Download the Magnifier app for free on your phone. And what does it do ? It just magnifies ! This simple app uses the in-built camera of your phone to magnify the material to which you point and displays it on your screen – pretty cool for older people and also reading the fine print for the not-so-old ! You can adjust the zoom with the help of the on-screen slider or with the Volume Control buttons on your phone. It also has a built-in sensor, which senses low light – if you are trying to read something in poor light, it will also activate the flash of your phone, so you can read it like normal.
How I work – 8 – Simple Unit Converter
Many times, one needs to make simple unit conversions without wading through a complex calculator. The Simple Unit Converter does just that ! Once you download and run the app, you are presented with a simple screen with the following options : Length, Volume, Weight, Temperature, Speed and Others. Just tap on any one, based on your need and choose the units to and from. Voila ! You get the conversions instantly. A must have for those who have children abroad, who quote the temperatures in Fahrenheit and go crazy trying to figure them in Centigrades !
How I work – 9 – Amazon Kindle
Everyone has heard of the Amazon Kindle – a book reader which costs about Rs. 17,500 on which you can read a zillion books by downloading them, some free and some paid for. Your smartphone can double up as a Kindle Book Reader. Just download the app and you are ready to use your Smartphone as a book reader ! Apart from reading a variety of books, you can bookmark the pages, increase / decrease the fonts, highlight portions of text and add your personalised notes to any section ! Further, if you want to know the meaning of a word, you can look up the dictionary right there. You can Search for words or phrases within the book, in Wikipedia or on the Web, right from your reading page.
As I said earlier, the books can be free or paid for. So how does one reach out for free books available on Kindle ? Head straight to http://www.hundredzeros.com and you will get a list of hundreds of books at zero price ! So go ahead – HAPPY READING FOR FREE !
How I work – 7 – EMF Hazards Detector
These days, one is exposed to so much radiation – the TV, Speakers, Cellphone towers, your Microwave Oven and even your cordless telephone emits radiation. Most of it is safe. But what if it is not ?
You can buy a Gauss meter to measure the accurate value. However, your smart phone can also be converted as a simple Gauss meter. Use your Android Smartphone to detect such hazards emanating from ElectroMagnetic Fields (EMF) with the EMF Hazards Detector.
This application will sound the alarm once an abnormal EMF field is detected. The screen color will also turn from healthy green to danger red. So scan your home and office now and find your level of exposure. Proceed to Google Play and download this light and simple to use app.
How I work – 6 – WhatsApp
If you are a smartphone user for a minimum of 6 months, you would certainly have been hooked on to WhatsApp. WhatsApp Messenger is a cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows you to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS. It is available for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia and yes, those phones can all message each other! Because WhatsApp Messenger uses the same internet data plan that you use for email and web browsing, there is no cost to message and stay in touch with your friends.
In addition to basic messaging WhatsApp users can create groups, send each other unlimited images, video and audio media messages.
So, what are you waiting for ? Just proceed to www.WhatsApp.com and enter the world of cost-free, multi-media, group messaging right away ! Or simply download the App from the respective App Store.
How I work – 5 – Conjure
How I work – 5 – Conjure
Conjure is the fastest, smartest launcher for Android. Use it to open apps, make calls, toggle wifi, adjust volume, and much more. Search results are prioritized according to use so your favorite apps and contacts are always a keystroke away. Start typing and watch the magic happen.
I have more than 100 apps on my phone and it is quite a bother to find the right one, especially when you are in a hurry. Just start conjure and find your apps by name. It’s that simple. You can find contacts by name or number. Call, view, or sms contacts in one touch. You can even adjust Android’s volume or toggle wifi, bluetooth, airplane mode, silent mode, and vibrate mode.
If you want to type less and search with ease on your Android smartphone to reach your goals faster, try Conjure and write to me and share your experiences.
How I work – 3 – Irfanview
How I work – 3 – Irfanview
IrfanView is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREE graphic viewer for Windows 9x, ME, NT, 2000, XP, 2003 , 2008, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8. Extremely light and easy to instal (www.irfanview.net) and does not interfere with any other software.
It is designed to be simple for beginners and powerful for professionals. Apart from viewing a large array of Graphic Files, it also allows you to view multiple video and audio formats. If you download the plugins also, it gives you various other options which you can explore at leisure.
In addition to viewing files, it has an elementary photo editing option, which allows you to crop files, change the brightness / contrast, etc. If you want to resize your files, you could do it one at a time or in Batch Mode. This feature is extremely useful for resizing multiple files before you email them or upload them on your favourite photo album like picasa or flickr.
I find it extremely useful for my day to day photo handling – so will you !
How I work – 4 – Google Calendar
How I work – 4 – Google Calendar
If you are a regular user of GMail (425 million active users – why not you ?), I have a bunch of productivity tools lined up for you. One of the most used is the Google Calendar. It helps you organize your life seamlessly !
Simple Calendar options are there by default. You can also set it to send you SMS reminders for your appointments, on your phone for FREE ! (Don’t ask me how they manage to do it). If someone sends you a mail which has the time date and place for a possible meeting, you have the option to directly add it to your calendar from your Inbox itself – no need to manually add it to your calendar. Recurring appointments and reminders are a breeze. Many more features are inbuilt for you to explore, but then I would run out of space here ! Google Calendar is also now available as an App for download on Android devices – and it remains synced always.
Just try it, I’m sure you will be hooked – don’t tell me you were not warned !
Write to me at yazdi@on-lyne.com if you would like to have more GMail productivity tools and I will cover them in my future columns
How I work – 2 – Evernote
How I work – 2 – Evernote
One of my favourite productivity tools is Evernote (www.evernote.com). Evernote makes it easy to remember things big and small from your everyday life, using your computer, phone, tablet and the web. You can write notes on any of your devices and they will be automatically synced to all your other devices. If you are in a meeting and taking notes on your tablet or phone, the minute you login to your office / home computer, you will find them there!
The beauty of this elegant piece of software is that it is truly cross-platform. It supports iOS, Blackberry, Windows and Android on Smartphones and Tablets, and Mac OS X, Windows, Safari, Chrome and Firefox on Computers. It just syncs seamlessly.
Your notes could be text, audio, picture notes, check lists or even sketches. So remember everything, access anywhere and find things fassssst. Best of all, it is free to instal on each one of your devices. Free Accounts have a 60MB upload limit, per month, but I have never even reached half of it in any month. My current favourite. No gifts of Diaries for me next New Year !
Solve Crosswords easily ! www.wordsdomination.com
Dominate in any word game – Scrabble, Crosswords or any other that you may please. That is the simple objective of this simple website.
It works in two modes – simple or crossword. In the simple mode, you just use “?” for one missing letter: pu?zle. Use “*” for any number of letters: p*zle. Or combine: cros?w*d ; and hit the Search Key. Voila ! You have the possible word(s) in front of you. It is that simple. This can be used for Scrabble and other word games, where there are no limitations to the size of the word you are building.
In the Crossword mode, you have a limitation on the number of letters in a word. So you begin with selecting the no.
of letters for the word, enter those letters that you already have in place, and hit the Search Key. You will instantly get the possible word(s) listed on your screen. Then match them with the clues that you already have. And now, you are on your way to becoming a Crossword champ !
So this Sunday, pick up the toughest crosswords available, and with a little bit of help from wordsdomination.com, become a pro at solving them. And don’t forget to show off your new-found skills to your friends
It works in two modes – simple or crossword. In the simple mode, you just use “?” for one missing letter: pu?zle. Use “*” for any number of letters: p*zle. Or combine: cros?w*d ; and hit the Search Key. Voila ! You have the possible word(s) in front of you. It is that simple. This can be used for Scrabble and other word games, where there are no limitations to the size of the word you are building.
In the Crossword mode, you have a limitation on the number of letters in a word. So you begin with selecting the no.
of letters for the word, enter those letters that you already have in place, and hit the Search Key. You will instantly get the possible word(s) listed on your screen. Then match them with the clues that you already have. And now, you are on your way to becoming a Crossword champ !
So this Sunday, pick up the toughest crosswords available, and with a little bit of help from wordsdomination.com, become a pro at solving them. And don’t forget to show off your new-found skills to your friends
On-lyneTech 