8 must have mobile applications and services

Think your cellphone can work a trifle more harder than you do? Think it can keep you that much more connected to work, friends and family? Here’s a list of applications that you should have on your cellphone to keep you happy.



FoxyTag is a collaborative application which warns you 15 seconds before a speed camera. Now before you go all crazy and get a Bugatti Veyron from somewhere and go berserk on the roads after you get FoxyTag, read this from their website.
“FoxyTag motivates neither speeding nor any other risky behavior, but allows the driver to concentrate on the road instead of having their eyes fixed on the speedometer.” Right said.




With ZYB, you can be sure that you’ll never lose your contacts and calendar ever again. It safely stores all your calender/contacts online and you can synchronize it with a single click. Can be a boon when you are migrating cell phones or have just plain lost it; mind and/or mobile.


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Fring is to the mobile what Digsby is to the PC. It can keep you connected to Skype, Google Talk, MSN Messenger, ICQ, AIM, Yahoo and Twitter. You’ve also got push mail and video streaming for screaming out loud! Agreed most of you don’t use most of things mentioned here, but a long options list is never a bad thing. Over and above that you can make VoIP calls as well, but in India, you’re going to get royally screwed with the exorbitant data transfer rates when making calls via VoIP. So, if you’re an Indian and have escaped recession, make VoIP calls only when you are in Wi-Fi hotspots.
(If you are having connectivity issues with Fring, you can also give eBuddy a shot. Head to m.ebuddy.com for a quick WAP fix or download the application from their site.)




Shozu is basically a photo and video upload application with quite a comprehensive list of destinations to where you can upload them. Flickr, Picasa and PhotoBucket are just the tip of the iceberg. It also brings Facebook right in your hands and you can do a fair bit with it. Upload images, update descriptions, check out friends’ photo feeds and keep track of events. Shozu can also double up as a mobile blogger’s paradise with support for Wordpress, Blogger, Windows Live Spaces, Live Journal and what have you. And if you happen to have been bitten by the reporter bug, you can also report to BBC, CNN and Reuters with your pictures and videos. This thing also allows you to upload via FTP. Just falls short of taking your dog for a walk.



Like using Google Maps to find directions from your PC and laptop? You’re going to love Google Maps on Mobile then. It offers you the complete functionality of Google Maps right in the palm of your hands. You can switch from maps to terrain view to satellite view with a click and also find the best routes. And your phone need not have GPS inbuilt for using this. It uses approximation to well, approximate your location within 500 mts. Also, it’d have been great if Google compressed the data before sending it to us hapless Indian users. One simple map loading, zoom-in and zoom-out sequence takes up a good 0.25MB of data. What? Don’t look at me like that.

If you ask me, Opera Mini can easily be called the best innovation after the cellphone phone itself. A mid-server sitting somewhere in the Obama-land compresses all your web pages and sends it to you at just 1/10th of the size of the original web page. Also you can store all your bookmarks on Opera’s server and synchronize them between your PC and mobile; very useful when upgrading or such like. Supports uploading files, saving web pages, has a RSS reader and has a few themes in the latest version to suit your whims and fancies

If you are a Windows Mobile or Symbian S60 user, you could also try Skyfire.

GMail for Mobile is a simple Java application to access your Gmail account. It’s definitely faster and more efficient than trying to access it from your browser. Only problem is, you can’t attach anything.

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Wouldn’t the world be a better place if you could read your voice mail rather than hear it? This text could then be organized in so many ways and you could build a humongous archive of all your voice mails for future reference. Alright, this thing is still in the making but looks promising. Do signup and get yourself on the waiting list.
And oh yeah, if you’re a developer, they have a big buck challenge happening.

Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, Takes Part in a Q&A “Interview” Lecture

Schmidt was interviewed on November 4, 2009 in Cambridge, MA

for the Michael Hammer Memorial Lecture. The interview was 

conducted by Tom Ashbrook from National Public Radio. Audience 

questions were taken at the end of the event. It runs about one hour.

Access the Video (via YouTube)

'Hai Baaton Mein Dum?'

Google - 'Hai Baaton Mein Dum?' Contest

Google and  LiveHindustan.com  bring you the 'Hai Baaton Mein Dum?' Contest. If you've ever wished that there was more great content in Hindi online, here's your chance to spill your heart out about the things that matter the most to you: entertainment, sports, travel, health and politics. Brick by brick, you'll be building the web in Hindi, sharing your knowledge of these topics and showing your flair for this beautiful language. So, go ahead and create your Google Account  here and click the 'Submit your entry' button next to the topic you want to write about. The Essay must be between 100 – 1000 words.

You stand to win some amazing prizes like laptops, gift vouchers and free internet subscriptions! There is no limit to the number of entries per contestant. Only entries in Hindi will be accepted.' Let your imagination run wild and spread the joy of sharing your thoughts in Hindi on the web!

Website : http://tinyurl.com/y8fqxcg

How to create your entry in Hindi

Using Google Transliteration on Knol

• Click the 'Submit your entry' button next to the topic you want to write about.
• Sign in to your Google Account. Google Account is the email and password you use to sign in to Gmail and other Google products. IMPORTANT: If you don't have a Google Account, click here to create one.
• Create your entry in Hindi using the Google product called Knol that will open when you click the 'Submit your entry' button and sign in to your Google Account.
• Type in Hindi with English alphabets and the Hindi word that you have typed with English alphabets will be converted into Hindi characters after you hit Space or Enter. For example, typing "aloo" in English transliterates into Hindi as आलू . You do not need to use Google Transliteration; you can use any tool you like to type in Hindi and copy/paste your entry into the open Knol page. A few other options for typing in Hindi are given below.
• When you are done with your entry, you will need to hit "Publish" to make it available to us. If you have not completed your entry and would like to come back to it at a later time, just click the 'Save' button and come back to it later. Remember that your entry will not be complete until you hit the "Publish" button.
• If you are a 9th to 12th standard student, please add the line "I am a 9th to 12th standard student" at the end of your entry. Please note that your student status will be verified if you become eligible for the special student prize.
• Read other people's entries by clicking the 'View all entries' link under each topic and vote on them.

The अ button toggles the transliteration feature on and off. (You can also use Ctrl-G as a shortcut.) When it is on, it affects the text box contents. The letters of a word will appear as you type them until you reach the end of the word. As soon as you type a space or a punctuation mark, the letters will be converted to Devanāgarī characters, like this:

The transliteration will attempt to match the sounds of the letters as accurately as possible between the two alphabets. However, if you find that it is incorrect, you can fix it.

Other ways to type in Hindi

There are several other ways to type your entry in Hindi. Some of these include:

• Using Google Transliteration: http://www.google.com/transliterate
• Using Google Transliteration Bookmarklet: http://t13n.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/blet/docs/help_hi.html
• Using an IME. Common IME's include those from Google, Microsoft Bhasha and Baraha. These require a download and install of client software.

 

Happy Birthday Newton - says GOOGLE

Today when I logged in to the Google’s homepage, I noticed the logo with 5 apples and after a few seconds, I felt like some action when one of the apples dropped

I was amazed to see this and refreshed the page again to see it again. I was very curious why the apple dropped. Others find it funny, while others are thinking deeply what’s the reason behind the apple drop.
First, I thought that the animated dropping apple is because of Google’s rivalry with Apple while some must not have cared about it.
So, why did the Apple drop? I found the answer once I placed my mouse on the Google Apple Doodle for the day

After clicking on the doodle, I realized that today is Isaac Newton’s birthday! Isaac Newton got famous because he invented the concept of Gravity when an Apple dropped over his head (what we read in our Class 7 books) That’s it! That’s why the apple is dropping today on the Google’s homepage!
The Issac Newton Google doodle for today is simply amazing. If you have not been on Google’s homepage today, then it’s time to do it
So, go to the Google’s homepage of you have not seen the Apple dropping there already

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NEWTON