a radius smaller than the critical radius, it leads to cracking of the overcoat layer on the plastic substrate, and this crack propagates through the address bus lines. The cracked bus structures cause the displays to exhibit intermittent line failures, gross line failures, or large regions of non-functioning areas including complete display failure.


See also: amoled-mobile-display-technology-active

3D movies and 3D accessories soon possible for your new home theatre

Just wondered when can I upgrade my home theatre to 3D effects as I was trying to book tickets for Avatar 3D.
And here is news already that it will be soon up for the grabs!

Avatar 3D created a wave and demand for modernising movie theatres and multiplex screens to 3D and succeeded by mesmerising people to come to theatres. Now, Samsung Electronics has announced a partnership to use RealD's 3D display technology in its TVs, a move that could help to extend RealD's business from cinemas to the home.

"Together, we are committed to enhancing the TV-viewing experience with the best that 3D technology can offer including immersive, lifelike depth and a new realm of color clarity," Dongho Shin, senior vice president of Samsung Electronics's visual display division, said in a statement.

3D display technology today is generally limited to premium cinema screens, with RealD vying against Dolby 3D from Dolby Labs and XpanD.For more on this story, see "Samsung signs RealD in nascent 3D TV market" in CNET news. Home 3D theater is the next frontier. High-profile 3D movies, most notably James Cameron's Avatar, are nudging 3D technology toward the mainstream in both movie creation and display.

Cloud Computing

Key Issues in Cloud computing and services currently are:

• Guarantee of  Service
• Private vs Public Clouds
• Multi-tenancy
• Customisation of cloud services (via exposed APIs)
• Security and Privacy 
• Standardisation and interworking
• Layer architecture
• Mashups
• System Integration

Top 4 download for Free Antivirus in windows desktop PC / laptop /netbook

Here is a list of free antivirus and anti spyware tools for download:

• Panda Cloud Antivirus Free Edition - Free software downloads panda cloudantivirus.com
• Free antivirus protection - Avira AntiVir free-av
• Download FREE antivirus software - avast! Home Edition download-avast-home 
• AVG Free - Download Free Antivirus and Antispyware for Windows free avg