Find your train on the move

National Train Enquiry System - CRIS(Govt. of India)

India runs on its vast network of railways and in this age of technology, it becomes quite necessary to keep a tab on train movements and continuing the exclusive relationship with Windows phone platform, CRIS has launched an app which is the mobile version of National Train Enquiry System (NTES). NTES is the system which shows the live status and various other information regarding the vast railway network India has. CRIS is the backbone to which NTES is connected for its live feeds.

Diving into the app, it shows up a neat start screen with 7 sections starting from Live status to the details of trains which have been diverted for the day. Colors are vibrant and the sections are neatly placed as metro tiles, though there are no automatic updates for the tiles.

Spot  - This tile lets you go directly into the main function of app i .e to know the live status of currently running trains. Key in the train number/name, journey station and journey day to know the current running status of train.

Live station - This is an interesting feature and a welcome addition to a phone app. This tile lets you find all the trains from a particular station in a time span of 2/4 hours. Its very helpful when we dont know the train name/number but know the station from which it passes.

Train schedule - This is a standard option found in almost all the railway apps. Key in the train name/number to know its schedule.

Trains between stations - Again a standard but uselful option of knowing the trains between two stations.

Cancellations - Important feature which shows the complete list of cancelled train list with an option to filter information for the previous and next date from current date. A full and partial cancellation can also be viewed. The same goes with other tiles such as rescheduled and diverted train list

Overall a near perfect app for frequent travelers. Good that ticket booking has not been included in this which is meant just to view status of trains. Home screen is quite vibrant considering its a Indian govt. app ( oops!!), but as you dive inside, the colors are pale and doesn't inspire interest. Its a bug free app and  a very useful one

Go on download it here and share your experiences.

MOTO E

Motorola has launched a new phone today,MOTO-E. "Made to Last. Priced for all" this is what Motorola says about MOTO-E. The Device is protected with a Corning Gorilla Glass and a water-repellent splash guard for lasting durability and the 1980mAh Battery gets you going all day. The phone is priced at Rs.6999/- which is the best selling point considering the specs you get.

After the huge success of MOTO-G Motorola has come up with a budget phone.Lot of measures have been taken to cut down the cost, like no front facing camera, no LED flash for the rear Camera, no compass sensor, low resolution display. The design is very similar to MOTO-G. It is probably the best phone for someone who never owned a smart phone or an android device before. This Device has been launched through its e-commerce partner, Flipkart like its predecessors G and X. Motorola is getting back strong in the Indian mobile market with MOTO-X, MOTO-G and MOTO-E after it pulled out of India in 2012 as a part of restructuring the company globally. 

Specifications:

• Runs Android 4.4 KitKat out of the box. 
• Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 200 with 1.2GHz dual-core A7 CPU Adreno 302 400MHz single-core GPU 
• 4.3 inches 540 x 960 qHD, 256ppi
  Features anti-smudge coating and Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3
• MicroUSB, supports USB 2.0
  3.5 mm headset jack
  Micro SIM Dual-SIM
• Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion, 1980mAh
  Mixed usage up to 24 hours
• 4GB user storage
  MicroSD slot supports up to 32GB expandable memory 1GB RAM

It Runs the latest Version of android. According to Motorola, this device will get the next android update. we do not generally see this with budget phones. Android developers are trying to reduce the hardware requirements as much as they can with every update to make sure that more and more devices use the latest version of android. This is just the first day with my new 'Moto E' and so far it is quite impressive except that it is a bit bulky. other than that it feels good in the hand, bright display, stock android experience. The screen to my surprise is very sharp for the resolution of 960x540. no fancy stuff like active notifications due to lack of sensors and dedicated processors that we saw in 'MOTO-G' overall this is a great deal for the price. we will update the post with a detailed and technical review after using the device for a week.

 

Watch this cool ad by Motorola...!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5Asedlj2cw

Image and specs source : Gooogle & Motorola.com

Flipkart - Windows App

Flipkart is an India based e-commerce website with an annual revenue generation of  US$200 million (Rs.1180 Crores). Launched in 2008, the enterprise has rapidly grown from a "only book selling website" to "website that sells everything" in short it has quickly become India's Amazon.

In its continuous efforts to grow and be ahead of the competition, the company has launched many apps which give easy access to the its products. The latest addition to this list has been the long awaited windows app. Apps for iOS and Android were launched way back but windows app was put on hold for some weird reason. The wait for the app has been worth it as flipkart has come up with a super smooth, clutter free and visually appealing app.

Today we review the app on a Windows 8.1 - Lumia 720.

To start off, the app was officially launched on 8-April and since then it has topped the "top free" apps list on windows store. As is the case with most of the windows apps, size of app is 2 MB (we just love it!) and its available as a free download.

The app starts with a neat Home screen on top of which is the universal search button, to directly search for specific products. Home screen is divided into departments such as electronic & appliances, fashion & accessories etc. All the major selling product categories have been smartly added on to the home screen. The options button shows different options for accessing the app. These options are carried on to every page and gives access to "shop by" and "cart", irrespective of the page you are in. The shop by option gives you the complete list akin to the full websiteA swipe towards right takes you to the offer section, wherein all the offers are listed (Flipkart is offering Rs. 150/- off on all the products ordered using the mobile app). Further swiping takes you to the "recently viewed" and "hot on flipkart" sections. As the name suggests the recently viewed section saves all your previous searched items and hot on flipkart shows all the exclusive offers.

            

Access to all the departments is smooth and without delay. You can choose the products you want and apply the required filters if needed. Once the product is selected, its ratings, reviews can be viewed easily and it can be ordered instantly. As in the website, the checkout option has 3 steps: Login where we can log in with our account details, delivery wherein we provide the address and then payment gateway completes the process.

Overall the app is worth the wait and works like a charm. You wouldn't feel like going to the website once this app catches your attention. Kudos to the developers

• What we like most:
• Very neat and clutter free. 
• Right mix of colors to make it more appealing 
• Right use of all the windows environment
• Availability of all the products. No less than the desktop version
• Recently viewed section.

Go on, download the app and tell us what you loved in it .

Download link

PRESSY !

Android devices are very customisable. Most of this tweeks are internal, software related. Introducing  Pressy, an additional physical button for your smart Phone. This can be plugged in to the 3.5mm headphone socket on your phone. with the help of the free pressy app you can define the actions it should perform like unlocking the device, taking a picture and many more. 

ONE PLUS ONE

  The first smart Phone to officially run Cyanogen Mod operating system out of the box. Cyanogen Mod has been an alternate operating system for android devices for a while. it is a modified version of android 4.4.2 kitkat.

           The Chinese based company has packed this phone with impressive components. the company tied up with Qualcomm for hardware and with Cyanogen Inc for their software. 

SPECS:

• 3GB RAM
•   Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor running at 2.5GHz
• 5.5 inch Screen with 1080P resolution
• 13 Mega Pixel Camera with F2.0 Sony image sensor
• 5 Mega Pixel front Camera
• 3100 mAh Battery
• the Device supports NFC and has stereo speakers   

The Device weighs 162 grams and is 8.9mm thick. The phone is made up of plastic. following Motorola's footsteps, One Plus says that wood, Kevlar and denim back covers will be available as accessories.

PRICING is Where the ONE PLUS one stands out. it is priced at $299 for the 16GB version and $349 for the 32GB version.

   

 

MOTO-X (price: 23,999)

                                                                                          

            Hey Guys, here is the long awaited and much hyped Motorola’s flagship smartphone, ’MOTO X’. Ever since Google acquired Motorola mobility, we have all been waiting to see what would come out of it. MOTO-X is the first phone from Motorola that Google actually had a hand in. lets take a closer look at it.

LAUNCH  (march 19th,india)

               Moto X was released in August 2013, but took a while to make it's way into the Indian market. This device comes in 2 variants - 16 GB and 32GB, the 32GB variant is not yet available. According to Flipkart, which has exclusive rights to sell Moto G and Moto X in India, the device will be available in five colors (Black, White, Royal blue, Walnut, Turquoise, Teak) and is priced at ₹23,999. though its two wood back versions(Teak and Walnut) will be priced higher at ₹25,999.

BUILD AND DESIGN

               Motorola mentioned that they started with the shape of the phone and built everything else around that, from the display to the battery. They wanted to build a phone that is easy to use and comfortable to hold. 

    It seems like they have been successful with the design. The phone is really subtle,compact and the rounded rubberized back feels pretty good in hand. The volume rocker and power button are on the right side, sim card slot on the left, headphone jack on the top and micro usb slot at the bottom. It has 3 microphones for noise cancellation. The body feels rigid and is made up of PET composite. It is lighter than ‘MOTO G’. which is pretty impressive from Motorola.

DISPLAY  (Amoled capacitive touch screen)

              70% of the phone surface is screen.A little disappointed with the 720 p resolution but the display is very sharp and vivid in spite of the low pixel density(312 ppi).

        A very interesting feature is the new ‘Active Display Technology’ which lights up only a portion of the pixels to show notifications. This uses the sensors to show up notifications when you flip the phone or take it out of your pocket. No need to double tap the screen or use any gestures. Interesting! 

PERFORMANCE

               This phone is buttery smooth and has multiple cpu’s, some of which are dedicated to certain tasks to improve the battery life. They call it the ‘MotoX8 Computing System’.which includes:

•         Dual core 1.7GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro
•         Quad core Adreno 320GPU (Graphics)
•         Dedicated core for Contextual computing
•         Dedicated core for Language processing and voice recognition

    That makes it 8 cores in total, which is pretty impressive. Browsing experience is exceptionally good.

BATTERY  (2200mAh)

               Motorola has clearly done lot of changes under the hood to improve battery life like 720p display, the active notifications and the X8 computing system. With all this it turns out the battery life is really good. Motorola claims 24 hrs of battery life!. That may be for an average use, but on a decent use you can get up to 14 to 16 hrs which is certainly a longer lasting backup than the Samsung galaxy S4 or HTC1.

CAMERA

               The biggest Disappointment of the entire phone!

On the front you have a 2  Mega pixel camera and on the back,a 10 Mega pixel sensor and a single LED flash. They call it the clear pixel camera. You can activate the camera application with a quick double rotation about its axis. The camera UI is pretty simple but no way to select the metering. The pictures are little de saturated and not sharp. It's  a huge advantage that the camera firmware and image processing can be updated. but for now it is the way it is.

WHAT’S IN THE BOX

•   Phone
•     Charger
•     Data cable
•     sim removal tool.
•     earphones (only for the Indian version)

Beyond all the minor shortcomings, you will love using the MOTOX. great typing experience,compact design, nice crisp colorful bright display, good performance. great for any first time android user.

Do comment and let us know your experience.

Image courtesy: @evleaks