FellowUp: A Social Networking Personal Organizer

FellowUp: A Social Networking Personal Organizer FellowUp is a social networking personal organizer application. It has a desktop version as well as an iOS application with Android and Blackberry applications to come soon. The app syncs with your LinkedIn, Facebook and Gmail accounts to get your contacts, as well as you can manually import contacts from Outlook. What you then do is write notes and reminders about these contacts, or even just for yourself. Reminders can include things like lunch with a friend, a colleague's birthday or a reminder to remind a relative about something.

Design The app's design is highly simplistic and goes along with the simplistic features it offers. There is basically a bottom bar with four tabs. One takes you to a screen where you can add new notes, reminders and contacts, another takes you to notes, the third to your reminders and the last one to your contact list. The difference between adding a note and adding a reminder is that a reminder has the time element to it whereas a note is just something you need to mention or remember about someone. As said earlier, because the application isn't too feature heavy, the design is actually clean and simple enough to use the app with.

Features The features of the app are pretty simple. When you add a note, the app saves a note, when you add a reminder, the app saves a reminder and your contacts list is mostly your Facebook friends (or whichever accounts you have synced with the app). If your contacts haven't linked say their Facebook and Google accounts or their LinkedIn and Facebook accounts, the same person will show up as two different people in your contacts list. However, when you write notes or reminders about them, they do not get a notification about it so it really doesn't matter which account you choose to write a note about. You can bundle your contacts into groups of either friends, family or school, or make your own groups. The add contact tab is for if you meet a contact who's not on a social network and you still want to remember them. It's like adding them as a contact in your phone anyway.  

Conclusion
As is obvious from the description of features, the FellowUp app really only seems to be a very very light version of its website. It doesn't serve as a self contained application where you basically have most of the website's functionality on the go. It is a free app but really can mostly only be used for referencing and writing notes on the go. A far superior alternative to this app, would of course be Evernote where you can do so much more than just write text notes and give yourself alarm-less reminders of your friends and contacts. Furthermore, contacts can only be brought in from four sources. FellowUp says that they're working on syncing with Twitter, Yahoo and other internet services. The FellowUp app is available from the App Store and can only be used once you have signed up for an account and asked for an invite to use the app.

Samsung insulted in Lumia challenge video, cries foul

Samsung insulted in Lumia challenge video, cries foul


Nokia India recently started their ‘Blown Away By Nokia’ campaign and it seems that they are going all guns blazing in promoting their latest Nokia Lumia smartphones. At one of the events in Delhi, one of the participants was asked to click a picture, tag it and upload it to Facebook. The time taken by the two devices was compared with the eventual winner in that particular incident being the Nokia Lumia phone. Well, the guy did state that the Lumia phone won and that he was using a ‘Samsung Galaxy’ phone, but that’s not it. Once he lost the mini competition, the girl along with him got pretty fed up and said that his current phone was ‘the worst piece of sh*t’. Now, that certainly didn’t go too well with a certain Korean giant who, via a spokeswoman, said that, "The campaign is clearly unethical", as reported by The Handheld Blog. You can have a look at the video below.

We all know that Samsung currently has a massive share in the market and this aggressive marketing strategy by Nokia may just be the start of a new war that we might have to see in the times to come. For their part, Nokia mentioned that this competition was validated by Nielsen, while also mentioning that the Lumia 800 clearly won in 94 percent of the total 104 challenges that were timed and judged by Nielsen. We have seen a lot of these in the recent past with Samsung taking on Apple, but being at the receiving end is a whole new story, altogether. The competition was simply based on who can upload to social networking sites faster, so it clearly wasn’t a representation of which phone is better. However, with this ad, Nokia definitely is trying to make a statement with its new Lumia smartphone range. Either way, the girl did do a pretty good job at ridiculing the guy’s tastes.

So, what do you guys think – Blown away by the Lumia or just plain bad acting? Either way, let us know in the comments section below!

How to Increase Your Wifi Signal

Dell launches the XPS 13 Ultrabook in India

Ultrabooks just started trickling in towards the tail end of last year and it’s only now that they are gaining momentum. Today, Dell joined the bandwagon, when then launched the XPS 13 Ultrabook in India. Made from a blend of aluminium and carbon fibre, their new XPS 13 is incredibly slim at just 6mm at its thinnest point and manages to pack in a 13.3-inch display into the size of a 11-inch netbook. This is their premium offering and it doesn’t come cheap, as prices start from Rs.79,900 and go all the way up to Rs.99,900.

The Ultrabook is powered by a range of Intel ULV processors, starting with a Core i5 and going all the way up to a Core i7. 4GB of DDR3 RAM comes as standard and so does a 128GB SSD. The storage space can be expanded all the way to 256GB, but you’ll have to shell out a lot more as well for that. Besides the typical Ultrabook specifications, Dell have given their own special touch to the Ultrabook to make it stand out from the crowd. Most of the chassis is made of aluminium, while the bottom portion is made from carbon fibre. The screen also has an edge-to-edge glass for a more seamless look, which thanks to Gorilla Glass is scratch resistant.

Currently, Dell is offering three pre-set configuration for Indian consumers - one at Rs.79,900, Rs.89,900, and their flagship model, which retails for Rs.99,900. The only real difference between these models is the CPU and storage space. Despite and slim and slender profile, it’s still a bit heavy and even though Dell doesn't mention this on their site, it certainly feels heavier than a MacBook Air or the Asus UX31. A nice addition is the backlit keys, which means you can work late nights without keeping anyone up. Out of the two USB ports, one of them is USB 3.0, which is good, but sadly; they’ve had to sacrifice the card reader in order to keep the notebook slim and light.

Whether or not, it offers better value than the current Ultrabooks in the market will be known once we’ve reviewed it, so stay tuned.

PlayStation Move Street Cricket

Trine Games has been a busy little studio of late, releasing three console titles in less than two years. While Street Cricket Champions was fun in parts, last year’s Ra.One: The Game was quite a disaster. Now, however, Trine has released what gamers from our cricket-crazy nation have been clamouring for ever since Nintendo announced the Wii. Move Street Cricket, as the name suggests, is a cricket game for the PS3 based entirely on motion controls via the Playstation Move. Motion controls and cricket are the perfect fit, and in theory, Trine and Sony should have a winner on their hands.

But it’s never quite that easy. Cricket might seem like the perfect game to build around motion controls, but that only really extends to the batting part of it. The real challenge lies in implementing the other aspects of the game - bowling and fielding. But naturally, the first thing you want to do in a motion-controlled cricket game is batting, so that’s what I did. Off the bat (heh!), there were some controller calibration issues. For a game that requires such intricate use of the Move controller, the calibration process is rather basic, and this adversely affects gameplay. Even if you hold the Move controller with your wrists turned outwards to present the full face of the bat, the stance on screen shows the bat facing inwards. This presents a problem when playing shots on the offside, because you’ll have to turn your wrists out to an uncomfortable degree to open the face of the bat. Further calibration issues result in the bat often being half buried in the ground, despite the fact that I’m over six feet tall and my Playstation Eye camera is placed on top of my TV. A more detailed calibration process would have taken care of both these issues.

That aside, strokeplay in Move Street Cricket is quite fun, and the game does a surprisingly good job of allowing you to play an array of strokes, including late cuts, paddle sweeps and the Dilshan scoop. It takes a while to get the timing right and even after you do get used to the game, playing back-foot shots square of the wicket is quite difficult. Making batting considerably harder is the camera, which is placed at a slight height behind the stumps on the batsman’s side. The problem with this angle is that the ball tends to get lost in the background after it leaves the bowler’s hand, making it hard for you to judge its speed and flight. All these gripes aside, however, Move Street Cricket delivers a batting experience that is quite close to what cricket fans would have expected from a motion-controlled game.

Unfortunately, the other aspects pale in comparison, especially the bowling. The delivery selection process is asinine, requiring you to perform looping rainbow-like gestures rather than simply pointing the controller in the direction of the delivery you’d like to select. Even more ludicrous is the method of placing the marker where you’d like the delivery to pitch. These cumbersome controls often lead to no-balls, wides, wrong delivery selection, and short balls. Batting was always going to be the preferred activity in a Move cricket game, but thanks to the poor bowling controls, you’ll often want to just quit matches once you’re done batting. Fielding is mostly AI-controlled, but the catching mechanic is again unnecessarily complicated. Rounding off the bouquet of poor gameplay mechanics is the running between the wickets, where the batsmen seem to want a drinks break before setting off on a second run. Long story short – the only time you’ll be having fun in Move Street Cricket is when you’re swinging for the fences.

As the name suggests, the game is a take on gully cricket and features venues such as back alleys and amusement parks, although unlike Street Cricket champions, where venues were of different sizes and had different scoring rules, here, grounds are the same size and the differences are only cosmetic. The visuals aren’t anywhere near what you would expect from a PS3 game. Player animations are stiff, and the venues look bland and often too colourful. The sound effects aren’t up to the mark either; you’ll end up hearing players yell out the same phrases again and again, which can get quite annoying.

If your idea of a good cricket game is one where you get your kicks from batting and quit when it's time to bowl and field, Move Street Cricket is right up your alley. If you're looking for something even remotely well-rounded, however, you'll have to fall back on Codies' games and the standard controller.

BBM to be closely integrated with Twitter, FB and a range of apps

Folks at Research in Motion do accept that their users have a social life that goes past their BlackBerry Messenger service and to that effect they have announced that they will soon be releasing a range of apps, including Twitter and Facebook that can be closely integrated with their extremely popular instant messaging service. As per a post on Inside BlackBerry, Research in Motion has announced that they will be updating apps, like Facebook for their BlackBerry smartphones, Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones, BlackBerry Travel, BlackBerry App World, BBM Music, and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM). These BBM connected applications will integrate BBM functionality right into the app, allowing one to do things, such as invite BBM friends to experience their apps, chat with BBM contacts from inside the BBM connected app and share and discover new BlackBerry apps and content with others.

 Along with these updates, the Canadian smartphone manufacturer has also announced that with the upcoming release of BBM, BlackBerry Tag will be better integrated, thereby giving users the ability to send voice notes quicker, simpler ways to update their profile message, along with and new app integrations. Apart from this, BBM v6.2 will feature animated avatars and when one is logged into BBM, all they have to do is scroll over the avatar to view the animation.

According to the post, the brand details about the updates to Facebook and Twitter by saying, “Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v3.0 and Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones v3.0 are now BBM connected apps. When you connect Facebook and Twitter with BBM, you can share your latest status updates and tweets as your BBM Personal Message by simply selecting the “Share with BBM” icon from within the app. You can also opt to share tweets or Facebook updates with your BBM contacts in one centralized location.”

These updates will begin to rollout over the next few days and to download the new versions of Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones, Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones, BlackBerry Travel, BBM Music and BBM..

Microsoft's Live@edu, Office 365 to reach technical colleges across India

All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) have announced that they will deploy Microsoft’s Live@edu to more than 10,000 technical colleges and institutions, across the nation over the next three months. This initiative would make AICTE Microsoft's largest cloud customer ever for a total of 7.5 million users. Live@edu is a hosted communication and collaboration service that offers e-mail, Microsoft Office Web Apps, instant messaging and storage. Microsoft Office 365 will also be deployed by AICTE when it is made available later this year, providing access to Microsoft Exchange Online e-mail and calendar, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Lync Online and Microsoft Office Professional.

"Microsoft's cloud platform will make for a truly progressive ecosystem and contribute to the country's technical education by providing a better communication and collaboration platform for institutes and students," said Dr. S. S. Mantha, Chairman of AICTE. The All India Council for Technical Education is a governing body for technical education in India, certifying and managing technical colleges and institutes and it requires to have timely and consistent communication with colleges in the remotest regions. They’ve been looking to deploy a technology system that would provide an efficient platform for students and the institutional framework.

"Microsoft's commitment to empower students by deploying Microsoft Live@edu for 7.5 million users across the country with AICTE is commendable and a step towards an informed and developing India. I congratulate both AICTE and Microsoft on this significant milestone," said Mr. Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for HRD .

"We are delighted with the confidence posed by AICTE in Microsoft. Microsoft has always seen education as a priority area and believes that technology offers possibilities that can help empower not just teachers and students but collectively India as a nation," said Sanket Akerkar, Managing Director, Microsoft Corporation India Private Limited. The complete deployment will be seen by summer 2012. Live@edu, a cloud suite for education has more than 22 million people using the service worldwide. The implementation of the service by AICTE is underway, already and has been managed by Microsoft and a set of Live@edu partners.