Top 5 Free Apps for Rio Olympics games 2016

Technorati Tags: Free Apps,Olympics 2016,Rio 2016,Olympics App,Top 5 app,iTunes,Google play,Android,iPhone

 

The 4 year long wait of the sport lovers around the world is finally over. The biggest sporting extravaganza all set to kick off from  Rio De Janerio in 3 days! It's going to be a month long sport entertainment in 39 different categories.

 

Here is a list of apps that will help you to catch the games on the go even in your busy schedule.

1. Rio 2016

This is the official app the 2016 olympics. Keep abreast with the competition scheduls with this app. The app gets you real time results along with the photos and videos of the games.You can also track the torch relay live here!!!
Note : This app gives you venues, maps and spectator guides as well and is available in many languages (English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and Korean.)

Get the app :
iPhone
Android 

Windows

2.The Olympics

This is the app hosted by the international olympics committee - another official app. Get the daily regular updates, top news and event schedules from the app.
Note: This app is slow and can sometimes test your patience

Get the App:
iPhone
Android

 

3. NBC Olympics: Rio News & Results

NBC has bought the rights for olympics in USA. Their app will keep you posted with latest news, medal standings and results of olympic games. Know more about the athelets in the athelets profile section of the app. You can configure alerts and notifications too
Note: This app is limited to users in US

Get the app here:
iPhone
Android
Windows

4. Brazil 2016 Games

Boasts to be a complete, useful and easy to use app. Gives the Medals table, complete schedule and latest news of the 2016 games.

Note: This app is only available in Google Play
Android

5. ESPN

This regular sports app is prepping itself up in full gear for the olympics and you can catch all the latest action in Olympics along with event schedules and medals tally in this app.
Note: Add Olympics as a favorite to set alerts, and check out the Olympics clubhouse to stay up to date on every event

Get the app here:
 iPhone
Android
Windows  
 

Here is the list of all sports that is a part of Olympics 2016. These are links to the official olympics website and has many interesting information!!!!!! Do check it out
Archery
Artistic Gymnastics
Athletics
Badminton
Basketball
Beach Volleyball
Boxing
Canoe Slalom
Canoe Sprint
Cycling BMX
Cycling Mountain Bike
Cycling Road
Cycling Track
Diving
Equestrian
Fencing
Football
Golf
Handball
Hockey
Judo
Marathon Swimming
Modern Pentathlon
Rhythmic Gymnastics
Rowing
Rugby Sevens
Sailing
Shooting
Swimming
Synchronised Swimming
Table Tennis
Taekwondo
Tennis
Trampoline Gymnastics
Triathlon
Volleyball
Water Polo
Weightlifting
Wrestling

Keep checking this page for more updates on Apps for olympics!!

Have you started tracking the Olympics? Do you use a better app? Do post them in the comments

 

Canvas Turbo A250 – Micromax launches its latest Canvas 4 Turbo

Micromax has been a boon to the low budget touch phone aspirants in India. It has brought to life the dreams of owning a touch phone with pretty decent  features for many. Despite the market share being not significant when compared to Apple, Samsung and Nokia, Micromax has never stopped coming up with newer and better versions of their touch phone. The new Canvas Turbo A250 is the new feather in its cap. Here is how the canvas turbo review goes:

Canvas Turbo Specifications:

The canvas Turbo specifications are:

Display	5 inch FULL HD(1920x1080p) Continuous Grain Silicon (CGS) True IPS 441PPI pixel density
Processor	MediaTek 6589T (Turbo) 1.5 GHz processor Quad core
Memory	2 GB RAM 16 GB Internal memory External memory expansion not available (No SD Slot)
OS Version	Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
Battery	2000mAh Promises 105 hrs standby time
Rear Camera	13 MP rear camera BSI Sensor LED Flash Auto focus camera
Front Camera	5 MP Sensor
Bluetooth & Wi-Fi	802.11 b/g/n WiFi 4.0
Thickness	8.6 mm
Other Features	Canvas Turbo Mobile sports some exciting features like Gesture Controls Pop up Video

 

Canvas Turbo 250 – Feature that WOW!

Smart Gesture Control – To compete with the likes of Samsung, Micromax Turbo is loaded with intuitive gesture control. Forget tapping and touching, the Micromax responds to mere wave of the hand. So why is this exciting? – It saves battery life!! With a comparatively lesser battery standards than its competitors, this is a much required saving.

Here is what you have to do to operate the canvas turbo mobile without even touching the screen

Lift the mobile to the ear to answer a call

Tilt the phone over to make the mobile silent during an incoming call

Flip the phone over to activate speaker for the currently active call

Select a contact and move the phone to ear to place a call to that contact

Blowing / shaking unlocks the canvas turbo mobile (though security freaks might not like the idea)

The proximity sensor switches the phone screen off automatically

When in proximity mode, wave the hand in front of the screen to take a pic.

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Camera – The camera also comes with some exciting feature such as Cinema graph and Object Eraser.

Now vertical panoramic capture is also possible in addition to horizontal panorama.

Take up to 99 images with the burst mode

360 degree Panorama capture – like Nexus 4

Object eraser allows removing objects giving you the perfect shot you always longed for

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iFloat – Similar to the quick launch in Samsung Note 10.1, the Micromax canvas turbo has the iFloat which allows launching frequently used apps without having to go back to the home screen every once.

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Dual SIM – GSM + GSM

GPS

Video PopOut – Multi video view. Watch 2 videos at once!

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Canvas Turbo 250 – Feature that OUCH!

1. The Battery – 2000mAh is way down than what other mobiles have to offer. Especially this being a touch sensitive smart phone, one would expect it to have long battery life. Whereas, with this battery specification, one might have to carry a portable charges if they want to use it for its smart features (like browsing net, downloading) apart from talking. I mean 7 hours talk time is like WTF?

2. No SD Slot: You may go what? But yes, sadly this phone does not support external SD. This can make life a hell for these days people like to communicate more with photos than with words. With a rear camera of capacity to record HD Videos, it simply does not make any sense that there is no place for an external memory card.

3. No HDMI: Though this feature is not really critical like battery, the canvas turbo mobile could at least have had a mini HDMI slot

4. Battery not replaceable: Though the Aluminium casing looks sleek and elegant, it comes with the disadvantage of not being able to replace the battery.

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The Micromax canvas Turbo price is set as Rs 19,999 and comes in 2 color options: Midnight Blue & Pristine White color. With a smart pricing under 20K, this Micromax canvas turbo smart mobile would be a great gift for the festive season without hurting the pocket!!

Flipkart has the mobile with some great combo offers. Do check out the link – Flipkart link

Have you tried the Micromax Canvas Turbo? Have I missed any feature that you liked? Do share in the comments!

Copy Paste bug in Samsung device -How to fix the clipboard issue

I was introduced to smartphones in 2010 by my husband. He had bought an Apple iPhone. The fascination was beyond words and I could just not keep my hands off that toy! Later, in 2011 I got a Samsung galaxy S phone as a surprise gift on my birthday. I have never once thought if only it were some other Smartphone. Samsung was just perfect. This year as an addition to the smart gadgets, I got a Samsung galaxy Note 10.1 - yup, the note with the stylus. Even though I could not spare much time to explore this wonderful gadget, I have loved what I have seen so far. Much to my bewilderment, all of a sudden, the copy paste feature started giving problems.

The problems that I faced were:

1. I could cut or copy, but I could not paste anything anywhere
                    It was not specific to an app or a particular task.I could just not paste the stuff that I just had copied. when I searched for this problem on the net, many people had mentioned that the paste option was not working on some apps while it worked in someother.

2. Unlike most commonly reported,  the device did not crash upon paste. Instead nothing happens when I click on clipboard.

3. I tried to force stop and clear data of the clipboard from the app manager. But, I could not find Clipboard either under the running apps or under the All apps tab.

4. I tried connecting the note to Computer  in an effort to clear the old data on the clipboard. I could not see a folder called "Data"

The Solution:

I had two options (from what I could gather on the net)

1. Upgrade the tab to the latest firmware version - many sites were not optimistic about this solution

2. Rooting the device. Eventhough this was the widely suggested solution,I did not want to try it.

So I tried updating the firmware. I did the firmware upgrade using Kies. It did take a lot of time (close to 3 hours). Now the issue is gone!!

What Should I do to avoid this bug?

The only way seems to be clearing your clipboard once in a while. Don't just keep adding stuff to the chipboard without clearing it.

How to unlock a blackberry phone in 10 simple steps

We got a blackberry from US and didn’t feel the need to unlock the phone till my E51 refused to power up after a total battery drain. I was left with no cell phone situation – which trust me is a very bad condition in the era of smartphones and 3G on almost all carriers (even if I was going to be in home all day long). So the blackberry was taken out from its 6 month long hibernation and I was initially doubtful if it would even charge up for use. Thankfully, the blackberry didn’t let me down! Next step was to unlock the phone. There are several guys in India in every gully who claim to unlock US phones of any make/model/carrier. Few of them might just do it right but in most cases, they end up removing the basic software and corrupting the phone along with all those dear apps or return the phone to you saying it can’t be done with this model – after holding your phone for at least a couple of weeks. We had a bad experience with two such guys with our iPhone – it still yearns to be unlocked!

So this time I decided that I was going to give it a try myself with the help of Google and YouTube. I took the bold step because, I had two blackberry of the same make but with a single battery (so in any case I could just use one blackberry at a time), therefore even if I screwed one up, there was a backup anyway! I was amazed to find that there were so many vendors who could help me unlock the blackberry and I must say I was mistrusting initially but nevertheless took the chance and I am really happy that I took the chance! Here is the steps that I followed to unlock the blackberry.

How I unlocked the blackberry

Step #1: Find the IMEI number of your mobile phone. This can be done by typing *#06# on the key pad

Step #2: Go to the below website:  www.unlockcellphonecode.com. The best part about using unlockcellphonecode.com is that they are the cheapest amongst all others on the internet. The cost for my blackberry was just $9.99 which is pretty cheap compared to what the local unlock-wallas ask for. Here you will see a form where you have to enter the following details:

 

 

 

* Select the country and carrier database  from the drop down list

* Select the right carrier/provider of your mobile

* Select the right blackberry model

* Enter the IMEI number – I was a little apprehensive about giving out the IMEI number- but now I know it was completely safe to do so.

Step #3: Click on Add to Cart

Step #4: You can pay through PayPal or through Google checkout

You will get a confirmation upon payment along with an invoice number and you will also get an email confirmation. You will also receive a user name and password along with the link where you can check the code. Follow the instructions in the email. This e-mail will be where you will also get the unlock code.

Then comes the waiting part.  Since this was an online transaction and as there was no contact number available on the website, the waiting part was a bit scary I must admit. They say that codes are available in 2-4 hours time, but it took 8 hours in my case. So don’t panic if you don’t see the code in you inbox within 4 or 6 hours.

Once you get the code, you will have to do 2 simple steps to unlock the phone:

Step #5: Remove the old SIM card from the blackberry and power it on (You can either have the new SIM card inserted or you can do this with no SIM in the phone – that makes no difference)

Step #6: Go to Options –> Advanced Options –> SIM Card. Now enter the following in the keypad: meppd

You will see that the Network option shows “Active”. This means that the phone is locked to the network of the provider

Step #7: Now enter the following on your keypad: mepp alt2 without any space between them. 

Step #8: You will see “Enter Network MEP Code (256 left)” This number 256 is the number of attempts for you to enter the MEP Code. You are lucky if you have these many attempts left. But if you exhaust all of those attempts, the phone gets hard locked to the carrier and there will the nothing you can do to unlock the phone.

Step #9: Enter the unlock code that you received in the email. This will unlock the phone and you will now see that the Network also shows “Disabled”. This is perfectly alright, it just means your phone is no longer tied to the carrier

Step#10: If you had not inserted the new SIM card earlier, do it now. Usually the right carrier gets selected automatically. If it does not go to Options—> Mobile Network and search for available network and choose the right carrier from among the list.

Now you will have an unlocked Blackberry!!

Did this help you? Have you unlocked through any other better way? Do share your thoughts!

Introducing the world of 3G to Indian mobile consumers–A review of 3G service providers and their tariffs

After mobile number portability it is now time for the telecom industry to woo the customers to the latest in the industry. Yes indeed, 3G is the talk of the town. With 3G available from all the major service providers both for their pre-paid and post-paid consumers, everyone can now experience ‘on the go’ internet experience from their smart phones. What remains to be seen is how the Indian consumers are going to embrace this technological advance. And this to a great extend will depend on the data plans and tariffs that the service providers will offer. I have compiled a list of major 3G service providers along with the details of their post paid charges (wherever available).

Comparison of the tariffs and service

Of all these, Vodafone’s deal is currently the best as one gets to try the 3G experience ‘at no extra cost’. But when Vodafone will start charging for the service, I guess BNL will get back to be he best again. Not only are the charges vey nominal, the service is also good. I find Airtel to be the costliest amongst the lot (They even charge you at 50paise per minute on Customer service calls – that’s pathetic!). I have personally tried Airtel and BSNL and from my experience, I find BSNL beat Airtel hands down I terms of cost, browsing speed and issueless connectivity. Airtel has intermittent breaks in connection and is relatively slow in comparison. Vodafone, I heard lives up to the ‘Super man’ zoo-zoo levels of expectation. (Again Vodafone did come up with the best series of Ads for 3G – they seem to have on hell of a creative team)

State wise list of service providers:

Here is the details of 3G service provides in different states:

State	Service provider
Andhra Pradesh	Bharati Airtel, Idea, Aircel
Assam	Reliance Telecom, Bharati Airtel, Aircel
Bihar	Bharati Airtel, STel, Aircel, Reliance Telecom
Delhi	Bharati Airtel, Reliance Telecom, Vodafone
Gujarat	Idea, Vodafone, Docomo
Haryana	Idea, Vodafone, Docomo
Himachal Pradesh	R C0m, Idea, STel, Bharati Airtel
Jammu & Kashmir	Aircel, Reliance Telecom, Bharati Airtel, Idea
Karnataka	Bharati Airtel, Docomo, Aircel
Kerala	Idea, Docomo, Aircel
Kolkata	Reliance Telecom, Vodafone, Aircel
Madhya Pradesh	Idea, Docomo, Reliance Telecom
Maharashtra	Idea, Docomo, Vodafone
Mumbai	Bharati Airtel, Reliance telecom, Vodafone
North East	R com, Bharati Airtel, Aircel
Orissa	STel, Aircel, R com
Punjab	Docomo, Idea, Reliance Telecom, Aircel
Rajasthan	Docomo, Reliance Telecom, Bharti Airtel
Tamil Nadu	Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel
Uttar Pradesh (East)	Aircel, Idea, Vodafone
Uttar Pradesh (west)	Docomo, Bharti Airtel, Idea
West Bengal	Bharti Airtel, Reliance Telecom, Vodafone, Aircel

 

Even though 3G is  the hot cake now, the usage will greatly depend on competitive pricing. Also as a smart phone (like iPhone, android models or Nokia smart phones) is a basic necessity for this service, that will also act as a dampening factor. Nevertheless, I believe that this revolutionary technology will reach the masses very soon even if the service is priced quite on the higher side now. I am sure the charges will settle down to customer friendly rates within a short time – remember when cellphones came to India, incoming calls were charged at Rs.65 per min and today we are paying homage to 1 paise/min!

What do you think? Do you have 3G enabled handsets? What 3G service do you use and how do you like it – Please share your views!

Verizon unleashes 4G with HTC Thunderbolt - A review of features and deals on Thunderbolt

The wait for 4G is finally over - Verizon has launched the 4G service with HTC Thunderbolt today! The 4.3 inch Thunderbolt is priced at $250 at Verizon wireless with a 2 year contract. The phone looks very cool and hopefully experiencing 4G on it would be cool as well. The only thing that bring a frown is the Android version in the mobile. With android already working on Ice cream Sandwich, this mobile only sports the Android 2.2 version (the version most widely in use today).

Features:

Android 2.2 (Froyo) with HTC Sense 2.0 OS

4.3” TFT Touch screen, 8MP rear cam with LED Flash and 1.3MP front cam

MicroSD expandable up to 32 GB

802.11 b/g/n wireless, 2.1 Bluetooth, 4G network

Qualcomm® MSM8655, 1GHz, Qualcomm MDM9600 chipset

 

 

The best deal on this phone is available at Amazon.com – $180.00

Ordered your HTC Thunderbird already? What is your expectations? Do share your comments here!

Froyo (Android 2.2) is the most popularly used Android version!

Just after 9 months of its release, Froyo (Android 2.2) is the most widely used Android version in all of the Android devices. This version of the Android OS is popularly used in both mobile devices and in tablets.

When  combined with the Android version 2.1, the overall popularity of the 2.x version swells to 90% on all the active Google devices.

The disappointing part of this statistic is that the most recent version for mobile phones – Gingerbread has not even reached 2% in terms of usage. Also the honeycomb version which was exclusively developed for tablets is just 0.2% in use.

Android Version	Usage
1.5	3 %
1.6	4.8 %
2.1	29 %
2.2	61.3 %
2.3	0.7 %
2.3.3	1.0 %
3.0	0.2 %

 

 

Though the popularity of Android is steadily climbing up in the market, the users would love to see that the most recent versions are also the most widely used versions in market.

 

Do you own an android? What version are you running?