Nokia Z launcher : Hands ON

[caption id="attachment_864" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Z Launcher[/caption]

Well Nokia, surprisingly launched an launcher for Android, called Nokia Z. But it is worthy to be noted that it is still in beta stage and excruciatingly, it does not support rooted device. You have to follow some RootCloak methods for this. Click here to check out that tutorial. It is not really available on Play Store, instead anyone with an supported device can register, download and indulge it in their daily life.

Wealthy, weird and attractive the name is, there's nothing much to talk about the Z launcher. It is just a matter with a single home screen and an app drawer, even missing some features like widgets, rearrangement of icons and attractive look. But it is completely different in terms of functionality it offers. Still, it cannot be compared with Yahoo Aviate Launcher and some of third party launchers because it is just boring, even if navigation is pretty easy.

The entire launcher is based on "Write and Search" technique. When you a letter suppose A, it brings all contacts, files, songs, videos starting with letter A. Then You type the seconds letter, suppose Z (which makes AZ), it filters even more displaying basically all data on your phone starting with AZ. You can draw a line from right to left to delete a letter from left to right, which broadens the search. The Home screen displays your most used File ( which can be either file, contact, song, app etc) and circular icon for App drawer with main four icon short-cuts for camera, dialer and Browser. The drawer slides up to down, typically like HTC Sense, but there's nothing here to customise. Launcher just displays number of apps in app drawer with a settings icon.

Overall there's nothing extraordinary about Nokia Z. Just Write and Search methodology is fast enough for searching all stuff stored. It maybe amazing for little time, then it's just boring. But still it's in Beta Stage, let's see what happens further!

Duolingo App review : Your Personal language tutor

Many of us want to learn other languages apart from our mother tongue. Knowing one of the foreign language helps specially when we're travelling to other country and when we need to ask something to a particular person who knows that language. Duolingo is an app available on App store and Play Store for free, which becomes your personal tutor and helps you in learning foreign languages( taking reference as my country India, I'm talking about foreign language).

How to get started

First of all just download the app on your Android, iOS device. As soon as you open the app it will ask whether you're an existing user or new user. Here I assume that you're a new user, so click on new user and it will ask you to choose the language. There's a long list of language available, so I'll be choosing French for this article ( actually I'm learning French since last month). And there you go, now click on option button and select create profile just because it will save all your progress, and you'll be able to continue on multiple devices once logged in.

Overall UI :

Duolingo features traditional Card UI, the combination of simple swipes and gestures. Swiping from left to right brings a card in which you can switch between different courses. The rectangular box shows the stats of your current progress like 255 XP, 2 day streak etc. On the main body of the app, there are three tabs : one with brain symbol which is used for different lessons and select different topics and show your current progress on a particular topic and subtopics (lessons) inside. The second tab is the FRIEND's tab. It basically allows you to add friends and compete with them. The third tab with HOME like logo shows how much lingots do you have.  Outfits, Bonus, skills etc can be purchased by exchanging lingots. And there's option button on the top right for general purposes as well as dumbbell like button which is kind of test. Basically it creates a personalised lesson to improve ourselves, before everything vanishes from our mind. The course starts from basics to phrases, than from food to animals and finally from to grammar to sports, political, economics etc.

Tutor's Teaching :

There is different level of understanding and enjoyment in learning if necessary algorithms are followed. There is always a different  effect on a student by different teachers. In the world were Internet covers most of the daily chapters, learning is easy, convenient  comparatively cheaper and less mobile. Duolingo teaches with an effective way - easy to understand and simple. It basically asks you translate a sentence from English to let's say French and vice versa. Since teaching is done on digital screen, there is probably no limit on how you can teach. The basic words are taught pictures like "le garcon, le sandwich" etc followed by some voice samples which we have to write in the text box down below. Only down side of this app is bad voice output. Seriously you can't guess what actually digital voice is coming out with voice interruptions sometimes. Sometimes it asks you touch the blocks of the words for translating French to English and sometimes Multiple Choice Questions. You get three to four chances in a particular lesson, if you go wrong, you loose chances one by one and then lesson is over and you have to try again. Those chances are represented by hearts.

If you touch a word, it gives the meaning and different forms that can be used with different tenses. You can click on voice button to hear the pronunciation of the word or the whole sentence. Let's say if you go wrong, it gives you the correct answer and you loose a chance, but of course you can try again!

Conclusion:

At last it's a good application to consider, specially if you're not interested in spending money for a paid online  course of learning a particular language. Though there are some paid alternatives available, this app will enough for you and will guide from basics to grammar.

 

Pros: Good UI, good teaching method

Cons: Voice feedback

Turn your android device into a wireless joystick!!!!!!!

Gaming On laptops and PCs isn't that much fun as it is on a gaming consoles.Well,one of the primary reasons is the controller.The controllers available, are usually wired and the wireless ones are too costly to buy.

A junior developer at XDA-DEVELOPERS.COM has found a great solution to this problem.

He has made an app called MOBILE GAMEPAD on android which adds to our utility dynamic, extremely productive and greatly useful android phones, a feature of using the sensors in it to use the phone as a gamepad for WINDOWS.

The app wirelessly connects a windows pc or laptop and you can add many games through the server client.

The App has a larger functionality over other controllers as it can also use the motion sensing accelerometer for gaming!!!

The whole credit for making this possible goes to the Developer

To Download app and SERVER client: Click here

 

Procedure:

1. Two files are to be downloaded:Mobile app and the server.zip


2. Once downloaded,install the apk on mobile device.


3. Extract server.zip and install client software.


4. configure client.


5. To add games ,under "Games" tab, click the "+" symbol.


6. Give the path of .exe file.


7.  Now ,Open the mobile app in device.


8. Connect to pc client through IP shown in General tab of Pc client.


9. done,enjoy playing the game.

Source: xda-developers.com

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FTPDroid App : Review

The hassle of USB cables for transferring files from your phone to your computer creates mental stress , sometimes . However there  are some wireless , easy and convenient ways too . FTPDroid is an app with which you can turn your phone into an FTP server and transfer files wirelessly between your phone and any FTP client , which removes the hassle of wires . That ethically makes sense , but all you need is a Wifi Connection for a transfer medium . It is one of the most IMPORTANT APP in my phone !

Overall UI :

This app tomorrow updated to Google's Card UI . Overall its simple to operate . When you start the app  , it greets you with two tabs , SERVICE and Log , I'll get into that in detail . On the top of the screen it says START and STOP , access via FTP Client and on the right side of there's users tab , again I'll discuss in detail about this . Settings are easy to operate and there's nothing that's difficult to find , which is good for ethics of mind as we get frustrated at a light year's speed . 

Swiping from the left of the screen , releases a card , in which there are three options , MANAGE USERS , OPTIONS , HELP . Over-all UI is same as traditional Google apps like Play Music and Google+ and others . As for now , more and more devs are optimising their apps to Card UI . And as you start the app , it automatically starts the access of phone via FTP Client .You can also manage your phone fia FileZilla which is the FTP Client , and also via Windows Explorer . The app is easy to use and there's no hassle in operating it .

Transfer files via Windows Explorer or anyother FTP Client :

 

 

When you the start the FTP Access  , it gives a link in which in my case is " ftp://192.168.1.102:2121" which you have to type in Windows Explorer or FTP Client like File Zilla and your phone and computer should be connected to the same Wifi Network . And there you Go , now you can transfer files Wirelessly between your phone and computer . However it is advisable to use Users system built into the app when on public wifi network or open to all wifi network . Although it transfer never go up to the USB Mark , but this method is always convenient for users , who don't want hassle and melodrama of wires . Though ads below may trouble you , but that's the thing we've to live with .

Manage Users :

What this feature actually does it it protects you , when you're on unsecured wifi network or open wifi network or you wan't to little more security over it . You can add users to this , create their name and password , so as you try to access your phone's storage via FTP Client it asks for username and password  , so that you are secured enough . Although by default , you can access only phone's storage for transfer , you can specify the particular path like SD Card or other when you add or edit users , in Manage Users , so you can multiple users for different paths , which over whelming sometimes , but it's Okay !

You can un-check Enable anonymous login , so that there's no anonymous login  , and all you require is username and password for login  , which adds little bit more security .

How it looks in Windows Explorer ?

As soon as you try type FTP address in Windows Explorer , it asks for username and password . It takes about 5 seconds to tranfer 5MB file , so ultimately it's 1MB per second which is good . However sometimes there are connection failures and transfer errors  , but they're not often , so no problem at all .

Conclusion :

So overall it's a good to be used in daily life , though it feels sick sometimes  , but it becomes very useful  in daily life .

MTSquad rating : 8.5/10

Wearables : The Google Way (all new Android Wear)

There is kinda buzz in the tech community that this year 2014 is gonna be the year of "WEARABLES".

We have seen many wearable products being launched uptill now as we move on to the Q2 of 2014 and after all what we seen in the Q1 of 2014 it seems that the Q2 of this year is going to see more innovation and creativity in the field of wearable technology.

The fact that we haven't seen too much innovation uptill now in this field is that "There wasn't available, a dedicated wearable OS ".The OEMs had to fork with the OS available to fit into their tiny wearable displays and which is indeed a hard thing to do.That is why Only high class OEMs could think of Making a Wearable device which could be compatible exclusively with their mobile devices.

Google,the search giant , and the so called Android father,considered this thing seriously and released the all new wearable interface of the World Famous OS android named as "ANDROID WEAR" .Currently there are Two OEMs working with google on this namely LG and MOTOROLA. LG would be releasing a smartwatch named LG G,and Motorola with its beautiful MOTO 360,is ready to take over the smartwatch market.

   

This UI allows users to use only those features on thier wearable which is need to be accessed.

Design :

The wearable running the all new android Wear will have jst a google Now screen integrated into their smart devices which would allow to have a quick glance to the Weather,Allow hangout messaging on the go, get various informations about sports, calories burnt if you are in a workout ,and would also get informations about the songs you are listening to... automatically!!!!

this is what makes google the best out of rest when it comes to knowing the user and due to the user friendliness of this design which can be accessed via touch or just saying "Ok Google" keyword would allow great flexibility in info management.

 

For Developers:

Android wear has a developer preview released along with its launch which allows the developers to make and build a better UI ,probably New apps  which would make this thing one of the best for the OEMs of Asia and other regions to get more involved in this wearable community.

The developer preview can be downloaded after signing up at the following link:

http://developer.android.com/wear/preview/start.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=get-started-with-the-developer-preview-android-developers

Conclusion:

As Per my thinking i think that the android wear is going to help the OEMs build more elegant minimalistic and cost effective devices with a huge world of apps to explore..

Thanks to all the readers..

 

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EpocCam app Review : Turn your Android or iOS device into a Wireless HD Webcam

Many of us have good phone , right?  The  awesome camera , an luxury ethics in operating it , the social status ( lol )  , the crystal clear snaps etc become the daily life . Now , the  webcams that are pre-installed  on the laptops , are not that good , the quality is average etc , even if you buy a new WebCam , there are certain limitations in it's quality though ... So many of us will be thinking about turning our ROYAL phone into a WebCam maybe , so this app serves your purpose ..

[APP]Everycircuit let's you easily create electronic circuits Anywhere!!! Anytime!!!

Hi guys this is my first post and its the review of "Everycircuit" ,a really powerful simulation that gives you the power to make a virtual electronic circuit.

One more thing Apk included....!!