Category: Apps Guides

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Apps Guides

Shoot Slow Motion Videos at 60fps From any iPhone

One of the three features that iPhone 5S was overhauled with was its ability to record videos at extremely slow speed. The way it was advertised completely left us awestruck. As a user of iPhone 3GS, (yes i am still using that) i wondered if i could get a pinch of that feature in my more than three years old phone too.

Recently, i came across an app called SloPro which has the ability to record up to 60fps and the big surprising element is that it is compatible with iOS 6.0 and later. In this post i quickly walk through as how to record slow motion videos from any iPhone.

Getting Started

The app SloPro has two versions. Lite one comes free and has some fences around it, like a watermark in every video you produce. The other one comes at a price of $1.99 which is full featured. For the time being we shall move ahead with the lite version.

Shooting Slow Motion Video

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The moment you open SloPro, you are ready to start shooting videos. All you need to do is click on that red icon. Once you complete the shooting by pressing the red button again, on the left hand lower corner appears the recently shot video. Tap that and you will be taken to the all videos shot by the app.

Editing Shot Video

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Once you play a shot video, you get an option to edit that video in the same window. As editing options you can further reduce the speed or even increase the speed in percentage. The default is 40% but can be lowered up to 25% more or can be fastened up to 4x speed. You also have the feature to clip in and clip out to specific frames in the video shot. Once you are done editing, you can click the “tick” and get results instantly.

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In terms of size, video shot at 60fps of 30 seconds was around 30 MB on my iPhone.

Upgrading to Pro

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SloPro offers option of in-app purchase for upgrading to full version. In full version you no longer have to deal with the watermark “made with slopro for iPhone”. In addition, you can export your videos to camera roll and also email them directly.

Conclusion

The slow recording performed by SloPro app does a pretty decent job even on the iPhone 3Gs. I expect it should work flawlessly on your iPhone 4 and later too. Next time when a iPhone 5S user is going to flaunt his slow recording feature, i am going to use this app as an answer.

Download SloPro for iPhone (Free) | App Store

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Apps Guides

Photo4id Assists You in Taking Passport and Visa Photos

To adhere by each and every terms and requirements of services is not at all that easy. And when it comes to passports and visas, government strict to the conditions like iron and magnet. Any deviation from the listed rules and you are nearly busted.

When it comes to appropriate pictures for passports and visas, anyone can go through mental trauma to meet their requirements. Here is a free app called Photo4id which assists you, and assists you merrily, in taking pictures which imply the conditions for passports and visas of your country.

Getting Started

You start by choosing your country. And then choose the purpose of the photograph. i.e. OCI, Passport, or Visa. Then you will be told about which background to use. In Indian scenario, its white. Then you are advised to wear dark clothes. And then finally a suggestion which indicates not to show your teeth in the snap.

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Once you are done with the instructions, you are ready to snap a picture. The app also assists you by giving a boundary on your camera screen, in which you are required to fit it.

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Biometric Marker Technology

Once you snapped a picture of yourself, you will be required to mark the biometric characteristic like eyes, chin-point etc. With this the app claims it calculates the exact size and position of the head.

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Automated Background Color

Once you marked your biometric characteristics, the app will automatically change the background (if you already don’t have the required color) to the specified color by the country.

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Sharing Options

Now the photo is ready. The app offers you myriad of options afterwards. You can either take a print, or email it to an id, or even save it on the device. While saving, you can give the photo is own file name. say your PAN Card number or SSN.

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Conclusions

Photo4id does a pretty decent job in obtaining a photo which adheres by every specifications. Right now the app is only available for App Store so in that case Android users are going to be disappointed. But still as they say, anything but android doesn’t lack apps. You can try Passport photo app to take photos for Visas and passport on your Android device as well.

Download : Photo4id | App Store (Free)

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Apps Guides

Change Your Android Phone’s UI Like Windows 8 Phones

The extent of customisation in the Android phones is not a new thing to write about. It is the only OS in the world which can wear the any OS’s user interface and still work flawlessly. In this post i have tried to make my android Phone look alike the Windows 8 UI (Live tiles n all).

Getting Started

For Windows 8 customisation for our Android Phone we would install the free Windows 8 like launcher called Arikui Launcher. Once you have installed the launcher, tap it open and choose the action to be performed by Arikui launcher as always.

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Once you have done it you will be at the default lay out of the launcher. The background remains the same as previous and the entire screen is covered by the tiles. Swipe left to see the other additional apps.

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Customisations

Tap the settings icon sitting at the bottom corner of the screen and you will be allowed to tweak settings of tile, Desktop, Preferences and other system settings.

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The preferences tab contains all other main settings ranging from appearance, display effects, performance optimisation, to Gestures.

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Gestures tab in the preferences has gestures settings (obviously). Swiping down with two fingers can open the Preference, swiping up opens the Apps Drawer. Similarly you can define what pinch in and pinch out will open up.

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To change the settings in the tile, just long tap it and there will be options to change the colour (pencil icon), change the size or even unpin the tile from the main home screen.

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Adding shortcuts and Widgets

On the main home screen you can also add shortcuts of applications which support this. Tap the plus icon in the lower right corner of the main home screen and you will get the options of choosing shortcuts.

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Similarly widgets can be added too.

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When Android has no problem in letting you customise and tweak in settings and user interface why should you think twice? Install and enjoy Windows 8 user interface on your Android phone today and do let us know if you are already using some different launcher.

Download Arikui Launcher (Free) | Google Play Store

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Apps Guides

How to Hide Text Messages On Your Android Phone

When you carry your smartphone with you, you carry many other confidential things too with it. Those confidential assets are your pictures, your videos and sometimes your messages. Some things are so personal that you don’t want others to view it or read it even accidentally. You should already be using KeepSafe for hiding your pictures and now you should know about an app which safely hides your messages in your android phone.

From the plethora of apps available for this task in Android, we have chosen GO SMS Pro for the tutorial. The app is completely free on the Play Store and you can start off by grabbing a copy of it.

Step 1: Once you have installed it, open the app and you will see your existing message thread in the app itself.

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Step 2: Now open the Menu residing in the top left corner. And then select Private Box.

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Step 3: To use it for the first time you will have to set up a password for it. Go ahead by tapping the set password.

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Step 4: Once you confirm the password and entered your email (that is because in case you miss your password, GO SMS Pro will send it to your email.) tap on the add private contact. You can add either by contact list or even a new contact which you have not saved in your contact list yet. Go ahead by choosing the one from your contact list.

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Step 5: There is nothing more in this step, now when you receive a message from that contact, a notification will appear. When trying to open the message, it will ask the same password. Once entered correctly (of course) it will open it privately.

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You can also move a message thread to out of the private box if you think its okay for the outside world.

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Conclusion

The GO SMS Pro turned out to be the easiest and most efficient way to hide your private messages from the prying eyes of absolutely anyone. Though the features of the app are not limited to just hiding messages but other domains like SMS Blocker, Scheduled SMS, Anti Theft, Free Message and others.

Let us know how you are using GO SMS Pro.

Download Go SMS Pro (free) | Google Play Store

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Apps Guides

Control Your Smartphone Without Touching it With Hovering Controls

If you remember a bit, we have already come across apps like blow to unlock (Micromax remember?) , Hover Hold, which automatically answered incoming calls when phone was brought near ear and many others. In same genre another app called Hovering Controls is gaining attention recently.

The app goes few step further than these niche gesture apps. Like every other gestures supported apps Hovering Control uses your proximity sensor of the device and takes actions based on the simple motions registered in front of the device.

Features of Hovering Control

Once installed, you will be able to open apps based on simple hand movement above your proximity sensor. Tap the Start and configure Control Options. Hover Hold option will let you place your hands over the sensor for a few seconds and open an app specified by you. Slide once lets you slide one time on the sensor and open app again specified by you. Sliding Twice will let you open other app specified.

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The target mode lets you open the same application every time while Carousel Mode lets you open every time a new app whenever you slide once over the proximity sensor.

You can also silent the incoming call ring and the alarm sound by simply sliding your hands from left to right over the proximity sensor. Shaking the phone during a call will toggle the loudspeaker mode. Quick Glance gives some basic information about the phone like battery level and unread mail count.

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Apart from just opening the app and silencing sound there are lot other functions that Hover Control can do. Go to settings and enable the Music/Video Control. Now you will be able control music and video players even with screen off. Since the feature is still in beta, it worked with little bearable flaws sometimes.

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If you have a rooted phone While viewing pictures in the gallery, you can slide once to view next and slide twice to view the previous one. Also while browsing slide once to down the web page and slide twice to up the web page. Just to point Firefox is still not supported.

I personally felt that the app needs some more polishing in terms of User Interface and features to make itself premium. Though if you are one of those who can’t wait, go ahead and buy it from the Play store. Chances of disappointments are less.

Download Hovering Control | Google Play Store

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Apps Guides

Book IRCTC Tickets Directly From the Cleartrip Android App

If you are one of the frequent travellers by Train in India, you must be aware of the ‘tantrums’ of the booking site IRCTC. Frankly it takes a hell lot of effort to book a ticket from the IRCTC site.

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But Cleartrip app for Android, an online travel portal, seems as a ray of hope, especially in the direction of train bookings. The recent version now integrates feature to book train tickets (through IRCTC) within the app itself. The app has also features to search, check availability and PNR status enquiry along with the book trains directly from the Android devices.

Once you have downloaded the Cleartrip app from the Google play store, it is advised to have an account there (Cleartrip). Sign in if you already have or sign up for one. It takes only a while and doesn’t involve any sort of going through the confirmation thing.

You will notice options like ‘Flights’, ‘Trains’, PNR Status, Trips and more. Since this post involves going through the details of booking a train ticket through IRCTC we will limit to just trains. Enter the source station name and destination station names to get started.

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Booking Process

In order to proceed with your train bookings, Cleartrip requires your IRCTC account to be synced. If you have not synced earlier, on the search screen you should see a notification saying “For reservations sync your IRCTC account”. (See the screenshot). Click on the notification and you will redirected to the IRCTC Sync page.

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There are two steps involved in this entire syncing process. First you need to have a IRCTC account to get singed in. Then you will have to enter one time password (OTPs) which are sent by IRCTC itself. Once you enter OTPs sent at email, and phone you are ready to make bookings. Now click on “Get Started” and you will see a screen to enter your IRCTC details. The good part is if you wish to register a new IRCTC account you can even do that from here itself. Take care of all the details, as each one of them will be checked from the IRCTC database and then only you will receive the OTPs. Once you register or Sign In, you should receive OTPs at your email and phone. These OTPs you will have to enter at once as the last step of the process.

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Enter all the details and click on the activate IRCTC account. Thats it.

One of the other advantages of using the app is you can save your card details in Expressway and can be enabled from settings which will save you from entering the card details on every transaction.

Also you can have a traveller’s profile which can include your friends and family member so at the time of reservation you don’t end up typing down the details of every passenger.

I recently booked a ticket from the app from my home to college and it all went glitch-free. Let my know how was your experience with the app.

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Apps Guides

Fabrik : Stylish eReader App for Android With Cloud Sync

When ever “eBook” word is encountered, we associate it with Amazon. Because the company specialises in this arena. Kindle apps for every platform and the Kindle devices itself has no match. The tight integration provides seamless reading experience throughout the devices but can also cause some annoyance to some readers. And if you are among those readers who are looking out for a fresh and feature rich eBook reader Fabrik is for you to try.

The power if Fabrik reader resides in its integration with the two popular cloud storage services. Drobbox and Google Drive. When you open Fabrik Cloud reader for the first time you will be asked to link either of the two accounts with the Fabrik app.

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The app comes bundled with two of the interesting eBooks; The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Alice in Wonderland. Adding new books should not be headache too. Simply log into your Dropbox account (or Google Drive) and dump the eBook file in its folder.

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Reading Experience

Reading experience in the Fabrik was fluid enough. To flip a page, you simple have to swipe right to left. Moving your fingers from top to bottom and vice versa increases or decreases the brightness of the screen.

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Tap once in the middle of the screen to get additional options. You can directly jump to chapters from here or bookmark your last read too.

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More than 20 fonts are available for you to choose from making reading more soothing. The night mode turns screen into a darker background and lighter text unlike the day mode. You can also enable the read feature in the app. It will read the text for you, making it quiet handy for situations where you can not take out your samrtphone to read and you simple plug in you earphones and enjoy the book.

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Highlighting Text and Taking Notes

You can also make notes and highlight text in the app. Simply long tap on the text and you will be promoted with options to search, share or copy the selection.

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As mentioned earlier, its not a Kindle killer app but if you are looking for some fresh reading experience you should definitely have a space for this.

Download Fabrik (Cloud eBook Reader) | Google Play Store

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Apps Guides

[How-To] Transfer Files Among Any Device over Wi-Fi

Few months ago at ATU we demonstrated how to download and transfer files between different iOS and Android Devices. Though the procedure was easy enough to follow, there was not one app which served our entire purpose. Today we introduce you AnySend for Windows, Mac and Android devices.

AnySend is a must have utility for every Mac user or Windows user and even Android Phone users. With this utility you can transfer files over Wi-Fi without any virtual limit. However two of the conditions are required to be met to transfer files over Wi-Fi. First one is pretty obvious, every device to receive or transfer file must have the AnySend utility. And the second one is that the devices should be connected to same Wi-Fi Network.

Transfer Files Among Mac Pc and android Devices

To get started install AnySend utility to all your devices. (The app is free so don’t think twice). Make sure it is connected to same Wi-Fi network. Once you have Anysend installed on you Mac/PC, copy files which you wanted to transfer by selecting them and pressing Ctrl + C. Now Click on AnySend icon in the task bar (Windows) or in the Title Bar (Mac). The list of devices which have AnySend installed (even mobile devices) should appear there. Only select the device name and that’s it.

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You can even send entire folders to the drivers. The transfer of the files happens on the magical speed so you don’t have to worry about zipping them.

Similar steps can be performed on the mobile devices. Tap to select the files and choose them to share with the AnySend.

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By far AnySend is the easiest cross platform sharing utility i have come across in recent times. From installing to sending/transferring files takes not more than ten seconds as the ever required configuration is done itself.

What utility do you use to transfer files among your devices over Wi-Fi?

Get AnySend

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Apps Guides

Get iOS 7 Style Control Centre On Your Android Smartphone

iOS 7 is coming this fall. iPhone 4 onwards are going to get this update. The update changes everything on the iPhone. Icons, User Interface, Mails, Browsers everything has got a make over like never before. Among all those updates, one of the much talked about updates was the iOS 7 control centre.

Control Centre in the iOS is the place where you can get your phone setting and access to some core apps like camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth etc. You will have to swipe up from the bottom of the screen to get control centre.

Android (4.0 onwards) had the similar feature way before iOS 7 introduced but it differed in terms of design and accessibility. If you are looking something that does exactly the same thing on your Android phone like Control Centre, an app titled “Control Centre” is available for you to download from Google Play Store.

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As the name might suggest “Control Centre” is the hub of all the basic toggle settings, Music shortcuts, phone information, and other additional apps like flashlight, calculator, stop watch etc.

The basic toggle settings include flight mode, sound mode, data connection, screen-out duration, bluetooth etc. With a tap you can enable or disable apps. You also have an option to play music from the control centre itself without opening the music app. Though as in current version you don’t have to ability to choose between the music files but you can definitely forward or backward your playlist.

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The best utility of Control Centre is that it has a built in flash-light. When you toggle it, your flash light (if your phone has) will start working as light torch hence removing the need of an additional app for it. You can also add other application shortcuts for quick access.

To add the application shortcut, swipe left the row containing flashlight and other settings. Tap the plus icon an there you have to option to add the other apps of your choice for quick access. Although there are only four available slots for external apps but that should be enough.

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Control Centre for the Android is one of those apps which saves your time by providing you the quick access to applications and settings. The strong point lies in using the application which is dead simple. My thumbs up to this app for the ease of its usage and its usefulness when i really wanted to access something really quick.

Download Control Centre | Google Play

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Apps Guides

‘Cal’ By Any.Do: A Better Calendar For Your iPhone

It has been just 72 hours since i started using this app and i am finding my iPhone even more useful. The newest calendar app (which is freely available for iOS) Cal, by Any.Do is the easiest to use calendar application and sporting a ultra clean user interface. The app does the job of organising your day perfectly by using your contacts and location end even syncs with your primary calendar apps like Google Calendar, iCloud and Exchange.

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I assume you must be already using the Any.do app on your iPhone, if not, i suggest you to do so. Reminders on iPhone is uber cool but if you want to use Cal for maximum productivity, you should already be using (or at least having) the Any.do application. The reason is, Cal is tightly integrated with the Any.do app. When you tap the plus button in the cal it gives you two options, either Calendar Event or a To do thing. Tapping to-do thing will take you to the Any.do app.

For getting started Cal requires access to your calendar events and your contacts. Without granting permission to both these you cannot proceed further. I think this is the only matter of concern.

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Once the permission is granted, the app will take some time syncing your events from your previous calendars to its own. You will be then greeted with a ultra clean UI with a beautiful picture in the back drop of the main interface which can be tweaked to your interests. (i.e Fashion, Photography, Designs etc.)

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Tap the plus button to add an event. Now here comes the integration of simplicity with ‘uber-ness’. As you type the event, the app will try to guess it prior. For example, if you type Lunch with Someone, as it has access to your contacts, it will list the ‘someone’ with all its details or will provide you the list of ‘someones’ to choose the right someone. Then, it will even suggest you the venue for your lunch nearby. I was quite surprised when it suggested my favourite restaurant for lunch nearby. The suggestions are not limited to restaurants but also extend to bars and coffee. The social integration lets you send messages on birthdays and anniversaries right from the app itself. You are also able to send messages to the participants of an event right from the app.

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Your events for the day will appear below a monthly calendar but when you swipe up, the month view will turn into weekly view. Also, your agenda includes the time gaps between your appointments. This helped me planning my day more easily and effectively.

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Another high point of using the app is its syncing to other calendars (i.e. Google Calendars, iCloud and Exchange) so you don’t have to re-add events.

Overall the app is promising, and its going to stay in my phone for longer. I believe in due coarse of time it will improve further and will add features like determining addressees automatically from the contacts itself. But for now there is not any reason not to use it.

Any.do is a company which has plans for making four productivity applications in which Any.do, and Cal- calendar app are the two. Another two apps, Mail and Note taking apps are anticipated.

Cal (Free) | iTunes App Store