Where and How to Get the Best Online Gadget Deals

Where and How to Get the Best Online Gadget Deals

You can save a lot of money when shopping online for gadgets as long as you know where to look. Karan Bajaj lists some of the online stores that offer great deals and discounts:

Phones, Tablets & Cameras

If you are on the lookout for a handheld device, you can get some fantastic deals compared to retail stores on these sites 

UNIVERCELL.IN 

Along with a deal of the week that offers promo codes for additional discounts on purchase, they also offer heavy discounts on slightly older devices. 

SAHOLIC.COM 

The site has a clearance sale section where older products can be picked up for as much as 70% discount. They also offer the facility to collect a device purchased online from nearest Spice Hotspot store. 

THEMOBILESTORE.IN 

Although the rates are similar to other websites for a majority of the products, their 'Super Sale' section has some unbelievable deals at times. 

ZOOMIN.COM 

Although they show discount over MRP on most listed items, what sets them apart is their special offers where newer devices are listed with extra discount making them cheaper than other sites. 

MIRCHIMART.COM 

This one offers fantastic discounts on recently launched gadgets. Every Tuesday they have special discounts on various products under their dedicated sale day called 'Toofani Tuesday'. 

Discount Coupons Website 

Most e-commerce sites offer discount coupons to attract new users. The coupons help you save further over the sale price when buying online. Head to www.khojguru.com, www. cashkaro.com, www.couponpolice.com and www.couponzguru.com to get discounts coupons for popular websites. Most of these websites do not require you to signup for any account. Search for the online store of your choice and the site will list all the offers currently available. Everything Under One Roof Offering everything from gadgets to home appliances 

CROMARETAIL.COM 

The online store of well known retail chain offers discount on a number of products, unlike retail stores. It offers various combo offers along with discount coupons for their own 'Croma' range of products in order to entice customers in buying them. 

SHOPPING.INDIATIMES.COM 

The site offers fresh discount coupons in their daily midnight deal. The discount is on one specific product category so that the consumer can avail discount on any product of choice. There are also deals on gadgets and accessories running on the homepage. 

EBAY.IN 

Though eBay works on a different model than the usual e-commerce sites, it offers some of the best discounts in its Deals section. Just make sure that you purchase from a power seller with manufacturer warranty provided and not seller warranty 

INFIBEAM.COM 

Infibeam keeps updating its site with various deals on a weekly basis and even has some combo offers at times. However, it stands out with its Magic Box section that daily offers two new products from various categories at unmatched discounted price. 

FLIPKART.COM 

Flipkart is a household name now thanks to its innovative marketing. The site offers almost anything and everything from handheld gadgets to home appliances. Although they don't have a dedicated deal section, the site always has some discount offer. 

SNAPDEAL.COM 

Shifting from being a deal sites to an online store, Snapdeal now offers a much larger portfolio of products across categories. They have various offers listed on the home page across categories as well as a deal of the day (not necessarily of gadgets). 

HOMESHOP18.COM 

Homeshop has two deal sections on the site. The first is called Daily 18 – lists 18 products from various categories with a discounted price. The second called Superdeals lists down products along with discount coupons of certain value. 

TRADUS.COM 

Tradus works on a similar model as eBay – verified sellers list products and the consumer can purchase from the seller offering the lowest price. There is a dedicated deal page listing products (usually unknown brands) at a surprisingly low price. 

Accessories Only 

STUFFCOOL.COM 

Stuffcool is a great source for accessories of phones, tablet and laptops. There is usually one or the other deal running and they also have clearance sale on accessories for older devices. 

LOVE4APPLE.COM 

As the name suggests, the site deals in accessories for various Apple devices. They have a hot deals section where you can get up to 70% discount on select items. The section is updated on a weekly basis. 

FOMMY.CO.IN 

This is the only site where accessories for devices by Indian manufacturer like Micromax, Intex, iBall etc are available. They have a dedicated daily deal page where a new product is listed everyday at a special price. 

International Sites 

THINKGEEK.COM 

Thinkgeek has one of the best collections of quirky and unusual gadgets and accessories. The site ships to India via DHL or UPS Express due to which the shipping cost is slightly high. 

DX.COM 

DX (DealeXtreme) offers free worldwide shipping and has over 80,000 products (most unknown brands) in its roaster. They have some great clearance sales and deals available almost every week. 

EBAY GLOBAL 

• http://GEB.EBAY.IN

• The site offer access to products that are not available officially in India along with the price inclusive of shipping and custom duties to India. Requires some searching around to find the various deals. 

ALIEXPRESS.COM 

With vendors across south east Asia selling products on Aliexpress, you can get accessories and gadgets at great prices. They also have a dedicated superdeals section where products are listed with hefty discounts. 

Price Comparison Websites 

With the growing number of ecommerce sites, it's tedious to visit each and every website, find the price offered by it and then compare it against the various other websites. One way to simplify this process is to use a price comparison website. Websites like www.junglee.com,www.mysmartprice.com, www.phonecurry.com, www.compareraja. com, and www.pricedekho.com let you search across various online stores for a particular gadget. The results 

— listed along with relevant information like price, delivery time and rating of the store — make it easy to view the difference in price among websites and quickly find the lowest price of a gadget.

Ongoing Gadget Deals

APPLE IPHONE 5 + APPLE TV DEAL PRICE: 45,500 

The 16GB Apple iPhone 5 is priced at 45,500 and comes with a 4-inch retina display, dual core processor and a fantastic 8MP camera. Apple TV is for 8,295 and lets you enjoy multimedia content from the internet or iCloud on your TV. Get the combo of both devices for just 45,500 atwww.infibeam.com 

BLACKBERRY TORCH 9860 DEAL PRICE: 14,500 

The Torch 9860 runs Blackberry OS 7 and has a 3.7-inch touchscreen display. It has a great 5MP camera and runs on a 1.2Ghz processor with 768MB RAM - offering great performance. The phone usually sells for 21,990, but on www.themobilestore.in you can get it for just 14,500 under their special deals.

SAMSUNG GALAXY SII DEAL PRICE: 18,643 

The Galaxy SII still outweighs most budget smartphones when it comes to features. It has a 4.3-inch super amoled plus display, dual core 1.2Ghz processor, 1GB RAM along with a fantastic 8MP camera. 

Head to www.themobilestore.in to pick it up for just 18,643 instead of its usual price tag of 25,900

CANON EOS 600D DEAL PRICE: 28,869 

Canon's entry-level DSLR features an 18MP APS-C size sensor, Digic 4 processor and records videos in full HD resolution. It has a 3-inch articulating LCD display that is great for composing pictures. The camera usually sells at 34,995 with the 18-55mm kit lens, but is currently available for 28,869 at http://ebay.in 

NOKIA LUMIA 720 DEAL PRICE: 17,599 

One of the slimmest Windows Phone 8 smartphones available in the market today, Lumia 720 has a 4.3-inch display, runs on a dual core processor and has a 6.1MP camera that takes great low-light photos. 

Announced less than two months ago for 18,999, it is selling for 17,599 atwww.homeshop18.com

Worthy Alternatives to Google’s Play App Store

Worthy Alternatives to Google's Play App Store

From the hundreds of places where you can download Android apps, a few stand out because they are more trustworthy and intuitive. Karan Bajaj & Hitesh Raj Bhagat round up some of the best options.

Android Pit 

Android pit market not only lets you discover and download apps but also has a dedicated 'Tests' area with app reviews, screenshots and ratings. In terms of installation, 50% of the apps can be installed from within the app while for the rest, it redirects you to the Google Play store. Get it from 

www.androidpit.com 

1Mobile Market 

Available from www.1mobile. com, this app store has a simple, list-based interface. The app also has lists where recommended apps under specific categories listed (games starter kits, app starter kit, photo editing, music apps) for ease of discovery. The only issue with this app store is that its search function is 

sometimes erratic.

Amazon Appstore 

To get Amazon's appstore, you have to visit www.amazon.com/getappstore & download the installer. Once installed, sign in to your Amazon account to download apps. Amazon does not have all the apps that Google Play has, but it does offer one paid app for free every day.

F-droid 

If you are only interested in free apps, F-droid (www.f-droid.org) is the marketplace to install. The app is dedicated to free open source apps. It displays different versions of an app for different Android versions (Froyo, Honeycomb, Gingerbread are all clearly listed) so that you can install the correct one. 

Slideme 

Slideme (www.slideme.org) has a similar interface to the Google Play Store. It requires you to first create a free account. The interface is fluid and you have the option of limiting apps displayed per page and the number of screenshots to save data costs. You can also set the target country to dispay local apps and lock the app with a PIN. 

Mobo Market 

Mobo (www.moborobo. com) not only has apps and games but also a dedicated section for wallpaper and themes. You also get a builtin download manager where you can monitor the downloads in progress. The app manager makes it easy to install and uninstall downloaded apps. 

AAOMarket 

Almost all apps on this marketplace are free. AAomarket (www.andapponline. com) claims that they have limited apps because they want to feature only quality apps. One issue is that there is no progress indicator, so you do not get to know how much time the selected app will take to download. 

Good E-reader App Store 

This app store displays the app rating right next to the app name in the main interface. The interface is very basic — you only get listings for hot and popular apps along with categories to browse through. 

A good thing here is that there is a dedicated section for alternative app stores — from where you can download most of the stores mentioned. (http://apps.goodreader.com) 

APKs FROM THE WEB AppBrain 

AppBrain is a trusted source for Android apps. First, visit appbrain.com from your device's browser and create an account. Then you need to download and install AppBrain's app from the Play Store. AppBrain app helps a lot with app discovery - once you see an app you like, you can choose to head directly to the 

Play Store to install it. 

Opera App Store 

Opera's App Store was built after the company acquired Handster - the store front is platform independent. To access the store, just open the web browser on your Android device and type apps.opera.com. The service will auto-detect your device and you can download APKs directly to the device. About 70% of the apps are free on this store. 

How to Install APKs 

APKS OR ANDROID Application Package files have the extension .apk and are like EXE or MSI files on a Windows computer - they can be used to install apps on your Android device BEFORE YOU TRANSFER an APK to your Android device, you need to allow the device to install apps from 'unknown sources', i.e., from places other than Google's Play Store TO DO THIS, head to device settings and look for the option called 'Unknown Sources' - this could be in Application Settings or under Security - make sure that you check the box and exit ONCE DONE, TRANSFER the APKs to your device via Bluetooth, email, memory card or just download them directly from a supported website. Use a file manager to click on an APK to begin installation 

 Courtesy : Tectonic, Times of India, dated: 10/07/2013 

High Tech Eyeglasses That Help Improve Your Vision

High Tech Eyeglasses That Help Improve Your Vision

If someone mentions the phrase "high-tech glasses," you probably assume that person is talking about Google Glass, the smartphone-on-aheadband that Google hopes to offer for sale next year. The truth is, though, that 2013 has been the Year of the High-Tech Glasses in other, quieter ways. At least three new eyeglass technologies have arrived. They're not intended to bring the Internet to your eyeball. They have a more traditional goal: improving your vision.

O2AMP COLOR ASSISTING GLASSES 

O2AMP MAKES tinted-lens glasses for the medical profession. According to the company, these glasses give doctors a "clearer view of veins and vasculature, bruising, cyanosis, pallor, rashes, erythema, and other variations in blood O2 level, and concentration," especially in bright light. But the purplish pair, the Oxy-Iso ($302), has an unintended side effect, the Web site says: they "may cure red-green colorblindness." "We do have about one or two in 20 that don't get any benefit, and it's due to their colorblindness being too severe," the inventor wrote to me. "What our technology does is amplify weak red-green sensitivity. But if there's basically no red-green sensitivity at all, then there's nothing to amplify." If the Amazon reviews are any indication, these glasses do permit many colorblind buyers to distinguish colors for the first time. But the company notes that the Oxy-Iso filter amplifies the redgreen discriminations "at the expense of their intact yellow-blue discrimination. In a sense, the Oxy-Iso spreads the color confusion more evenly around the color wheel." That's why you shouldn't wear them for 

driving, because "yellow lights will become nearly invisible." But if you're red-green colorblind, and it's worth $300 to be able to distinguish colors for the first time, you should try them.

GLASSES.COM VIRTUAL TRY-ON APP 

NOTHING IS MORE designdependent, fit-dependent or person-dependent than glasses. And few things make a bigger difference to your looks. That's why most people buy glasses at a store, trying on pair after pair in a mirror, accompanied by trusted friends or family. The online store Glasses.com has created some exceptionally slick, polished, useful software to address this problem. Its free iPad app creates a 3D, photo-perfect model of your head — and then lets you "try on" thousands of different colors and styles of glasses. (Android and iPhone apps are coming.) You hold your iPad flat against a bathroom mirror. The app's voice prompts you to turn your virtual head slowly from fully left to fully right; in a second step, you hold the iPad facing the mirror against your chin while it measures your 

face. You see it create a wire-mesh 3D model, "Terminator"-style, and then boom: there's a perfect, photographic, 3D model of your head. You can "try on" any of 2,000 glasses designs in the company's catalog. They're organized by style, color, price and so on. Using your fingers, you can turn your head 90 degrees left or right. You can view four copies of your head on one screen, turning them in sync, to make it easier to compare glasses. You can even adjust how you're wearing the glasses.

ADLENS VARIABLE FOCUS 

"AD," IN THIS CASE, is short for "adjustable"; these are variable-focus glasses. The lenses of the Lennon and Hemispheres styles ($80 and $100; adlens.com) are filled with liquid, and cylindrical plastic knobs protrude from the sides. By turning the knobs, you precisely adjust the liquid pressure on a curved membrane inside the lens, affecting its power (from –4.5 to +3.5 diopters). They can handle even severe nearsightedness or farsightedness. They don't work for the blurriness of astigmatism, but they're perfect for presbyopia (better known as "over-40-reading-glasses-syndrome").

Advantages 

There are distinct advantages to variable-focus glasses like these. First, you can tweak the lenses independently for each eye. Second, you can adjust them for different situations — tired eyes often need more help — or even different people. They're a natural for restaurants, which can hand them out to patrons who've forgotten their reading glasses. Third, you can adjust them yourself, without requiring an eye doctor or a prescription. That's a big deal in poor countries like Rwanda, where, Adlens says, 

There are 10 million people but only 14 optometrists. Even though a million Rwandans need glasses, almost nobody has them, according to the company. When you buy a pair of these glasses, Adlens donates a pair for distribution in Rwanda. 

Available in Different Styles 

The Lennon and Hemisphere styles look goofy because the lenses are perfect circles, like half dollars, which isn't a design that will suit many faces. (They're available in a wide range of frame colors and lens tints.) Furthermore, the adjustment knobs are big, ribbed and absurd looking, sticking out beyond the frames. Once you've dialed up the perfect focus, you can snap off the knobs, but then the glasses are no longer adjustable. You've locked in that "prescription" forever. The third Adlens style, Emergensee ($40), is slightly more conventional-looking. Its adjustment knobs are much smaller and less conspicuous. They stay on, so you can always adjust the focus. These glasses don't have liquid inside; 

instead, each lens has two panes that slide past each other when you turn the knobs, so they still look a little odd. But Adlens promotes them as an ideal spare pair for the glove compartment or kitchen drawer. The best, Adlens says, is yet to come. This fall, it will offer liquid-lens technology, for the first time, in normally shaped, designer like frames. Stay tuned.

  Courtesy : Tectonic, Times of India, dated: 17/07/2013  

Easy Ways to Manage Android From Your PC

Easy Ways to Manage Android From Your PC

As any Android power user will tell you, those thousands of contacts, messages & files can be quite hard to manage from the device itself. Karan Bajaj & Hitesh Raj Bhagat round up some of the free tools that make Android management a breeze

1 Airdroid www.airdroid.com

AIRDROID IS OUR favourite app when it comes to managing your Android device from the PC. You get access to your entire phone from a browser window, even if your phone and PC are not on the same WiFi network. You can read & send SMS, reject incoming calls, manage contacts, transfer files, push URL links to the phone, install and remove apps, create ringtones and even locate your phone. What's more, you can remotely view a live feed from your phone's front/rear camera. We love it because you don't need to install drivers on your PC or hunt for a cable for the phone.

2 Mobogenie www.mobogenie.com 

AVAILABLE ONLY for Windows, Mobogenie has a clean user interface with large icons. You can access your phone's storage to manage media and files, manage contacts and SMS. You can even send messages to multiple recipients from your PC via your phone. The app manager uses your desktop's internet connection to download apps from Google Play and then installs them on your phone — saving 

you data charges. You can also backup your entire Android phone to the PC and restore it in case of software issues or when switching to a new device.

3 Moborobo www.moborobo.com 

ONE OF THE most powerful desktop managers, Moborobo works with both Android & iOS devices. You can view the number of contacts, SMS, apps as well as multimedia files on your device through the main window along with details on battery level, firmware and available storage. You can easily take a screenshot of the connected device's screen and save it on your desktop too. Using the software you can send and reply to SMS, install and remove apps as well as easily switch data between multiple devices. There's also a backup feature (iPhone needs to be jailbroken). 

4 MOBILedit! Lite  www.mobiledit.com 

THE FREE  LITE  version of this tool is limited and only allows access to basic functions. You can connect your phone via cable, WiFi or Bluetooth and it works with almost all smartphones as well as a few feature phones. You can view details about your device, send text messages, install updates on your device from the PC and transfer files between the PC and smartphone. The paid version ( 1,619) lets you remove duplicate contacts, take automatic backups. 

5 SnapPea www.snappea.com 

ONE OF THE few Android desktop managment tools that is available for both Windows and MAC, SnapPea also has a browser based version that works very much like AirDroid. You install the free app on the phone and then access the phone over WiFi in your browser window. You can install and remove apps, view and edit phone contacts, send and receive SMS as well as transfer files between the smartphone and PC. Additionally, SnapPea can also import music from your ITunes library and sync it with the Android smartphone seamlessly. 

6 QtADBwww.qtadb.com 

THIS OPEN SOURCE Android management software is available for Windows, MAC and Linux. It has a very basic interface but it provides similar features to the other desktop managers. You can manage contacts, read/ send messages, take a screenshot of your device's display, transfer data and even install or remove apps on your phone from the PC. What makes this one stand out is that it offers the option to flash custom roms to your device. You can wipe, root, load a custom rom and boot into recovery mode on any connected Android device. 

7 pocket.do http://pocket.do 

IF YOU FEEL AirDroid is a bit too complicated, check out pocket.do. It works in a similar way (using a browser window) and does not require the phone and PC to be on the same WiFi network. There are options to connect the device using Google or Facebook accounts or by scanning the QR code in the browser (a separate barcode scanner app has to be installed). Once connected, you can manage contacts, read/send SMS and transfer photos. Additionally, it also lets you locate your device on a map, lock it and view a live feed from your phone's rear camera. 

    PC NOTIFICATIONS     

If you don't need to manage your device from a PC, you can choose to get notifications: for instance, a pop-up on your PC when your phone receives a call, an SMS or when the battery is running low. What you need is Remote Notifier — a small download on PC (http://code.google.com/p/android-notifier) and the corresponding free app called Remote Notifier from the Play Store. The notifications are sent from your device to the PC using WiFi or Bluetooth. 

    TEAMVIEWER    

The popular TeamViewer remote support software also supports Samsung Android devices (and some others, provided they are rooted). Install TeamViewer on a PC, the TeamViewer QuickSupport app on the Android device and you're good to go. You can now remotely access a Samsung device.

    Courtesy : Tectonic, Times of India, dated: 31/07/2013    

Speed up & Clean Your Computer Using Free Apps

Speed up & Clean Your Computer Using Free Apps

Over time, any computer tends to slow down a bit or get bogged down with unwanted files. Karan Bajaj shows you how you can use free apps to restore much of the lost storage & performance

1 Find and Remove Duplicates

YOU MAY INADVERTENTLY end up copying the same files to different locations on the computer. This leads to clogging of precious hard drive space. Both Windows and MAC users can use the free Easy Duplicate Finder (www.easyduplicatefinder.com) — a lightweight and feature-rich program that does the job fast. It lets you search various drives (including external storage such as flash drives and portable HDD) and generates reports of each scan. For photographers who want to find and remove duplicate photographs, a free program called Duplicate Photo Cleaner (www.duplicatephotocleaner.com) finds duplicates even if they were resized or edited.

 2 Remove Temporary Files 

TEMPORARY FILES usually refer to browser files or those that get leftover when you install new applications. Ideally, they should be removed automatically by the respective program, but it doesn't always happen. As more and more temporary files clog up your computer, they eat up hard drive space and slow it down. Get the free CCleaner (www.piriform.com/ccleaner) which is available for both Windows and MAC. It makes short work of cleaning up your system's temporary files. MAC users can also use OnyX (www.titanium.free.fr) which offers advanced cleaning options.

3 Remove Unwanted Shortcuts 

MOST OF US like having shortcuts to often used programs and files — this saves time and improves productivity. However, too many shortcuts can build up over time and make your desktop a mess. 

Several programs also automatically place a shortcut on the desktop during installation. Windows XP comes with a desktop cleanup wizard that scans your desktop for unused icons and removes them. 

Windows Vista, 7 and 8 users can use Bad Shortcut Killer (http://goo.gl/ l2VYbf) to remove unwanted shortcuts from the desktop and start menu.

 4 Defrag to Speed ThingsUp 

DEFRAGMENTATION organises the contents of your hard drive in a way which minimizes the time taken by the drive to access the stored files. The robust Defraggler (www.piriform.com/defraggler) is a great tool that offers the option to defrag the entire hard drive or just specific folder. It displays a drive map that shows how the space of your hard drive is utilised. MAC users usually do not need to defrag their drives because the OS automatically defrags files that are less than 20MB in size. (Note that if your computer uses flash-based storage, there is no need to defragment it) 

5 Make it Boot Faster 

AS YOU INSTALL more programs, you might notice that your PC takes longer to boot up. This happens because many applications and services automatically initialise during the boot process. Soluto (www.soluto.com) is a free Windows utility that analyses your PC's boot up time and removes unnecessary startup programs. It even lets you individually select the programs you want to remove from startup. MAC users can do the same by going to System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items and removing applications that you do not want to open automatically when you log in.

6 Sort Out The Registry 

UNKNOWN TO many, but one of the main causes of a slow Windows PC is a corrupted registry. The Windows registry configures and handles every hardware and software operation on your computer and tends to get corrupted by obsolete/invalid entries. Get the free Registry Repair from www.glarysoft.com/registry-repair. It scans your system registry for a number of common issues and fixes them instantly. It also makes a backup of any registry change so that if your system becomes unstable, it can be restored back to its original state. 

ALL IN ONE SOLUTION 

If you need a single solution to take care of everything, try TuneUp Utilities (www.tune-up. com). The software will set you back 2,900 but is well worth the price. Once you create a profile of your usage, it recommends various steps to improve performance. All the tools you need to scan and fix issues with your system are built in. You can also improve your PC's boot up and shutdown time, delete files safely as well as uninstall programs. The 'one click' system maintenance mode is particularly useful — it scans various areas of your PC and fixes everything in the background without disturbing you. 

ASK FOR HELP 

If you're not too confident of meddling with advanced settings, ask a a tech-savvy friend for remote assistance. LogMeIn, TeamViewer & CrossLoop are some free tools available using which a remote user can easily log into and take over control of your PC (with your permission, of course). Problems can be identified and fixed remotely by your friend and all you need is the software & a reliable broadband connection on both ends.

    Courtesy : Tectonic, Times of India, dated: 07/08/2013    

9 Things You Should Know About Bitcoins

9 Things You Should Know About Bitcoins

There's a huge buzz around Bitcoin because it only exists online. It can be generated, traded and used to buy things over untraceable online transactions. Want to know even more? Hitesh Raj Bhagat & Karan Bajaj delve deep to get you all the answers

What is a Cryptocurrency? 

Cyrptocurrency is a form of digital currency used over the internet for trading or payment for services. The currency is finite in number to keep inflation rates low and uses peer-to-peer transfer technology. It is encrypted using cryptography for security and hence cannot be easily counterfeited. It can be transferred from a computer or a smartphone to another anonymously and cannot be tracked. The value of such a currency is usually determined by supply and demand — similar to precious metals like gold. 

Can I Get Some? 

Tokyo-based Mt. Gox (www.mtgox.com) is the largest Bitcoin exchange there is. It's also one of the most reliable places to buy Bitcoins. You can create an account and start buying Bitcoins using your own currency in a few minutes. The website always displays an exchange rate and can show you a chart with historical exchange rates. If you want to see the value of a Bitcoin against your own currency, head to www. preev.com. At the time of writing, 1 BTC is equivalent to 6,491. 

Who & Why? 

Bitcoin was introduced in 2008 as a peer-to-peer, electronic cash system by an anonymous group of individuals who used the pseudonym 'Satoshi Nakamoto'. Satoshi can be loosely translated as wisdom or reason, so it's another clue that the name is not real. In essence, Bitcoin is a decentralised currency that is created, used and controlled by its users. The Bitcoin network is designed to have a finite supply of 21 million Bitcoins. The system automatically regulates the generation of Bitcoins to ensure a steady growth of the currency with minimal inflation. 

Should I Use it? 

The Bitcoin phenomenon is growing at a rapid speed, but it is still not accepted by most major retailers in the world. At the time of writing, we could not locate any physical or online stores in India that accept Bitcoins. If you want to use Bitcoins on international websites, you can use them for donations and purchases here: http://goo.gl/Pf6ppa. You can also view physical stores all over the world that accept Bitcoins on www.coinmap.org. There's no harm in trying to mine some Bitcoins yourself (see box below) and if the value jumps, you'll end up with more than you thought you had. 

How to Start 

Your first step is to sign up at www.coinbase.com or any other international digital wallet that accepts Bitcoins. Once you sign up, you'll get a unique Bitcoin address — essentially a long string of alphanumeric characters that you will need to use for each Bitcoin transaction. Note that creating a Bitcoin address is free and they can even be created offline using freely available software tools such as Armory (www.bitcoinarmory.com). Each Bitcoin address is also case sensitive, which means that manually entering it during a transaction is not advisable. 

The Advantages 

Being a digital currency, you can easily carry thousands of Bitcoins in your phone or any sort of electronic storage device. Any transaction you do using Bitcoins is untraceable and there are no taxes involved. Unlike physical currency, Bitcoins cannot be easily stolen because theft requires access to your authorised physical device to transfer them. You should also know that once you transfer or receive bitcoins, the transaction cannot be reversed because the 'ownership' of the Bitcoins changes instantly. Lastly, there is no restriction on age or country for a person to use Bitcoins — it is not liable to any government or financial institution making it accessible to everyone. 

What Can I Do With Bitcoins? 

There are a number of places where you can spend Bitcoins. If you're a user of Wordpress or popular websites like Reddit, 4Chan, The Pirate Bay, EZTV and The Internet Archive, you can use Bitcoins to make donations. If you're into online storage, you can upgrade the 50GB free storage that Kim Dotcom's Mega.co.nz offers with Bitcoins. If you like trying your luck, you can try Bitcoin gambling at places like www.satoshibet.com and www.bc-casino. com. And just a little bit of digging will even throw up shopping websites like www.somethinggeeky.com that accept Bitcoin payments. 

There Must Be Pitfalls! 

The biggest pitfall with Bitcoin is the volatility. Within this calendar year itself, Bitcoins have been valued at 8 USD to 1 BTC while at the time of writing, it's actually closer to 105 USD per Bitcoin. Since supply and demand of Bitcoins is not monitored by any central authority (what some consider its main advantage), there is low liquidity. Add to that the problems with any digital currency (frequent hacking attempts, confusion among buyers/users, oscillating interest levels) & you end up with high volatility. And since Bitcoin transactions are not easily traceable, they can be used for laundering money and for all manner of illegal online transactions such as buying drugs or illegal databases. 

How To Get Bitcoins For Free 

Broadly, there are three ways to get Bitcoins without actually converting them from another currency. You can visit websites like www.bitcoins4.me & www.thefreebitcoins.com to simply get free Bitcoins periodically (actually you only get some Satoshi, usually every 30 minutes). These websites are colloquially referred to as 'faucets' because they keep giving out Bitcoins for very little effort. They earn money from advertisers and share a small portion of that with visitors. They usually don't work if you have ad-blocking extensions installed in your web browser. If you have an ad-blocker installed, a notification will ask you to disable it so that you can receive the payments. The second way to earn Bitcoins is by renting out a portion of your computer's CPU power at www.coingeneration.com (a.k.a. Digital Generation) in return for Bitcoin payments. The amount you get is usually very small and you need to evaluate the cost of powering your computer vs the amount of Bitcoins you earn. If you have a more powerful computer with dedicated graphics card(s), you could earn more by using GPU mining. There are also hundreds of websites where you can watch videos or visit other websites to earn Bitcoins. Search for 'Bitcoin mining'. As always, you start by signing up and entering a previously generated Bitcoin address.

    Courtesy : Tectonic, Times of India, dated: 14/08/2013    

7 Ways iOS 7 Improves Apple's Mobile Devices

7 Ways iOS 7 Improves Apple's Mobile Devices

There may not be many revolutionary changes to Apple's popular mobile OS but it builds on popular features found in Android, BlackBerry & Windows Phone to deliver a streamlined experience say Karan Bajaj & Hitesh Raj Bhagat

Easier On The Eyes 

The most visible change in iOS7 is the new user interface. The icons have a modern, flat look with a new colour palette and new fonts that work well on small screens. Most native apps get new icons to suit the new colour palette. Menus and pop-up windows have a translucent background — to give the appearance of layers stacked on top of one another — makes it easier to see the layer right on top. There 's also a lot more white space to give everything a cleaner, more Apple-like feel. 

Easier File Sharing 

With iOS 7, apps can have a 'Share' button built in. Tap the share button to open a new window called Share Sheet from where you can send a selected photo, video or contact to supported apps such as Mail, iCloud, Twitter, Facebook, and Messages. Another feature called AirDrop lets you send files to a nearby iOS 7 user wirelessly (using Bluetooth & WiFi). People around you with iOS7 will be visible in the Share Sheet — and once he/she accepts the incoming transfer, it will be sent to their device. AirDrop transfers between two iOS 7 devices are automatically encrypted. Note that this feature only works with devices on iOS 7. 

Interface Improvements 

iOS 7 banks heavily on gestures to offer improved and easy navigation. Even though there is no physical back button, you get a virtual one — swipe in from the left of the screen to go back to the previous window (works in supported apps only). Swipe an email to delete or move it without opening the mail. Unlocking the phone is easier — instead of swiping left to right on a bar, the screen unlocks with a left-to-right swipe from anywhere on the lock screen. The Notification Centre can also be accessed from the lock screen (this can be switched off in settings). 

iTunes Radio 

Like many internet radio services, iTunes Radio offers over 200 genre-based radio stations to choose from. The difference is that it is baked right into iOS 7's Music app and is completely free. You can create a personalised radio station around your favourite artist or genre and set a balance between playing new songs or known hits as well as choose to never listen to a particular song. Any song being played on iTunes Radio can be purchased and downloaded immediately. Apple says that the service will be free (adsupported) and will initially be U.S. only. 

Control Center 

Quite like Android, with Control Center, you get quick access to a few commonly-used settings, apps & features. To bring up Control Center, swipe up from the bottom of the screen anywhere in the interface (including the lock screen). From the Control Center, you can activate Airplane mode, Bluetooth, WiFi, Do Not Disturb and screen rotation function. You can also adjust screen brightness and launch apps like the Torch, Calculator, Timer and Camera with one tap. Finally, Control Center also includes a mini music player with song information and playback controls (play/pause, track and volume). 

Better Multitasking 

iOS 7 offers a new way to multitask. Double click the home button to see preview screens of all the running apps — this makes it easier to view what you were working on. To close an app, just swipe the preview screen of that app upwards. iOS 7 also learns from your usage habits to optimise app updates. It will learn when you open an app on a daily basis and automatically get the latest update at that time. It will also schedule updates when it causes the least amount of battery drain. 

Camera Improvements 

Many iPhone users complained about the lack of camera features available by default — this also exaplains the popularity of third-party camera apps. With iOS 7, the interface looks modern, clean and adds gesture support. You can swipe horizontally to shift between Photo, Video, Panorama and the Square (for Instagram and the like) shooting modes. Various artistic filters are included — depending on the device you use, filters can either be tried out before taking a photo or applied after. 

What devices will iOS 7 be compatible with? 

iPhone 4, 4S & 5, 5th Gen iPod Touch, iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4 and iPad Mini will all get iOS 7 as a free update. 

Will all new features be available on all devices? 

Unfortunately not. Apple has chosen to withhold some features from older devices. The availability of features has nothing to do with the hardware capabilities of those devices. For instance, the new Panorama camera mode will only be available in iPhone 4S, iPhone 5 and 5th Gen iPod Touch (not on the iPads). Live camera filters will only be available in iPhone 5 and 5th Gen iPod Touch. AirDrop will work only on iPhone 5, iPad Mini, 4th Gen iPad & 5th Gen iPod Touch. And finally, Siri will continue to avoid the iPhone 4, iPad 2 and all older versions of the iPod Touch. 

When will the update be available? 

iOS developers have access to iOS 7 immediately. The rest of the public has to wait till Sep-Oct 2013 (no exact date has been given). 

What is 'iOS in the Car'? 

Sometime in 2014, you will start to see in-dash systems with 'iOS in the Car'. This new system will connect to an iPhone 5 for a greater level of incar integration. For instance, you will be able to control your iPhone using the car's built in touchscreen (or voice, using Siri), access music, take calls, use navigation and send/receive messages. Automakers that have already signed on to offer iOS in the Car include Acura, Chevrolet, Ferrari, Honda, Hyundai, Infiniti, Jaguar, Kia, Opel, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Volvo.

Courtesy : Tectonic, Times of India, dated: 05/06/2013