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iReff – Android app for Indian mobile recharge details

iReff is a nifty app that helps you to easily know your mobile recharge details. You can easily get the details of a particular recharge tariff just by sending an SMS. iReff has come up with an Android app that has over 1 million downloads.

The app is simple and requires not much explanation. On launching the app, you’ll be asked to choose your mobile operator and your circle. In a couple of minutes, the app will show you the list of topup or tariff recharge plans available.

iReff (2)

iReff supports 14 prepaid mobile services and 22 telecom circles. You can change the mobile operator and the circle.

It classifies the recharge plans as separate sections. The topup plans are shown first followed by SMS, 2G/Data, 3G and many other sections.

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It updates the recharge details on a daily basis. It pulls the recharge details from the operator’s website. An exception : BSNL details are updated every 1-2 weeks.

Clicking a particular recharge price gives you more information about that particular recharge. It will also show when that particular recharge details was updated from the operator’s website.

iReff Android app comes with a dedicated search box that you can use to search recharge plans based on prices or recharge tariff types.

Also, when you click on any particular recharge amount, along with the recharge details, you’ll also be shown the USSD string to activate that particular recharge.

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To use iReff using SMS commands, check the app’s official website.

Sadly, this app comes with ads and there is no pro version of this app. Do try out iReff and drop in your comments.

Link: iReff on Google Play | iReff for Windows Phones

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Automatically Manage and Save Email Attachments to Google Drive or Dropbox – MetisMe

My relatives very rarely send me emails except when they want to share photos of the family. Not everyone is comfortable with photos being uploaded and shared on Facebook or Google+. But I prefer to save my attachments on Google Drive (or Dropbox). A single click solution is available as a Chrome extension but I liked MetisMe, which automatically saves attachments from certain address to your chosen cloud service.

MetisMe
MetisMe – automatic rules to send attachments to a cloud service

As you can see in the image above, installing the MetisMe Chrome extension allows me it to sort my attachments. Most importantly I can make quick rules to send attachments from certain email ids to either Dropbox, Evernote or Google Drive.

The service is still not open for public and there is still more work needed on the service. For instance, I found that it was showing me attachments from emails within my spam folder or previously deleted emails in the option called “Attachments Stack”.

If you want pre-launch access to MetisMe, you can use this link.

Try out MetisMe and drop in your comments and views.

Link: MetisMe | Chrome Extension

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Simplest way to transfer files between two smartphones – Bump

While meeting people it if often difficult to exchange phone numbers, photos or files over smartphones all that easily. It also can be a troublesome to an extent to quickly transfer a photo you took on your computer. What I do is upload the file to my Google Drive account which then becomes available on my laptop.

An app called Bump does a great job simplifying transfer of a file or contact details from one phone to another or from a phone to a desktop.

How Bump works:

Transfer files between devices with bump app
Transfer files between devices with bump app

Bump works on iPhones and Android. If two people have the bump app installed then all they need to quickly connect their phones is open the app and bump their phones lightly into each other.

This triggers the phones to connect with each other. The phones ask permission to connect with the other phone and files can easily be sent to and fro.

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The app on the phone can also be used to transfer files from a phone to your laptop. Just open bu.mp and bump your phone on the spacebar. This triggers a connection between your computer and phone. The transfer actually happens through the website.

We can even send files from our computer to the phone in the same way, except the file needs to be selected and uploaded to the website before transferring it over to the phone.

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Why I am hopeful of Bump’s future!

There might be more apps that offer similar services but I have high hopes from Bump. The reason being they were good enough to get acquired by Google. Since Google is trying to get it’s services interact across platforms, Bump being a hit on Android and iPhone bodes well for its future.

Try out Bump and drop in your comments.

Link: bu.mp

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Flipkart finally launches a native Android app

Flipkart has finally revamped it’s Android mobile app. It was just a mobile version of the Flipkart website put as an app earlier. But this upgraded version has been built from scratch and offers a beautiful user interface. The app comes packed with almost every Flipkart feature.

The user interface is now much improved. The slider menu on the left side makes navigation easy. Easily search products in various departments, search for products using text/voice and even scan barcodes. You can also sort/filter the products based on popularity, price (low to high and high to low), and discounts.

You can also check the products’ images zoomed in, check out the user reviews and ratings.

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You can also buy things right within the app. Payment is by Cash on Delivery, Debit/Credits cards, Net Banking and EMIs – just like the payment options on the Flipkart website. Once purchased, you can track the status of your orders right within the app. This is a big improvement.

There is something interesting that Flipkart brought in this updated Android app. You can check the details of the recently viewed products even when the network is not available.

Also, Flipkart gives you an option to share your purchases with your Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social networking site friends.

Link: Flipkart on Google Play

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Bunk-o-Meter saves you from Backlogs, lets you Track your College Attendance

Here’s a fun and practical Android app for all you college goers who want to keep track of your class attendance – that is, letting you safely bunk classes. It’s called Bunk-o-Meter.

Bunk-O-Meter

Getting started is simple, you just have to enter your Semester’s subjects and the bunk limit for each of those. Next time you bunk a class, you can hit the + button and it’ll record it.

You can set the app to throw a notification every day, reminding you if you’ve bunked any classes.

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The app is nicely done, with neat transitions from screen-to-screen. It also throws some funny comment once in a while, as you can see in the screenshot above. Adding to this, there’s a quick tutorial in the beggining.

In short, Bunk-o-Meter does one thing and does it right.

So if you’re a student and using an Android, go grab it for free.

Link: Bunk-o-Meter

Update: The app now has been open-sourced. You can get the code here.

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rome2rio – Travel Search Guide for Airline and Railways

Rome2rio is a multi-modal travel search guide that aims at making travelling easy. rome2mio has a map based UI. You should enter the origin and destination places and it will be give you the travel combination of cars, buses, trains, ferries or planes that you should take.

The app also mentions you the amount of money that you should spend to reach your destination. The service splits the travel mode. It also mentions the amount of money that you should spend for each mode of transportation and then mentions the total amount. The airfares are taken from Katak.

Similarly, Indian train details are provided by Indian Railways. It gives you an option to enter the travel dates and it pulls the exact airfares from Katak. It features 670 airlines worldwide, and features trains in Europe, China and India. It also allows you to book your tickets straight away when you choose your dates and your preferred airlines.

Hotel bookings are also available.

It also gives you multiple choices of transportation/origin/destination and you can choose the one you prefer. For example, when I searched for a travel guide from Madurai, India to Tokyo, Japan, it gave me an option to land either at Tokyo Narita or at Tokyo Haneda.

rome2rio

The price tags are mentioned in USD by default. You can choose to change that to your preferred currency any time.

How rome2rio stakes against Google Maps?

rome2rio is basically Google Maps with additional features. But the main advantage of rome2rio over Google Maps is that, the former gives you multi-modal travel options while Google Maps limits to one mode of travel. Also Google Maps doesn’t show fares and doesn’t allow bookings.

Link: rome2rio website

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MyAppSharer : Share your Android apps with your friends

MyAppSharer is an Android app that helps you to easily share your Android apps with your friends. You can choose to share the apps’ market (Google Play) links or directly send the app package (APK file).

It is a free app and supports every Android device running Android 1.6 and above. The app is easy to use and makes Android apps sharing a lot easy. Also the best thing is that, your friend doesn’t need to have MyAppSharer installed on his device.

The user interface requires no description. It is an user friendly app and one can start playing with the app within seconds of installation.

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On launching the app, all the Android apps installed on your Android device populate. You can choose the list of apps that you want to share. You can also select/deselect all the apps.

You can share by two ways :

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  1. As a market link : You can share the market link of the app and your friend will have to download the app package himself/herself. You can share the market link by various means : text messaging, QR codes, bluetooth, bluetooth (zip) add to Dropbox, Facebook and a lot more.
  2. Share the APK file : The second option is sharing the entire app package. Like the first option you can share the entire APK by bluetooth, bluetooth (zip) or by internet via mail, Dropbox, Skype and many more.

Important things to note

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  1. To share the QR code for a particular app, you should have Barcode Scanner installed on your Android.
  2. To add the market link or APK fle to Dropbox, you should have the Dropbox app installed on your Android.
  3. It has been reported by many users that they are not able to receive the apps’ APK/market link by bluetooth on their Nexus device. MyAppSharer developer recommends you to share by bluetooth (zip) if you are sharing the file to a Nexus user.

Doesn’t this app look brilliant? Do give it a go and share your thoughts on it with us.

Link: MyAppSharer on Google Play

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Clueful : Your Android Apps Privacy Analyser

Most of the smartphone apps these days ask for special permissions like accessing your contacts, sending texts on their own, using your Gallery photos and more. To be on the safe side, we must be aware of the things that these apps ask and should take steps to be safe. If any app is found to be leaking out your contact numbers to third parties or sending your private data to others, that app should be removed immediately.

To take of care of your privacy, here comes Clueful. If you are an Apple fanboy or a previous iOS user, you might recognize this app. It is an app brought by Bitdefender. Available earlier to the iOS users, Clueful is new to Android. The app is easy to use and gives you a detailed analysis on the list of apps installed in your Android.

How Clueful Works

  1. On opening Clueful, the app scans all the apps installed on your Android and compares with it’s Cloud database from Bitdefender. Note that the app requires Internet connectivity to work.
  2. Once done, it classifies them as low, moderate and high risk apps.
  3. It also gives you a Privacy Score. The larger the score, the safer you are.

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Features of Clueful

  1. Once the apps have been classified, you can get a depth analysis of the apps’ privacy by clicking on that particular app.
  2. It also lets you to uninstall apps right within the app.
  3. You can filter apps and then check which particular apps use your location, which particular apps are viruses and more.
  4. It works as an anti-virus, anti-theft, web control and SMS control tool.
  5. It scans each app that you download from Google Play immediately and lists it as a low, moderate or high risk app.

It is a must have app for every Android user who give privacy the first priority. Privacy matters.

Link : Clueful on Google Play

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Free up Space on Your Android and Make it Run Faster

If you never knew, uninstalling some Android apps doesn’t take away all the data. There are some junk files left which can be erased completely with Clean Master. It is an all-in-one app that cleans the app cache, unused files, residual files (junk files left by uninstalled apps) and search history. Also, it lets you to easily uninstall/take backups of apps that you want.

The app also acts as a task killer. But there is a reason why task killers fail! You can read about that on Not much of a killer post, published on The Hindu.

On launching Clean Master, you’ll be shown top graphs which indicate the used and unused spaces on your external SD card and the phone’s internal storage.

The app also shows the amount of space recovered after each clean.

Clean Master

 

Junk Files allows you to clean all the cached files and residual files. Privacy allows you to clean the search history. Tasks allows you to kill tasks. App Manager allows you to uninstall apps or take backups.

Also, Clean Master allows you to schedule clean jobs.

What’s your thought on this 50 million+ downloaded app? Do let us know if you know more apps like this.

Link: Clean Master on Google Play

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Use Time Warp on Chrome to keep yourself focused on work

Time Warp is a productive Google Chrome extension that will help you stay focused. You might have lots of work to do, but you always tend to check your social media accounts’ updates.

Time Warp will help you calculate the amount of time you have wasted, display a quote message or redirect to a productive website. Time Warp is available for free on the Chrome Web Store.

Once installed, you can create “Wormholes”. Wormholes are basically commands that you want to executed whenever you visit a website that you should not.

Once you install Time Warp, you can go to the extension’s Options to create Wormholes. Then you’ll have to click the Time Warp icon at the top right of the Google Chrome browser to enable Time Warp. Once enabled, the icon will turn blue. To disable, click the icon again.

time-warp-chrome

There are three types of Wormholes that you can create :

  1. Redirection : You can create a Wormhole that redirects you to a particular website when you visit a website that wastes your time.
  2. Quotes : You can choose to display a quote whenever you visit a time-wasting website.
  3. Timer : Time calculates the amount of time that you have wasted on a particular website. The Timer will not be reset until you uninstall the extension or delete the Wormhole.

You can also choose where to display your Timer. You can display it at the bottom right, bottom left, top right, top left or at the top of your Google Chrome browser.

Link: Time Warp on Chrome