10 Best Android Apps of 2012 according to Google

Android has now taken a 70% of the smartphone apps share in 2012 and also was almost equal to the Apple’s app quantity. With the ever increasing number of devices for android developers are keen in creating better apps. Google revealed its own list of best android apps for 2012. These apps were selected by the editor’s of Google Play.
Google says that these are some of the apps which achieved a great combination of utility, beauty and accessibility. The apps selected are compatible for both phone and tablet and according to Google represent the best of Google Play. Below are the best apps of 2012 by Google, in no particular order.

Evernote
Evernote is the best organizer for a smartphone. Evernote is one of those few apps which are equally very clean and fast. Take notes, capture photos, organize your calendar, collect chunks of data from internet in a beautiful interface.

Pocket
Pocket lets you save articles, read subscriptions, videos and other stuff which are interesting to you. And you can read later when the internet connection is not available. An easy way to collect, view and share content.

Fancy
Fancy is one of the apps where we can discover, collect and buy things from a filtered catalogue of wonderful products. A best place to find gifts to your dear ones and can share your interests with your friends

TED
Official app of TED using which we can view the best collection of talks. You can browse through more than 1200 TED Talk videos and audios. This app is available for both phones and tablets. TED app is created with the help and support of Sony.

Pinterest
Pinterest app was a much waited android app of 2012 and also which is an obvious part of this list. You can collect pictures and share which inspire you. Collect and organize the content and can make simple boards to show your collections.

Expedia
A beautiful app to plan trips which is well designed for both the tablets and phones. Plan your flight booking or hotel planning anywhere in the world with this globally available app.

Grimm’s Snow White
This  is a simple and well-designed android app that introduces to Grimm’s fairy tales in a cool storybook style. Interestingly this is only the app in the list which is not free.

Seriesguide Show Manager
An android app for watching television that includes more information about shows and schedules. Android authors say that this app “features an attractive, practical and well-planned design aesthetic”.

Ancestry
A unique and full-featured genealogy app that delivered a stunning design overhaul which also delivered new functionality.

Pixlr Express
A photo-editing app that includes many a number of photo fixes and effects to easily make photos look cool. And you can share these pictures right from the app. I personally prefer this app as an Instagram alternative.

Browre here for the Google Play's page for this list.

5 Best sites to download free softwares

Software is all what we need and what we do all around. When it comes to a desktop we have a lot of different tasks to perform ranging from a document editor to a video cutter. We use many types of software for multimedia, documentation and gaming. Softwares are sophisticated pieces of code and thanks to the freeware sites which provide softwares, here in this post I would like to list out the 5 best sites to download free software. You can download free softwares without losing a penny and sometimes these freewares equally perform as that of the highly priced softwares in the market. Some software may have limited functionalities but they can really make well at the personal use level.

CNET Download
The best and reliable source for free software downloads. CNET Download has been in free software download era the internet for many years and they know the best softwares that give best performance. I always see the CNET’s rating for software to know its performance and functionality. They also provide best softwares lists that makes easy to select best software. And the servers of CNET download never let you count seconds.

Filehippo.com
Filehippo.com is my favorite site to download all the best softwares in almost all categories. Filehippo provides the latest versions of every software. I got familiar with Filehippo through CCleaner software, which is the best software for PC cleaning. The best part of Filehippo is that they also provide previous versions of softwares for download. I always prefer this site to download browser plugins, CCleaner, browsers and free anti-virus.

Softonic
One of the best software download sites to get the latest and almost every freeware on earth. With millions of collection of freewares and sharewares this is a great destination for free software. You can find softwares for other platforms too like Mac and Linux. Softonic also provides mobile applications.

Freewarefiles.com
I was very impressed by this site’s huge collection of free softwares. The drivers section almost covered every hardware. You can download free audio/video tools, games, developer tools and many more. Another factor why I listed Freewarefiles here is that they update the freewares as soon they arrive.

Brothersoft
Over 250,000 freeware and shareware are for free download in Brothersoft which covers 7 channels including Windows, Mac, Mobile, etc. There are more than 10,00, 000 downloads every day on this site. To meet the software need of Non-English speaking country customers, multi-language portals including Japanese, German and many more have been setup by Brothersoft. You can also download games from a wide range of lists from brothersoft.

NOTE: Please be cautious while downloading from free software sites as they guide you through a custom installation where you could end up in installing some ad toolbars for browsers. So while you check the boxes while installations, please read and proceed.

3 reasons to hate Google Nexus 7

Since the day Google unveiled Google Nexus 7, it has become the new sensation in tablet market. With 1 million devices being sold in only one month, the search giant has been very successful in releasing a Kindle Fire killer. This 7 inch device included some high end specs like Quad Core processor, 1GB RAM, 1280×800 resolution IPS screen. But beside all these Nexus 7 lacks some features.

No memory!!

With an amazing 1200x800 display, I just want to fill up a Nexus 7 with high quality HD movies, but here I need to revise my thoughts as they occupy a good chunk of space and the device has memory restrictions. Nexus 7 comes in models in which memory is fixed and cannot be expanded. It lacks a micro SD slot which is one of the easiest ways to add memory to device. When you own an 8 GB or 16 GB model you need to deletes your stuff frequently to get enough space. As a matter of fact Google discontinued the 8 GB model now. And with 16GB model you need to be choosy while copying files into your tablet as it gets full in no time.

No Flash!!

Though Nexus 7 is a high end tablet with a great specs but it lacks in the flash support. This is actually strange that a killer device like Nexus ignored the flash support. We still find many websites and apps which require flash to run and this made some of the consumers to step back when they opted for Nexus 7.

No HDMI support.

When you want to see your videos in tablet on your HDTV, Nexus remains behind as there is no HDMI support in the device. With the increase in the number f people streaming videos from internet there is also an obvious increase in the number of people watching movies on their HDTV with their tablet connected.

5 great features to expect from Google-Motorola ‘X-Phone’

Since Google has acquired Motorola for $12.5 billion, there has been an expectation for a killer smartphone from the search giant. Few days ago Wall Street Journal stated that Google is working on so called ‘X-Phone’ which can directly compete with Apple’s iPhone and also with the Samsung’s success series, the Galaxy lineup. It is being expected that the phone will “stand-out” of the present high end smart phones. This phone could be the best substitute for Google if the relation with the Samsung breaks as Samsung is already avoiding some of the Google native default apps on their phones.

With the success of its Nexus lineup, Google now can handle the production of smartphones and tablets. It is also being said that post the release of the ‘X-Phone’, Google will work on ‘X-Tablet’. With the ever increasing expectations on this phone, here I present the 5 great features that can be expected from ‘X-Phone’.

A better battery
Yes, the smart phones are getting smarter and their batteries are getting weaker. So the first thing to expect from a major super phone is a long battery life. An amazing list of specs from a phone will only be strengthened when they come with better batteries for longer time.

A bendable OLED screen
Though experts have said that bendable screens may not arrive before 2014, but there has been a rumor that ‘X-Phone’ equips with a bendable screen, which is also the next future thing for smartphones from Samsung and Apple. With complications in implementing the bendable screen, companies are trying hard for getting them into devices.

Ceramics build
To resists drops, ‘X-Phone’ can come with ceramics. With the huge in size the smartphones sometimes are harder to get grip and need to be resistant to drops. Ceramics as back can push up the strength of the phone which may last longer.

Face and gesture recognition
With the acquisition of Viewdle by Google, it is expected to build software for their smartphone lineup which recognizes faces and gestures. If this could happen, then next time you could just slide your hand in air to get your phone to unlock.

Affordable price tag
Not to forget the price tag is one of the influential and effective features of a smartphone mainly to a high-end phone like ‘X-Phone’. The price tag competition always plays a key-role in the success of it. I expect a Google-Motorola to be at an affordable $200.

What does middle click in Google Chrome do?

Have you ever tried middle clicking the refresh button on Google Chrome? When I browse my mails or roam through news in Google Chrome obviously I use right click and left click of my mouse to do all actions and rarely use key board shortcuts for navigation and opening tabs. But I recently used my middle click on my refresh button and was surprised I don’t know this shortcut.

So I have listed out some of the tasks that we can do with the middle click in Google Chrome. I didn’t try whether these middle click shortcuts work on other brewers or not, but the following shortcuts worked on Chrome for fine. I just want to share all of them.

• Middle click on refresh button creates a copy of the tab you are on. 
• Middle click on a tab to close it.
• Middle click on back or forward button in Chrome to open a new tab that gives a backward or forward page. 
• Middle click on any hyperlink on a webpage to open that link in a new tab. 
• Middle click a bookmark folder, it opens every site in that folder in a new tab (Don’t try if you have dozens of bookmarks in a folder, it hits hard on your processor). 
• Middle click on home button to duplicate it.
• This middle click even works out of the browser for chrome, middle click a windows 7/8 taskbar icon, if you already have a window open, it opens a new one. 
• Middle click an aero thumbnail preview, it closes the application.

Why Instagram is not safe?

Instagram, the synonym for mobile photo sharing is being in troubles now. The change of Instagram’s policies has triggered all this which will be in effect from January 19 2013. This resulted in a public uproar and celebrities to announce that they want to deactivate their accounts if these policies persist. And some of the popular profiles like National Geographic stopped their photo uploads. In this post I would like to explain why really is Instagram not safe?

It is known that few months back Instagram was acquired by Facebook for a huge $715 million. And since then Facebook is working on a better monetization method on Instagram. As a result, they have come with the new “terms of service” which made the users worry about their privacy, content and ownership.

A part of the policy statement stated: “you hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use the content that you post”. This really is lingering the minds, isn’t it?

This implied, to all the Instagram users that you almost lose ownership of your photos in Instagram. And Instagram could sell your content to anyone and anytime without your consent or compensation.

For instance, at a party you shared pictures of your friends drinking Coca-Cola, and then Instagram have every right to sell those photos to Coca-Cola for their ads without your consent and permission.

The division of the terms of service said: "to help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos and/or actions you take … without any compensation to you".

In this modern digital era, the real money is not dollars but personal data more precisely digital data like usernames, likes etc. It’s clear that Facebook intended to “change” the Instagram makes money, but I feel this isn’t the right way. Above all the end user revolution could make anything happen.

So, finally I would like to list out why Instagram is not safe

• Instagram can sell your pictures for ads.
• Instagram can use your personal data for targeting ads.
• Instagram and obviously Facebook also will have full control over your data.

Yes, it’s true that on the internet, if you're not paying, then you are the product!