The best Android Browser so far

The best thing about Android is the options that are available in the Market when it comes to Applications. You come across a variety of Applications for the same purpose. Browsers are on of them.

I have tested all the browsers available for Android so far. I download every new browser that is available in the market and try them for sometime. However, I always find myself going back to the stock Android Browser because I see no point in using the browsers available in the Market - they all have similar or lesser features than the stock Android Browser.

Firefox and Opera for example, the leaders in the desktop browser war, suck big time with their Android Browsers. Browsing with Opera Mobile or Firefox makes it look like you are using a feature phone and not a smartphone.

Dolphin on the other hand has some cool features and great functionality. But Dolphin sucks when it comes to looks. The user interface of Dolphin used to feel like the work of some kindergarten kid, until Webzine came along.

Then there is Miren. It looks good. It has some great functionality built into it. It feels like you are browsing on the desktop when you are using Miren. But I have not seen an update ever since I downloaded Miren. So it always comes across to me as an abandoned project.

Thinking about Miren made me feel that, perhaps, this is where Android Browser innovation ends. Now Android Browser will ever go beyond what Miren has done with browser functionality. Then Dolphin came along with Webzine, confirming my belief that innovation ended when it comes to browsers. Now, Webzine is a reader. I cannot understand why it should be the feature of a web browser. We have plenty of RSS readers out there if we want one.

As usual, I was proved wrong. I stumbled upon Sleipnir in the Android Market. I think Sleipnir is the best browser  have come across in the Android Market so far. Why do I think so? Let me give you my reasons:

• Sleipnir has a very innovative user interface. I used to think that Life Browser is the best user interface available so far. But after I started using Sleipnir, I realized that Life Browser is just a user interface gimmick. The ability to see screen shots of your bookmarks is what makes Life Browser different. But you kind of find it useless when it comes to other browser features. Sleipnir's user interface is a different one. Sleipnir has taken tabbed browsing on smartphones to the next level. You can have as many tabs as you want open on the browser with Sleipnir and you can have different layers of tabs. Sleipnir has six layers on which you can organize your tabs for easy access.  And the tabs and layers are just a swipe away, at the bottom of the screen.
• A major issue I have with all the other Browsers on Android was the fact that they open mobile version of sites, if you have Android as your default user agent. Ya, that is good. I like reading the mobile versions of sites than the original versions sometimes. However, the problem with most of the mobile sites is the font size. Most mobile sites have their font size below the level of human capacity to read. How I used to wish if I could zoom some of the mobile sites to make them readable. Not all eyes are as powerful as mobile site developers eyes. Sleipnir allows you to tap or pinch even mobile site to zoom. This is the best feature I loved about Sleipnir.
• Sometimes you wish you did not have to tap the tabs to go from one tab to another. It makes me feel so good to swipe on the readers to go to the next page. That is so intuitive when you are reading. It is like turning the pages on the book. Sleipnir allows you to do that. I heard that the feature is available on Dolphin Browser for Android Honeycomb Tablets. But I like the fact that Sleipnir does it for all the android versions it works on.
• Swipe down on the tab to close it is another feature I liked. I think this feature has a little problem as you swipe down to close a tab. Often you end up pressing the home button as you are swiping down to close a tab and close the browser. But, as you get used to the browser I am sure you will be careful not to do it.
• It has some useful gesture features that allows you to search, refresh or stop a page from loading. Some of you may like it. However, for me it is not very useful as many gestures on most browsers are not an intuitive feature. The fact is, I forget to use them. But if you are someone good at remembering your gestures, you will love the gesture features of Sleipnir.

You can donwload Sleipnir  from here. Let me know what you think about the browser after you use it. 

Best reminder app for Android

If you are someone like me who keeps forgetting things that need your immediate attention, you defenitly need an application that reminds you to do them. Now, setting up your calendar is good enough for scheduling. Calendar on your android phone is not good enough to help you manage your daily to-do stuff. Though there are plenty of Applications out there, most of them fail when it comes to reminding you to do stuff. Either you need to create an alarm or you need to put a widget on your home screen so that you are remineded.

Now, the problem with alarms are, they go off once. After they go off once and you forget to snooze them, you are going to be in  trouble, forgetting what you were upto.

And the problem with a widget? Widgets are good if you put them on the screen that you always go to. Considering that most android phones have almost seven homescreens and you always don't go to all homescreens often, keeping a widget may not always help. And considering that most to-do applications out there in the market don't have an alram function built into them, widgets are the only option. But then, as I told you widgets often fail to grab your attention.

If widgets don't help, then what helps? Which application helps us to set todo reminders and see them when we have to? There is an application that allows us to create reminders without wasting the real eastate of the home screen and to keep them in a place we will never miss. This application I am talking about helps you keep your reminders in the notification tray.

Ya, that is right. Notification Notes, a very useful todo reminder application for android uses your notification tray to display your reminders. You can either create sticky notifications for your tasks and keep them displayed in the notification tray till you are done with the thing or you can set alarms for a task so that it displays exactly when you have to do it.

Let me give you an example. You are in the middle of something and you get a mail that you need to meet your boss for something very important after half an hour. All that you need to do is type the reminder into your Notification Notes and set an alarm. Your reminder will pop up on your notification bar exactly after half an hour. Is that not cool?

The great thing about Notification Notes is the fact that it allows you to create more than one notification reminder, unlike some notification reminder apps that are available in the market. It also comes with icons that you can change for each reminder. Now, if you want to downlaod Notification Notes, the application that allows you to set reminders on your notification bar, you can download it from here.

Which is the best keyboard for Android?

So far, after buying my first Android Phone, I have tried more than ten versions of keyboards for Android. As usual, the pre-loaded stock Android Keyboard always comes with a lot of limitations. And this leads us to the search of a better keyboard. It led me too. And I have tried many of them. From Swipe to Swiftkey X, I have tried them all.

What do you look for when you download a keyboard? If you are like me, I am sure you will look for a keyboard that will help you make less mistakes as you are typing. The issue with most touch screen keyboards is that we end up pressing the wrong key or the screen reads our tap on the keyboard wrong. Stock Android keyboard's ability to predict what you will type and auto-correct is very limited. That is how many of us end up making frustrating and embarrassing  epic auto-correct bloopers. The more accurate the auto-correct, the better.

However, not many Android Keyboards have the ability to predict what you are typing as accurately as possible. Swipe got it right to some extent. But the problem with Swipe is that it is available mostly on Samsung Phones and even if it is available you get tired of swiping after some time. I still use Swipe to show off the ability of my Android phone and not to do my day to day typing.

SwiftKey X got it almost right. After using it for sometime, I realized that SwiftKey also fails me in this accuracy department sometimes. Sometimes it comes up with these autocorrects that you cannot change no matter how hard you try. You keep typing one word and SwiftKey changes into something else. Frustrated, you have to go back to the stock Keyboard to type it the way you want.

So does my search for a keyboard that allows me to type accurately on my Andoid phone end there? Thankfully, no! Like I always say, there is an App for that too - AI Type Keyboard.

AI Type Keyboard alows you to type faster and without much mistake. It does not autocorrect irresponsibly. Everytime AI Type Keyboard autocorrects you, it notifies you with a sound. Otherwise, it predicts what you write and predicts so well that you may not even have to review what you type. You can set the keys to make a pop sound when you type. And the keys that you touch pops out allowing you to  keep track of which key you are touching. Over all I will give a 9 out of 10 for AI Type Keyboard. You can download AI Type Keyboard from here if you are using an Android Phone. You can download the tablet version of the App from here. 

How to make Android Applications full screen on Tablets?

You download an application to your tablet only to find it that it does not fit full screen and there is this ugly black boarder around it. This ugly black boarder and the small screen size of the App makes you not want to use the Application however good it actually is. This is a usual problem with most first-generation Android Tablets. Many of the old Applications that are developed for the small screen of a smart phone does not look well on the tablet. People who use Samsung Galaxy Tab, the beautiful seven inch one from Samsung, are aware of this issue.

What can you do to make your Android Tablet display all Applications in full screen? Usually, you have to edit the manifest file of each small screen app to make it full screen. Most of us do not have the time to do that kind of work for all the applications we download.  Even if we have the time, we may not have the know-how to do it. There is actually an automated way of working around this issue. Well here is what you need to do to make otherwise small screen Android Applications look full screen on your Tablet:

• Go to Android Market and download Spare Parts. Spare Parts is a settings application for Android. It allows you to tweak a few settings that are otherwise not available on many phones or tablets. The developer ripped these settings from the Android source repository and put them together to make an Application. You can download Spare Parts from here.
• After downloading Spare Parts, open the application. You will find a list of settings. Go to compatibility mode in the list of settings. You will find that compatibility mode is checked. Uncheck the compatibility mode and reboot the tablet. Note one thing here - Spare Parts is not a full screen application when you download it. 
• Once your tablet is switched on, go to Spare Parts again. If the change worked, you will see that Spare Parts has turned into a full screen app.

Is there an App like Photoshop for Android?

Do you like to draw pictures and paint? Are you painter who wants to try every medium possible to express yourself? Or are you a person who wishes your smart phone had the ability to let you draw or paint what you like? Or are you a person like me, who wish you had a Photoshop like App for your Android? Well, Android will not disappoint you.

There are plenty of Apps available in the Android Market, that allows you to paint or draw. There are plenty of  apps that allow you to insert photographs from your Gallery and draw circles and letters on it with your finger. But there an App that will help you do all that, and do it like you do on Photoshop. 

Adobe is yet to come out with an Application that resembles Photoshop for Android. Apparently, they are getting ready to launch one. But we cannot wait that long right? Ya, nobody waits when it comes to technology. It is all about getting what you want where you want it as quickly as you want it. And I know, we will jump at the opportunity of an App like Photoshop for Android. Yes, there is one!

SketchBook Mobile Express is an App like Photoshop for Android. If you have Android 2.1  or above, you can go ahead and download SketchBook Express for free from Android Market. Yes, it lets you draw and draw like a pro. If your device has 512 MB RAM and a 1Ghz Processor SketchBook Mobile Express will work like magic on your device. What I liked most about Sketchbook Mobile Express? Well, the ability to draw using layers like the layers on Photoshop. If you want to give it a shot, you can download the App from here. 

If you do not mind paying and you are really a pro painter who will settle for nothing other than the best features available, they got a paid version for you. They got SketchBook Mobile, that comes with more features. You can download it from here. 

If you are using a Hioneycomb Tablet like Samsung Galaxy Tab, you might want to try the Tablet Version of SketchBook. They call it Sketchbook Pro. SketchBook Pro is specially designed for Android Tablet. Well, here again, you need to pay for this App. You can download it from here. 

Iris vs Vlingo vs Speaktoit

After Siri is out on iPhone, there is such a rush of people to capitalize on the Siri Effect and earn some quick money or popularity. It sounds and feels like the Gold Rush. Everyone, is making a Virtual Assistant Application. Out of all the Virtual Assistant crap that is coming to Market, three key players stand out - Iris, Vlingo and Speaktoit. I have used all the three and would like to give you an idea about how I felt using the three Applications.

Iris

Iris is a clever play on the word Siri. However, it is an Application made in a rush. The developer says it was hacked together in 8 hours. It is still in beta and it is too early to pass a judgement. For 8 hours of hack, it is a good product. Otherwise it is not that great. Use Iris a couple of times and you will go away feeling that your phone does not like you. Iris is actually trying to be funny. But it ends up being sarcastic. Not many people will like a sarcastic virtual assistant. The point is, this sarcasm or humour is to cover up the fact that Iris is incapable of doing certain tasks it is supposed to do. It can not send an SMS. It cannot update your status on social networks. It cannot set a reminder. All that it can do is to pull up answers to your questions from Wikipedia. Ya, Iris does that well. It pulls out answers and reads it for you better than any other App in the Market. So if you want to play Quiz with your Virtual Assistant, you can download Iris from here.

Vlingo

Vlingo is in the market for sometime now, much before Siri came along. It is a direct Application. No cleverness. No fun. You give a command and Vlingo does it. Vlingo is better at capturing your voice command and executing it. But it is boring. Because it does not have a conversation mode. It sounds like you are talking to a robot and you are a robot when dealing with Vlingo. Otherwise, Vlingo does many of the tasks in a breeze. It can even capture your vague mumbles and execute an action. It is integrated to the search button and you can make it your default action for long pressing the search button. It can send SMS. Search the Map. It can voice dial. It can search the web for you. It can do many tasks. No fun and all work. Vlingo gets confused if you ask her any crooked humane question. If you are someone who likes to get your work done straight away in few words, you can download Vlingo from here.

Speaktoit

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy - that is exactly what will happen to Vlingo. All fun and no work makes Jack a useless boy - that is exactly what will happen to Iris. Speaktoit is the only App that I have seen in the market so far, that is almost equal to Siri. It does all the work. And it knows to be funny. It knows to have a conversation with you. As I understand, it will take years for a Virtual Assistant to become a utility. Till then people are going to have fun with it. People are going to use it to just show off for a while and then are going to forget it. Speaktoit will be a good App to show off. It does all the work it needs to do or can do. And it lets you have some fun on the sidelines. I have written more about Speaktoit here. Speaktoit is the best Android Virtual Assistant you can download to show off to the Apple Fanboys who wag their Siri on your Face and smirk. If you are someone who likes to get the work done and at the same time have some fun, you can download Speaktoit from here. 

How to make an Android Phone look like an iPhone?

Android Users usually do not want their phone's user interface to look like iPhone. They are Android Users because they wanted to be Android Users. But some of us are Android Users because of the freedom that Android gives. We like the iPhone User Interface, but since iPhone is so closed and restrictive we chose to go with Android. Or still, some of us have just moved from iPhone to Android, are just getting used to Android Way and we want time to get used to the whole Android Experience. Or some of us just want to try something new for the kick of it without having to pay Apple. That is when we start searching for ways in which we can make our Android look like iPhone.

Is there some way in which we can make our Android Phone look and behave like iPhone? There are many options to make your Android Phone look like an iPhone. The most popular way is to download Go Launcher or Launcher Pro and get one of their many themes that look like an iPhone. But the problem here is, Go Launcher or Launcher Pro themes do not keep two key things that differentiate an Android from an IPhone.

What are those key things that differentiate the iPhone User Interface from an Android User Interface?

One, iPhone does not have widgets. Android has plenty of them. Widgets are one of the reasons why people love Android. So if you want to make your phone look exactly like iPhone, you need to forget having Widgets around. [On second thought, the only widgets that I use are the Clock Widget and the Search Widget. But you miss the widget functionality if you do not have it around. ]

Two, iPhone does not have an App Drawer like Android. In Android, you have a home screen and then you have an App Drawer. This helps you have all your Applications in one place. And then you can have your widgets and short cuts to applications organized on the five to seven home screens that you have. For iPhone, it is all applications on that screen of yours and nothing more. And then, if you want to categorize your applications, you can create folders. You can not create folders for Applications in your App Drawer for Android, in the stock Android. [If you really want to create folders for your Applications, try Go Launcher on Android]

Now, Go Launcher or launcher Pro themes that promise to make your phone look like iPhone, do not take away these two key functions from Android - the App Drawer and Widgets. That is where you need to try out this new kid in the block from China - Espire Launcher. You can downlaod Espire Launcher from here.

The first thing you will notice about Espire Launcher is the fact that it removes the two key features of Android temporarily, while you are using it as your launcher. Oh ya, it apes the shiny look of an iPhone user interface. But then you will not have access to widgets or App Drawer. You can manage multitasking by swiping up from the bottom of your screen to bring up the multi-task or recent app tray. You can put your Applications in folders. You have your search function on a single page. And you have notifications popping up on the Application Icons like you have in iPhone. Ya, it looks good. It gives you iPhone OS for Android.

It looks good. It looks shiny. It looks exactly like the iPhone OS. But, then you start missing your widgets. Then you start missing your App drawer. If you are a real Android Fan, you will try Espire for a while and then go back to your most comfortable Android Interface, like I did.

Now, if you liked the iPhone OS and do not want to go back to the Android Interface, I suggest that you do one more thing. Read my post on MagicLocker from here and get an iPhone Screen Lock Theme to complete your masquerade. See, that is the freedom Android gives. 

Want to change the screen lock on your Android?

Android allows you to have variety! You can use an Android Phone almost any way you want. This is true in terms of the kind of Applications we can use on Android and the way we can make the user interface look. Ya, if you go the Android Way, you do not have to stick to a pattern your gadget maker asks you.

Ya, you can change the way the User Interface looks and behaves if you are using Android. You can make it look like an iPhone. You can put the new Windows Phone interface on you Android Phone. There are hundreds of themes and user interfaces available for Android.

Till now, making your User Interface look the best possible way you wanted it to was limited to what you saw on the screen after you woke the screen up from sleep mode. There was nothing much we could do about Android's lock screen. It used to be that boring slide to open lock screen or a pattern or pin lock screen. Perhaps, the slide to open lock screen differed from one Android to another, based on how the device manufacturer clocked their user interface with their own. Otherwise, all the lock screens are pretty same on Android. Pretty boring same, after the first few months. How we wished we could change the lock screen on Android!

Now, is there some way we can play around and change the way the lock screen of our Android Phone looks? Yes, you have a way to change the Android Phone lock screen without having to root it. They call it, MagicLocker! You can download MagicLocker from here.

Download the main MagicLocker application first. It allows you to download different kinds of Android Screen Locks and use them on your phone as you wish. Now you can make your phone open like an iPhone or a Windows Phone or you name what ever style you like! You want to try the Honeycomb Lock screen on a Gingerbread phone or Froyo phone? Go ahead and download MagicLocker. And download any theme you like!

As usual, because of Android OS fragmentation, some of you may have some difficulty making the App work the way it should. The usual complaint is how the App behaves when the battery is low. Having said that, I know most of us are willing to forgive Android OS Developers as they give us what we want in the best possible way they can. And MagicLocker may have a lot things it need to change to be better. But something is better than nothing.

There is an App like Apple's Siri (voice action assistant) for Android

Apple released IPhone 4s and Apple fanboys are so desperate already to find out what makes it different from iPhone 4. They talk about internet loading speed of Iphone 4s, but their own test videos show how some of the new Android phones match it in terms of speed. The next thing they talk about is Siri.

Siri is an application available in iphone 4s that allows you to use voice actions. You say it and Siri will do it for you. Want to send a text message to someone? Just tell Siri. Want to find out which is a good seafood restaurant in Bangalore, ask Siri. Ya, all that is good only till you know that these capabilities are already built into Android and all that you need is an application to do it.

No! Don't expect Google to do it for you. Google is not Apple. They did not create Android so that they can create all cool apps themselves. They let the developers do it. And one of the Android Developers have already come up with an App that matches Siri in terms of functionality.

Speaktoit Assistant is the Application that gives you what you ask for on Android. You can download the app from here. Speaktoit Assistant is closely integrated with the voice recognition and voice action technology already available on Android.

What can you do with Speaktoit Assistant? You can do pretty much anything that you do with Siri, if you are using Speaktoit Assistant for Android. You can update your Social Network Profiles. You can open websites. You can send text messages. You can open applications. And based on your gender preference you can have a guy or a girl assisting you with Voice Actions as you go about asking your Android Smartphone to do things for you.

The best thing I like about Speaktoit Assistant is that it uses the voice action language on your phone. For example, I speak Indian English and Speaktoit Assistant understands Indian English as that is the default voice action language on my phone.

Speaktoit Assistant is closely integrated with the browser and search function of Android. So you can make it your default voice action assistant. A long press on the search button will open Speaktoit Assistant after you make it your default voice action application on Android.

Update: Like me, if you have the habit of trying several Applications for the same functionality before settling with one, Vlingo Virtual Assistant is another voice action assistant  you have. You can download Vlingo Voice Action Assistant from here. What can Vlingo do for you? Vlingo follows your voice commands for a number of functions like sending text messages, calling someone, searching, updating social networks, opening applications, getting directions on you map and to hear incoming messages. Like Windows Phone proposes to do, Vlingo has an InCar Beta. Vlingo In Car beta is integrated into your Vlingo Virtual Assistant and you can use it when your drive. It also has an automatic listening mode.

Feedback Update: I tried both Speaktoit and Vlingo. Speaktoit feels more like Siri because it answers your questions in a conversation mode. Vlingo feels like a skinned version of Google Voice Actions. Though, like Siri, Speaktoit gets confused with certain things you say, it does a good job picking out things for you from the web or sending a message or updating your social network actions. I have been hearing about the funny things that Siri says when you ask funny questions to it. From the look of it, I think Speaktoit gives funnier answers to the same questions. Vligo, on the other hand, is a little dry as it just executes voice commands.

Now try Speaktoit and Vlingo and let me know which of those you liked!

Update: A recent software update got Speaktoit, the ability to remember your name. It also has options of using a Male or Female Voice. So, all you girls out there, if you want a Male Voice Assistant, Speaktoit is the App. 

How to install Android Applications on your Windows/Mac Computer?

I know! How we wish we could use our favourite Android Apps on Windows or Mac, right? We, people who love Android, love world without borders and technology without operating system boundaries. For us, an ideal world will be a world where we can use any application on any operating system. Like I said in my last post, we love Android because of its openness. But Android is as open as only Android can get.

What if we could use some of the Android Applications on our PC or Mac? That World would be an ideal world. Hopefully that world is yet to come. Until then, we need to rely on emulators. They did it on Blackberry Playbook once. If you are an Android geek, i am sure you remember how someone created an Emulator for Android on playbook. There was also news of someone installing Gingerbread or Honeycomb on a Linux system.

But that is Linux System. Most of us use Windows. And we do not have the tech background to install Android OS on a Windows PC without killing it. The only hope we have is an Android Emulator for Windows or Mac. And the hope is finally here!

Bluestacks! Blustacks allows you to emulate Android Apps as they are seen on an Android phone. Is that not cool? Yes, it is! I tried the emulator and the first thing i tried to emulate was the app that is so popular - Pulse. Though I do not like Pulse much for eating all the battery on my Android phone, I love its design. And I was absolutely stunned to see that Pulse looks and feels the same way on your PC when you emulate it using Bluestacks as you use it on your Android phone.


Now remember, you can emulate your Android using Bulestacks only if you are using Windows 7. You Mac Application is on the way. And Bluestacks is in Alpha, so do not expect bug free performance.  Now if you have an Android Phone, you can use Bluestacks Cloud Connect to transfer some of you favorite Applications to your PC. Bluestack Cloud Connect can be downloaded from here.

If you are someone who is thinking of moving away from iOS or Blackberry and want to see how Android Apps work, Bluestack is certainly  something you might want to try.

Troubleshooting: Remember that Bluestacks is in Alpha. In other words, Bluestacks is out in its most rudimentary form. Some of you may find that Bulestacks does not install on your Windows 7 PC. Do not panic! There must be some issues with the file you have downloaded. Reboot your computer and try installing Bluestacks again. If that does not work, download the installation file once again later and try to install Bluestacks on your PC

Get great Themes for Android Phones, all in one place!

Are you a theme addict? Are you someone who keeps changing your phone theme on a daily basis? Are you someone who does not like your phone interface to look like the phone interface of your friend? Now, if you are you also know how difficult it is to get great themes for your phone from the clutter and chaos of themes in the Android Market. There are plenty of themes for Android Phones out there, themes that will make the UI of your Android Phone look sleeker and stylish and of course different. The issue is how do you get those that fit your taste, considering that with all the search capability that Google has, Android market search feature still sucks. What is the solution?

Well, there is a solution. If you know where to get Launcher Pro, ADW Launcher and Go launcher EX, half your problem is solved. Go ahead and install all three of them if you want to have all your options of a cool UI open in front of you. Once you have these three launchers on your phone, you can go and download N3XGen Theme Manager

N3XGen Theme Manager takes the chaos of themes available in Android Market and organizes them in a way it is to easy to discover themes that suits your taste. It allows you to search themes. It categorizes themes into free and paid. It syncs your Application Data from the Android Market so that you know which theme you already have and which you do not. The App is in beta. There are more features to come.

Here is a video of N3XGen Theme Manager:

Play any video format on Android! MoboPlayer or QQPlayer!

Playing video on mobile phones can be a pain sometimes. You need to either stream video from the web or convert your video into mpeg4 or 3gp format to make it playable on you mobile device. Now converting a video is such a long wait. You need to wait as long as the video you are converting to get it right and it is such a painfully long wait. How we wish playing video on a mobile device was as easy as playing it on a PC or a laptop. How we wish we could save that favourite DVD of ours on the mobile phone - copy, pate and we are done like we do it on a PC. How we wish we could play any video format on a mobile device - DivX, VOB, AVI or MKV files! Now our wish is Android's command!

The best thing about Android, as I always say, is the freedom it gives you. It gives you freedom from ripping, converting or streaming videos too. It allows you to use video players that are specifically designed to play any video format on the go.

I have tried many video players, in my quest to find a video player for Android that can play any video formats. Copy the video from a DVD to the phone and play it, that is what I wanted. And I stumbled upon the best video player, that can play any video format on your Android Phone, the other day.

MoboPlayer from Mobo Team plays any video format the best way only Android Phones can.

Head over to market and download MoboPlayer and it does the rerst for you. You can download MoboPlayer from here.

Now, which video formats can MoboPlayer play? MoboPlayer can play .avi, .mp3, .rmvb, .rm, .3gp, .wmv, .mp4, .mov, .mkv, .flv, .3gpp, .mpg, .mlv, .mpeg, .m2v, .vob, .tp, .ts, .asf, .ra, .ram, .hlv, .ogg, .f4v, .m4v, and .divx video formats. Wow, now that is a lot of popular video formats you can play on your Android Phone.

What does MoboPlayer do to play all these video formats? Most cases, MoboPlayer decodes the software using its in built format decoding systems. It can do many other things for you too. It can decode SRT, ASS and SAA subtitle formats too. This means if there are subtitles available for formats like .mkv, .mov and .mpv formats, MoboPlayer will play them along with the video for you. You can also stream videos from the web.

Now, what are you waiting for? Head over to Android Market and download MoboPlayer. Connect your Android Phone via USB to your Computer and copy paste the video file from your favourite DVD to your External SD Card or Internal SD Card. And click play after you disconnect!

Update:
Now if you are someone who wants to have all your options open so that you can play a particular format that you cannot play on one player, on another, here is another player that plays all video formats for Android - QQ Player

QQ Player allows you to play almost all the formats that MoboPlayer does. Now between QQ Player and MoboPlayer, you can workaround the formatting differences that happen when they write a video file on a DVD. A great thing about QQ Player is that it allows you to move between sound tracks and subtitle tracks if they are available on the file that you are playing. Now, if you do not want to take a chance with not being able to play your video after you have transferred the file to your phone, I suggest you pick both QQ Player and Moboplayer and download it from the market and you are ready to go again. [Tip: Allen Reza] 

Five best Android News Readers

Content discovery on the go makes a smartphone worth its bargain. There are many ways you can discover and consume content on your Android phone. News Aggregation or Reader Apps are one of those ways!

There are many News Reader Applications available in the Android Market. Google Reader is just one of them.  Google Reader is a simple and very useful Reader Application. That is, if you have the habit of neatly managing your Google Reader Account. Many of us may not like the simplicity and straightforwardness that Google Reader offers on Android. Many of us may like a little more colour, a little more social integration into reading and a little more automatic content aggregation when it comes to a News reader App. There are many applications in the Android Market that just promise to do that. However, not all of them are true to their promises.

What I am trying to do here is to give you 5 Android News Reader Applications that I think are good. I use all of them one way or the other. Here we go:

Feedly 

Rating: ★★★★☆

Feedly is the smart and stylish way to read news on your Android Phone or Tablet. Its minimalistic design and elegant animations make reading a pleasure. Feedly automatically curates news based on certain key topics that are built into the Application. You can integrate your Google Reader account with Feedly and keep track of your rss feeds. You can also add websites of your choice to Feedly and categorize them. You have in-app sharing for Twitter and Facebook. Feedly also uses in-phone sharing so that you can share content using any Social Network App you have on your phone. Feedly depends on website feeds to curate news. Now, this means Feedly may not be able to give you the whole content in one tap as most websites have their rss feeds closed to give you only snippets of a write-up. Feedly has a built in browser which enables you to open the feed on Feedly itself. Don't worry if you can not read a website you have opened because the text size is too small for your eye. Feedly offers an option for you to reformat the content to make it readable on your mobile screen. 

Pulse

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Pulse is the most popular News Reader on Android. It is very simple. You can put five pages of rss feed on your screen and read on the go. Perhaps what makes pulse popular is the fact that it automatically strips the website html and present the content in a readable format. If you are someone who have a few website you check out regularly and you want them all in one place, pulse is just for you. You can swipe horizontally or vertically to read your feeds. And you can bookmark any of your content on Pulse Me to read it later. If you are using Google Chrome as your browser you can go straight to the Chrome Market and download the Pulse Me extension. Now, you can bookmark what you read on Chrome using Pulse Me to read it later on your phone. The only issue with Pulse is that it drains a lot of battery in the background.

Taptu
Rating: ★★★★☆

If you talk about design, Taptu is a single page replica of Pulse. I should say it is an improvement on Pulse. Taptu mixes what Feedly and Pulse does. Unlike Pulse with streams for individual websites, in Taptu you have streams for topic. You can either make your own stream or use any of those streams curated specially by Taptu. Taptu gives you a lot of freedom when it comes to curating content. You can colour code streams, make stream-width big or small and move streams around based on what you want to see first when you fire up the application. Like Pulse, Taptu strips html from the content automatically and present to you in a readable format.

ChannelCaster
Rating: ★★★★★

ChannelCaster is social news, they say. Ya, it curates links from your social networks and brings them all in one place. Then you have pre-curated channels you can use as you please. ChannelCaster stands out for its sleek design and user interface. If you are someone who likes a little splash on your App, ChannelCaster is good for you. Its design gives these so called well-designed iPhone Applications a run for their money. Oh yes, on ChannelCaster you can curate your content based on what you like too. You have the option to build your own Channels using key words and rss feeds. Tweets, Facebook Links, Webcontent, Video, Photographs - you name it and ChannelCaster allows you to type ina topic you like and bring all the content on the web about that topic in one place. The only issue is, once you find the content you may have to use another browser  because Channelcaster opens the content in its native web browser and it may not be as readable as you find them on Feedly or Pulse.

News360
Rating: ★★★☆☆

You have News360 for both phone and tablet in the Android Market. News360, like ChannelCaster, is sleek and yummy to look at. It is blue! Now, News360 works on topics. You need no rss feed. You need no website name. All you need are key words. And you can keep on building your news feed using any number of key words as you like. The best thing about News360 is that you can localize content using your gps on the phone. I would say, News360 is Google News in the form of an App. If Google were to come up with an App for their news site, it would be something like News360. the only issue with News360 is that it is uses a lot of data in the process of looking good.

How to revert to Old Twitter?

#NewTwitter is the talk of the town! And I just got the opportunity to try it out today. It looks cool and intelligent. However, as usual some of us may find it difficult to use the new twitter user interface initially. Some of us may not like it.

The other day, a twitter friend of mine was trying hard to figure out how to revert to the old twitter interface as he did not like the #newTwitter interface much. He tweeted me asking how he can possibly revert to old twitter! I could not help him as I was not yet allowed into #newTwitter back then. Result? Poor guy had to delete his Twitter Handle and go for a new one!

The first thing I did as soon as I was allowed to try the #newTwitter was to see if there is a way I can go back and use the old Twitter UI! Bingo, there is an option!

Twitter has included a very simple link to enable you to revert to old Twitter. All you got to do is to  click on your name on the navigation bar that appears top right and choose "Leave Preview". Presto! You will be taken back to the old Twitter.

Update: You cannot revert to Old Twitter anymore!

Who is mailing you?

Pishing. Scamming. Spamming. And what not! Email accounts are easy targets of spammers and scammers from time immemorial. Most of the email service providers have successfully developed spam fighting systems that automatically send junk mail  into your spam folder or trash them. Yet, spammers find a way around that system and get into your inbox. Worse still, some of them impersonate people you know and trick you into downloading spyware, sending money or joining scam websites. How we wish we had some way to identify the person mailing us? There is a way you can do that now.

Rapportive!

Rapportive is a browser extension that integrates itself into your Gmail Account and it works on both Chrome and Firefox. It does a very simple thing! It shows you who mailed you the mail you are reading. For example, if you receive a mail from me and you have Rapportive installed on your browser, it will show you my photograph and any information available on web about me. It will show you links to my Facebook Account, Twitter Account, Linkedin Account etc. This helps you make sure that the mail from me is in fact from me and no one else.

You may not get the information right away for all email addresses. They have just launched Rapportive and its in the process of accumulating information on people. But I am sure, the service will improve over a period of time as you keep using it and Rapportive will be able to give you exact information about people you interact with.

Imagine receiving a mail from someone, claiming that it is from your friend stranded on an island and he needs help. Rapportive will help you understand if that mail is really from your friend. All you need to do is [if you are using gmail], to click here and install the extension on your Firefox Browser or Chrome Browser!

Snaptu for your mobile phone!

We are increasingly finding ourselves overwhelmed by the flow of information online. And not many of us are fortunate enough to own a smart phone and that keeps us away from the world when we are away from our computer monitor. What if someone can provide us access to all that information even when we are away from our computer monitor and even if we do not own a smart phone? Snaptu does just that!

Snaptu is an Israel based Mobile Platform that brings many popular web applications to one place. Twitter, Facebook, News, Search - you name it, they got it. The key thing about this Mobile Phone Application is that it can run on any Java Enabled Mobile Phone.

How do you know if your mobile phone can run a Java Application? Click here to find a list of Java enabled phones and see if your phone model is in the list. If your phone is Java Enabled, then go to your mobile  browser and type m.snaptu.com  and download the application to your computer. Sign in to your favorite social networks and you are ready to go.

What do I do with Twitter now?

So far I was trying to figure out how best to use Twitter. I tried using it as a platform to share when ever I posted something on techedin or pagedin. There was nothing much I needed to do to post links to my blog updates to Twitter. All that I had to do was to link up my blogs to TwitterFeed and the rest was taken care of by TwitterFeed’s automatic feed pullers. TwitterFeed pulled my posts and tweeted. I thought that was all I could do with Twitter because none of my friends are on Twitter. Even if some of them are there, none of them are regular tweeters.

Yesterday, I figured out what Twitter actually can be. First and foremost, it is not a social network the way we think of social networks. It is actually a content delivery device, integrated into the idea of social networking. Let me explain:

On Orkut and Facebook, I follow friends, colleagues and acquaintances. Once in a while we exchange an online ‘hi’, say that we like what they said or comment on something they said. If you are a blogger like me, you will also post links to your blogs on Facebook. Some may read what you write, some may not. May be, sometimes we follow Pages on Facebook, try and get information about things we are interested in. Sometimes, we join groups and share our ideas. It is all fun and very engaging.

On Twitter, on the other hand, most of us follow news channels. We follow celebrities first before we follow anyone else. We follow profiles who send valuable information on our way. So far, as I was trying to use Twitter as a Social Network, I was only following people. From yesterday, I started following celebrities and news channels and life on Twitter has magically changed since then. I am more closer to what is happening out there than ever before.

However, there was one problem. I was in touch with the world outside only after I logged on to Twitter. I wanted information to come to me. You are right, technology makes us so lazy that we always want the easier way out. I wished there was some device like Yahoo Messenger or GTalk on my Desktop that brought what is happening on Twitter in realtime. Looks like technology has an answer to most of the questions you have. I found out TweetDeck.

TweetDeck is a browser like application that fetches Tweets from Twitter in realtime and brings it to your Desktop. You can also Tweet, Retweet, Follow or do pretty much anything that you do on Twitter with TweetDeck. TweetDeck also gives you an option to link to Facebook and access your wall. Ask me what is the best thing I liked about TweetDeck! Let me tell you, there are four things.

1. TweetDeck stays out of my way. I hate it when necessarily unnecessary applications need to remain on the taskbar. That is the reason why I hate playing music using Media Player. I love it when I can leave applications that I am not currently using in the tray and get on with my life. TweetDeck can be reduced to the tray.  It stays in the tray and comes back only when you call it.
2. TweetDeck updates me in realtime. I tried to figure out how realtime TweetDeck could bring information to me. It takes not even five seconds to bring you a tweet, after it is posted to Twitter, if you have not exceeded the API limit. Now, that is real good realtime. Every time something is tweeted by someone I follow, the TweetDeck brid chirps and notifies me.
3. I love the TweetDeck Notification thing. I love the chirping bird, whenever I have a Tweet. More than the bird, I love the fact that I can reply or retweet from the notification box itself. I love it because I don’t have to waste time waiting for the application to open so that I can do what I want.
4. I like the idea of onetime log in. It saves a lot of time as I need to log in using TweetDeck only once. Once I log in, TweetDeck brings me everything that happens on Twitter and my Facebook Wall.

Now that I have TweetDeck, Twitter is a more powerful delivery device than it used to be. Every time someone I follow Tweets, I am more informed and more equipped. I now like Twitter simply because it makes information more accessible. I remember someone comparing Twitter to an ever flowing river of information and people stop by once in a while to dip a mug full of information. Now that I have TweetDeck, it is like I am someone who sits on the bank of that river from morning till evening [because I have my laptop or PC switched on from morning till late night] and constantly gain something from the information that flows by.

[If you want to install TweetDeck, click here. Please remember that you have to install Adobe Air before you install TweetDeck. To install Adobe Air, click here]

Google Indic is difficult to handle!

If I have to type something in Malayalam, usually to post something on Koottam, a Social Community Network for Keralites that runs on Ning, I go straight off to Google Indic Transliteration Feature. Google Indic was a great feature from Google, as it was easy to use unlike many Transliteration Applications available online. What I loved the most about Google Indic was its ability to let me edit the text, helping me with suggestions, in case my transliteration went wrong. Where Google Indic suggested the possible words for a combination of English alphabets, it used to have an “Edit” option in the earlier version of Indic. I would enable the “Edit’ Option, start typing the word and Google Indic would then come up with possible Malayalam alphabets that could be created using a combination of English alphabets. My spelling never went wrong, as I had great control over what i wrote.

Yesterday, Google India’s Bangalore Team announced the launch of a new and improved version of Google Indic. It looks like Google Indic is going global. They have added all sorts of features to the improved version of Google Indic from Text Formatting to Unicode Character Picker. It supports seventeen languages: Arabic,Bengali, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Persian, Punjabi,Russian, Sanskrit, Serbian, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. It is a great tool still. However, one key feature is missing.

Google India took away the one feature that made me stick to Google Indic, making it similar to the rest of the Transliteration Applications available online. It just took away the “Edit” feature. Now, it is like I am struggling like a five year old to figure out the right English Alphabet combination to produce the desired Malayalam Equivalents. True, Google Indic gives me a Unicode Character Picker to figure out the alphabets. But it takes a pretty long time for me to figure out what goes where. The Edit Feature used to make it very easy. I just had to click on it and start typing and Google Indic used to tell me different combinations I could use. I wish Google India brought the Edit feature back to Google Indic!

My Favourite Chrome Extensions

I always used to wish Chrome had extensions like Firefox. But then I was thankful Chrome did not have extensions because whenever I think of Browser Extensions I remember the time it used to take Firefox to load with all those Extensions. In fact the endless loading time is one reason why I left Firefox and started using Chrome. I always had to wait for at least for 15 minutes before Firefox initialized the Extensions or Add-ons or what ever they call it and then checked for updates and was ready for me to use. That was when the lightening speed Chrome came along and I instantly fell in love with this sleek browser that saved a lot of screen real estate and loaded faster than any browser that existed on my system. However, I always secretly wished for some of the cool extensions I had on Firefox.

And then Chrome Extensions came along! Yes, you require a developer version of Chrome if you want to use Chrome Extensions. But then, Chrome Beta is one good way to keep in touch with the new things the browser offers and there is no harm in using it. I went around trying most of what was available on the Chrome Extension Site and finally realized a few key things about what makes a Good Browser Extension.

1. A good browser extension is not just another bookmark! Most of the Extensions we have on Chrome are simple bookmarks which, if you click on them, take you to some websites. If an extension works like a bookmark, then why do I need it?
2. A good browser extension must do what the browser can not! For example, Google has an Omnibox that lets me do both search and browsing from one place. Google also allows me to decide which search engine provides me the results I seek using Omnibox. Then, why would I need another extension that offers to help me do search with different search engines?
3. A good browser extension must enable me to do certain things without leaving the browser window! This is the major factor that decides if I like an extension or not. I like an extension that allows me to do things without disturbing my browser experience. 

Now, these are the factors based on which I have selected my current favourite Chrome Extensions.

Facebook for Google Chrome

This extension allows you to see your Facebook News  Feed, Wall and Notifications without leaving the Current Tab. One click and the extension opens a pop up that lets you read the feeds on Facebook. It also allows you to update your status or let your friend know that you liked what he or she said. My only issue with this Extension is that it does not allow me to comment on what my friends say, though the comment link is available along with the feed.

Chromed Bird

Chromed Bird allows you to follow your timelines and interact with your Twitter account without leaving the Current Tab. One click and you can update your status, see your feed or @ Mentions or Direct Messages and retweet what your friends are up to. An option to create short url adds value to the extension. Initially I used to get an error message when the extension loaded. But now it works perfectly fine.

Chromepad
Chromepad is a note taking extension which I love using. I do not have to leave the browser and open a notepad if I want to take something quickly down as I am browsing. For example, I am browsing and a phone call came and I have to take down a phone number. I just have to click Chromepad open and type the number in. I don't have to even save what I type and recall it any time I want to. It is one of the cleanest and well designed Chrome Extension I have ever come across.

Google Tasks
Google Tasks allows you to recall your Google Task list without leaving your current tab. You can do everything that you do with Google Task when you open it in your Gmail or use it as a widget on iGoogle. The best thing about this extension is the fact that you can use the Google Task as liked to your account or you can use it as an extension specifically for your browser. You can also open Google Task as a seperate window.

Google Quick Scroll
Quick Scroll is Google's contribution to Chrome Extension. It works in the background, unlike most of the Extensions that appear next to the Omnibox. It helps you find what you are searching for faster and has the ability to decide if it must intervene with your search. When Quick Scroll decides to help you with your search it will appear at the bottom of the page leading you to the exact place on a web page where your key word can be found.

What do I like about Chrome Extensions?
Following are the things I like about Chrome Extensions:

1. I like Chrome Extensions because it loads as soon as it is installed. I don't have to restart the browser to see how the new Extension is working
2. I like Chrome Extensions also because they do not affect the Browser loading time.

The only thing I may not like is when third party extensions have the power to keep track of my browsing history and data.

Safe Social Networking: Orkut is safer than Facebook

I am amazed at the speed at which Facebook is catching up in India, pushing Orkut to the background. Well, I am generalizing based on my personal experience and not based on any research. I see many of my friends becoming more active on Facebook and less active on Orkut. I see bloggers in an eternal struggle to add more friends so that they can share their links with as many people as possible. I see Indian Companies coming up with Fan Pages on a daily basis. You are right, we do that because Facebook has a lot many more Social Networking options than Orkut.

I am on Facebook for the last five month or so. I kind of liked Facebook for their cute colour and fonts, layout and interactive networking options. I felt Facebook looks classy and more social networking than Orkut. I wondered why, Google, with all their mastery of building a brand was neglecting Orkut. If Google made up its mind, it could have taken Orkut way beyond what is is now. But I have never seen Orkut move beyond what it was a year or two ago, except for the new interface they recently launched. I was all the time wondering why!

Untill I read Dennis Yu and his how to spam Facebook like a pro.According to him, many of  the games, the quizes and the other applications that keep popping up while you are on Facebook are aimed at doing three things:

• Installing a spyware or a tracking cookie on your computer which will later open a back door from your computer to smuggle out information
• Trick you into giving up your email address and phone number
• Trick you into giving up your or your friend's profile information

Now I think I know why Google is keeping Orkut simple. It is just about social networking and nothing else.