Best Android Travel Apps for India

You are always on the go with your Android device; it will be great if the smart android device becomes your personal guide in your tour. Here is a list of best Travel apps which will take care of your requirements when you are travelling in and out of the city.

1. MapMyIndia ShowNearby:

This app help you to find out ATMs, petrol pumps, Banks, Movie Theatres, Restaurants by Cuisine, Attractions, Shopping destinations by category, and emergency services like Hospitals and Police Stations. You can allow this app to use your GPS to set your location and then you just have to select categories and sub-categories to get all the information about various locations, distances and details. This app is available for free in the Android market.

2. JustDial:

JustDail app provides a local search service; it gives the details about the best restaurants and lounges in the city, the latest art shows, ATMs, Hotels, Doctors and much more. The app uses in built GPS functionality of your smart phone to detect your current location and provides Mapping and Navigation features by leveraging the built in Google Maps application. JustDail app is available for free in Android market.

3. Getit:

Getit is the most popular app for local information. This App Auto detects your current location using GPS, provides Quick links to top/popular categories, it refines your search based on attributes and location, it shows Interactive Google map with directions. This is also a free app in the Android market.

4. NGPay:

ngpay is India's largest mall on mobile with 100+ stores. It helps to book rail, air, bus tickets and hotels; buy movie tickets; shop and send gifts through your smartphone. ngpay is also the official mobile banking application for Axis Bank and HDFC Bank, this facility allows you to do transactions like balance enquiry, fund transfer & more. The App is for free in Android market.

5. Ixigo:

This app helps you to make your trip more cost effective as it provides the details of about more than 100 travel sites which give best rates for hotels and flights. The app helps to find cheap flights to any part of the world and can also track flight status and delays, find airport Information and locations, and airline phone numbers. Users also get to compare 250,000+ hotels globally and can view hotel photos, amenity information, room rates and availability. The app is free in the Android market.

6. Zomato:

Zomato lets you search menus across 22,000 restaurants in India across 10 cities. It also helps you to check ratings, reviews and pictures of all restaurants in your city. But you can’t do booking through this app, for which you have to use apps like NGPay. Zomato is also a free app in the Android market.

New App to Find who 'Unfriends' You on Facebook

People who have been "unfriended" on social network Facebook can now check out the person through a new software that can be installed in any internet browser.

The software -- called "Unfriend Finder" -- also alerts users when someone rejects or ignores a friend request.

It is free, and till date has been downloaded 44 million times, the Daily Mail reported.

The script works in browsers such as Google Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Users see a red counter in their menu bar which comes up "-1" when someone unfriends them.

Facebook itself does not have the option of alerting people when they are removed from the friends list.

Best Dual SIM Phones for 2012

Dual SIM phones are not restricted to low end phone category now, many Android smartphones also has dual SIM feature now a days. If you are going to make a wise purchase decisions which aims at more connectivity and affordability have a look at these dual SIM phones which comes with the best features and is worth buying.

1. Samsung Hero Music:

This phone supports dual SIM cards and allows user to switch between them according to their preferences. This device is the best solution for any budget concerned music lover who wants everything in one short. Samsung Hero Music comes with microSD card slot supporting up to 4 GB of memory, Bluetooth 2.0, onboard loudspeaker, a 1000 mAh battery giving 11 hours of music and talk time and weights only 73 grams. This phone available for just 1,600.

2. Samsung Champ Delux Duos:

Samsung Champ Duos supports dual SIM GSM networks and features dual SIM standby which allows user to switch between SIM by just a push button. This trendy looking phones sports 2.8 inch full touchscreen display, stereo FM and MP3 player, TouchWiz lite 2.0 user interface, 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, USB 2.0 connectivity and also has social networking features like ChatOn, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo Messenger and Gtalk. You will not think twice if you just have to pay 4,000 for this high performing device.

3. Nokia C2-03:

This dual SIM device is coupled with both touchscreen and type input which make this phone one of its kind. It features easy access to SIM slots due to which users can change the SIM without switching off the phone. It sports a 2.6 inch display, 2 megapixel camera, multi format audio player, FM radio and runs on S40 operating system. This phone has an MRP of 4,800.

4. Micromax Superfone Lite A75:

Micromax is the one who realized the need of market and came up with dual SIM phones which made them garb a big pie from the market leader Nokia. Micromax Superfone Lite A75 is the second one in its Superfone series and features 3.7 inch capacitive touchscreen, dual camera (3 megapixel rear camera and 0.3 megapixel front camera), 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, 32 GB expandable memory via microSD and works on Google Android 2.3 Gingerbread with its 650 MHz processor which makes it the cheapest dual SIM smartphone costing only 8,990.

5. LG Optimus Net Dual:

This dual SIM phones runs on Android v2.3 Gingerbread OS and has a speedy 800 MHz processor along with a 3.2 inch TFT LCD screen with 480 x 320 pixels resolution, 512 MB of RAM, internal memory expandable up to 32 GB via microSD and 3 megapixel camera. It also sports Bluetooth, WiFi, 3G, USB and is powered by a 1500 mAh Li-ion battery. This phone comes with a price tag of 11,000.

It feels uncomfortable to type on the touchscreen device after using the comfy physical keyboard. All Android devices are pre-installed with best typing user interface but here are the five best typing apps which make typing painless on touchscreen devices.

1. Swype

The Swype app is a faster and easier way to input text method for touchscreen Android devices. The app allows users to enter words just by sliding one continuous finger or stylus from letter to letter on the screen keyboard.

The app has an error-correcting algorithm which features to guess the intended word and avoids incorrect letters. It is designed to work across a variety of devices like smartphone, tablets, game consoles and more. It is available for free in the Android market and Swype’s official website.

2. TouchPal

The TouchPal app is similar to Swype app; it brings a whole new input text method experience to an Android devices. You can blindly type on your touchscreen without worrying about mistyped words. This app is an alternative text input method to the traditional physical keyboards as it combines two letters and a symbol on each key and gives a full QWERTY keyboard layout.

The app is designed and developed by CooTek and is available for free on the official website and in the Android market.

3. ICS keyboard

Google has rolled out its new operating system Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with lots of interesting features and one among them is its keyboard layout.

The Android marked had a separate app for non Android 4.0 users who can download ‘ICS keyboard’ and enjoy all the features like multi touch, auto correction, built in dictionary and speech to text. This app is available in multi language for free.

4. SwiftKey X

SwiftKey X app has made typing much easier for fat-finger typists on touchscreen devices like smartphone and tablets. The app gives much more accurate corrections and predicts words than any other keyboard and also supports almost all languages. The app is available for 193.10 in the Android market and is one among the best selling app.

5. Go Keyboard

The Go Keyboard app is one of the most popular free apps in Android market. The app features multi-point touch keyboard, slide input like Swype and TouchPal and auto corrects as you type. The interesting feature in this app is that you can personalize the theme for the keyboard layout. The app also supports multi languages and is available for free in the Android market.

The 3 Android Charms in Last Two Months

Before the happening of MWC (Mobile World Congress) 2012 at Barcelona in February, we have already came across some favorite releases in the Android market in past two months (December and January). Have a look at these devices which were unveiled recently and are all set to hit and define what to look forward in the smartphone market this year.

1. Samsung Galaxy Nexus:

This new hire of Galaxy family which was launched in December 2011 is the first smartphone to come up with Google’s latest version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It has a 4.65-inch 1280×720 Super AMOLED display, 5MP rear camera (1080 video capture), 1.3MP front-facing camera (720p video capture), 1.2GHz dual-core processor. Some drawbacks in this devices are; the size is a bit odd-can’t handle with one hand, there is no preloaded Google wallet. Galaxy Nexus will reach Indian market only by March and will be available for around 35,000.
2. LG Spectrum:

LG raised its curtain from LG Spectrum in the middle of January 2011. This new smartphone runs on Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread and sports 4.5-inch True HD 1280×720 Display, 8MP rear camera (1080p video capture), 1.3MP front-facing camera, 4GB of built-in storage space which can be expanded up to 32GB via a microSD card slot and a 1.5GHz dual-core processor. This phone is quite affordable, will cost you only around 10,000.

3. Motorola Droid Razr Maxx:

Droid Razr Maxx is in all news for its incredible battery life of 20 hours continues talk time. The phone was launched few days back with two major features; a 3300 mAH battery and 32GB storage. It also has a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED advanced 960×540 display, 8MP rear camera (1080p video capture), 1.3MP front-facing camera (720p video capture), a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and works on Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread. Its price and availability in India is not confirmed yet, but it is expected to cost around 30,000.

A Robot which Moves on a Ball

Crafted by a team of Swiss engineers and designers, the ballbot follows people around and can carry heavy loads with a grace of an ice-skater.

Ballbots are robots designed to move on a single sphere instead of wheels. This allows for omnidirectional, organic motion, exceptional agility and manoeuverability unlike other robots which usually have a linear motion.

Members of the team and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich (ETH, Zurich) students, Thomas Kammermann and Jerome Kaser, talked to reporters about Rezero at the Swiss embassy here.

"While designing Rezero, the main focus was on refining the technology. Developing the applications comes later," Kammermann told IANS.

"Rezero moves on a hollow, specially coated aluminium ball and 3 omni-wheels powered by space-grade motors for powering the locomotion. The bot uses microprocessor-based systems to communicate with the operator and a laser-based radar system to lock onto someone (or something) to follow," said Kammerman.

Rezero's very small footprint and dynamic stability made it particularly suited for applications in narrow, crowded and dynamic environments.

"This design is very suitable for applications such as carrying medical equipment or surveillance in crowded areas and since this is a dynamically stable system, its stability gets better as the centre of gravity gets higher. This means, the Rezero gets more stable as more load is piled on it," Kammerman said.

According to Kaser, the focus of design was agility and stability.

"Currently, Rezero can move at a top speed of 3.5 metres per second and has been tested to bear loads up to 20 kilos so far," said Kaser.

Ballbot is not a new concept but Rezero has been making news in robotics circles for its next generation performance. The next stop for the 13-member team is Kanpur where they will exhibit Rezero in Techkriti, the tech-fest of IIT Kanpur.

Aakash Users Face Trouble

With growing grievance of Aakash users including unresponsive screen, OS hanging, cacophonous sounds and poor customer care, the most popular yet cheap tablets released in partnership with Ministry of Human Resource and Development is now facing a death knell.

The ministry may refuse to extend the letter of credit (LC) to DataWind, which lapses this month end, according to the report from India Today

Aakash tablet was designed for students with the aim of filling the 'digital gap' between the rich and the poor. But with the negative feedback, government now plans to dump these problematic tabs to rural villages. Worse still is the fact that the entire project launched by HRD in October last year could be shelved.

The idea initiated by Union Minister Kapil Sibal for an affordable tablet has been hijacked by corporate giant, Mukesh-Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd, which plans to launch its fourthgeneration (4G) services later this year and sell tablets at cheap price of around 3,500. According to industry analysts, Mukesh's RIL could probably team up with DataWind or with any other to launch 4G services. RIL is the only company to have pan-India spectrum to offer wireless broadband services on the 4G platform.

The Ministry had initially placed an order for one lakh units of Aakash. It received 30,000 tabs in the first consignment. But it proved a disaster after poor feedback received from users. The tablets had a seven-inch touchscreen, Android 2.2 OS, 366 MHz processor, USB ports, and 180 minutes of battery power. Datawind is also launching an improved version with a 766 MHz processor instead of the 366 MHz processor, and a better battery life.

As quoted by India Today, DataWind had refused to upgrade the second shipment of 70,000 Aakash tablets with improved specifications. However, it will supply the second tranche of improved tablets at the original price of 2,250. But IIT-Rajasthan, which is a tendering authority for the Aakash project has not come out with the new testing standards. Authorities said this is a clear indication that DataWind's LC will not be extended,. It will now be supplied by other agency and not DataWind.

But DataWind has successfully managed to get over 20 lakh bookings for new versions. of Aakash tablet costs at Rs 2,999. According to company officials, the LC would be extended beyond January 30.