Technotip.org - Part 5

Specs and Price: Moto E

Motorola has done it again. It will most certainly(hoped to) replace the basic handset/cellphone market in India with the entry of its low cost mobile phone Moto E. Few moths back Moto G performed well in terms of sales in India, and I hoping Moto E will leverage the good will acquired by its predecessor Moto G.

With this launch Motorola has wide range of phones at various budget levels:

Low cost phone: Moto E (around Rs. 6999)
Medium price phone: Moto G (around Rs. 13999)
High end phone: Moto X (around Rs. 23999)

It comes with 2 colors:
1. Moto E White
2. Moto E Black
(..more colors might come soon)

Here are the astounding specs of Moto E
Brand: Motorola
Model ID: XT1022
Form: Bar
SIM Size: Micro SIM
SIM Type: Dual SIM, GSM + GSM, (Dual Standby)
Touch Screen: Yes, Capacitive
Call Features: Loudspeaker

PLATFORM
Operating Freq: GSM – 850, 900, 1800, 1900; UMTS – 2100
OS: Android v4.4 (KitKat)
Processor: 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200, Dual Core
Graphics: Adreno 302, 400 MHz Single

DISPLAY
Size: 4.3 Inches
Resolution: qHD, 960 x 540 Pixels
Other Display Features: Corning Gorilla Glass 3

CAMERA
Primary Camera: Yes, 5 Megapixel
Secondary Camera: No
Flash: No (which is bit disappointing to me)
Video Recording: Yes, 30 fps

DIMENSIONS
Size: 64.8×124.8×12.3 mm
Weight: 142 g

BATTERY
Type: Li-Ion, 1980 mAh

MEMORY AND STORAGE

Internal: 4 GB
Expandable Memory: microSD, upto 32 GB
Memory: 1 GB RAM

INTERNET & CONNECTIVITY
3G: Yes, 21.1 Mbps HSDPA; 5.76 Mbps HSUPA; HSPA+
Wifi: Yes, 802.11 b/g/n
USB Connectivity: Yes, micro USB, v2
Navigation Technology: GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, with Google Maps
Bluetooth: Yes, v4, Supported Profiles (LE)
Audio Jack: 3.5 mm

MULTIMEDIA
Music Player: Yes, Supports MP3
Video Player: Yes, Supports MP4, H.264, H.263, HD
FM: Yes
Sound Enhancement: Front Ported Loudspeaker Orientation, Audio Chip

OTHER FEATURES
Sensors: Accelerometer, Proximity Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor
Additional Features: P2i, Single White LED

In Box, you’ll get: Charger, QSG and Warranty Card, Handset with Built-in Battery, Headset, Back Door

You can order on FlipKart:
1. Moto E White
2. Moto E Black

We hope Moto E does well in the market.

Wire Transfer(EFT) In India: Google Adsense

Finally Google Adsense team made EFT available for all the accounts which are eligible for payment. I can already see the joy of publishers when they see their adsense account payment system being upgraded to receive their earnings via EFT(Electronic Fund Transfer).

Payment Hold

Once your account is upgraded, your payments will be on hold until you fill the payment method form.

Bank Information
To start with wire transfer we must obviously first give Google our bank details. So after we enable our payment mode we must fill:

neft-adsense-wire-transfer-bank-information

Account holder name, Bank name, Account number are the ones every one of us understand. Along with this we also need to provide our branch IFSC code and SWIFT code.

Indian Financial System Code (IFSC)
An IFSC is an identification code for your bank and branch. It should contain 11 letters and numbers. For more details, contact your bank.

SWIFT Bank Identifier Code (BIC)
A SWIFT-BIC is a unique identification code for a particular bank or branch. It should contain 8 or 11 characters. For more details, contact your bank.

Not All Branches Have Swift Code
Every branch in India has its own, unique IFSC code. But not all branches have SWIFT code. When I contacted our bank’s( SBI – State Bank of India ) branch manager, he told he has no idea about SWIFT code ..and continued to tell me that we can receive money from other country just by using IFSC code and MICR code.

MICR – Magnetic Ink Character Recognition
Typically MICR code can be used to extract following informations:
Cheque Serial Number
Account Number
Branch or city code of a bank
Transaction code

So MICR isn’t of much use in EFT.

SWIFT Code Solution
Swift code is available only in branches which facilitates currency conversion services – like Forex trading etc. So get the Swift Code from your banks nearest branch which facilitates currency conversion service.

That is, go to your bank branch and ask which is the nearest branch of that bank which facilitates currency conversion or which has a Swift Code. Now ask nearest branches Swift Code and enter it in your adsense payment form. Done. [ You need not fill the ‘intermediary bank details’ and other credit details – they are optional ]

Note: With this introduction of EFT to Indian publishers, Google has removed paying via Cheques. So no monthly snail mails any more 🙁

Best Flip Cover / Case For Moto G

Moto G is one of the best quality budget phone I’ve used so far. No lags while playing games, and no slow down of the processing after installing so many applications. If you are planing to purchase a phone for around 14k, then go for Moto G without second thought.

Since I own Moto G, people keep asking me to recommend good quality cover for it. So finally felt like writing a post about the one I’m using and satisfied with.

I like flipcovers. I’m using one for my Nexus 5 too. Motorola Flip Cover for Moto G is an awesome product. It fits in perfectly. It has magnetic lock, with automatic sleep and wakeup of the screen. One of the best flip covers for Moto G, and I highly recommend it.

It has good grip on your hand. Protects the phone, especially the front side from scratch. If you’re looking for cheap covers, think again. You’ve invested so much on the phone, why compromise when it comes to protecting the phone.

Motorola Flip Cover for Moto G

If you want to look at other options available you can check out these links:
Moto G Covers on FlipKart

Moto G Covers on Amazon.in

Moto G Covers on Amazon.com

Hide Your ‘Last Seen’, Photo and Status: WhatsApp

Whatsapp had become stalking tool for many people. Simply add someones number into your phone contact and get to know their ‘last seen’ date/time, their status update and their profile photo(hmm this one is important!)

WhatsApp for iOS had this option to hide ‘last seen’ date/time, but android version lacked it for some unknown reason.

Privacy On WhatsApp: android
Now WhatsApp users on android can set these privacy settings for ‘Last Seen’, ‘Profile Photo’ and ‘Status’. You can individually set all these to ‘Everyone’, ‘My Contacts’ only and ‘Nobody’ except me!

Download New WhatsApp: Since the latest version of WhatsApp for android isn’t yet available on Google Play Store, you can download it directly from WhatsApp website.
(It’s 13.65 MB in size)

Phone Settings: Go to your android phone’s settings -> Security -> and check ‘Unknown sources’.

Install New WhatsApp: Now click on the downloaded .apk file and install it.

WhatsApp Settings: Go to ‘settings’ -> Account -> Privacy -> Who can see my personal info

Do not forget to set back your security option on your phone after installing new WhatsApp apk file. Go to your phone settings -> Security -> and UNCHECK ‘Unknown sources’.

Looks like a good move as soon as Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 Billion.

Facebook Acquires WhatsApp for $19 Billion: Facts

$19 Billion for a messaging service? That’s lot expensive, isn’t it? Lets look what Facebook got out of the deal.

WhatsApp Facts
Jan Koum and Brian Acton are the co-founders of the company.
Jan and Brian were previously working at Yahoo.
Brian was Jan’s mentor at Yahoo.
Jan Koum, CEO of Whatsapp is now one of Facebook’s board member and partner with Mark to shape Facebook’s future as well as WhatsApp’s.
Whatsapp has 450 million active users. At least a million install and join Whatsapp each day.
Whatsapp has at least 72% of daily active users – which is a lot when compared to industry standards, which is 10% to 20%.
Whatsapp has only 32 engineers.
Whatsapp was free to download, install and use for 1 year. After that you had to pay $1 for a year.

$19 = $4 + $12 + $3
Whatsapp was acquired for $19 Billion – $4 billion in cash and approximately $12 billion worth of Facebook shares. And additional $3 billion in restricted stock units to be granted to WhatsApp’s founders and employees that will vest over four years subsequent to closing.

Do you think $19 Billion is Justifiable ?
I don’t think Whatsapp can be evaluated to $19 Billion in any ways. But Whatsapp sure helps in Facebook’s mission to make the web open and to connect as many people as possible. Whatsapp has the potential to connect Billions of people. In few years whatsapp can have 3 to 4 Billion active users – according to it’s growth rate. Throwing ads on 3 – 4 Billion people would be foolish, so they might come up with some innovative monetization strategies too. I only wish they don’t sell user data 😛 – Till now Whatsapp had no idea about users age, gender etc, except the mobile number. But now if you use same mobile number even on Facebook, imagine what all they can know about you 😉 I wish whatsapp, Facebook and all their users(including me) all the best for the future!

Facebook has said to continue to maintain Whatsapps principles: No Ads! No Games! No Gimmicks!

Funny thing is, Brian was looking for a job 4 years back:

Recruiters

networking with recruiters, venture capitalists, playing ultimate frisbee

— Brian Acton (@brianacton) May 20, 2009

Twitter

Got denied by Twitter HQ. That's ok. Would have been a long commute.

— Brian Acton (@brianacton) May 23, 2009

Facebook!

Facebook turned me down. It was a great opportunity to connect with some fantastic people. Looking forward to life's next adventure.

— Brian Acton (@brianacton) August 3, 2009

Now he must be thanking all the people who said NO to him. Without them, this glorious day might not have come 😛

“It’s a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the BEST, you very often get it.” – William Somerset Maugham

Best Budget Phone: Moto G

I was impressed with Moto X from Motorola, but went with Nexus 5 as I want to have pure android experience, as a developer. But I still loved Moto X for it’s camera/picture clarity.

Moto G on FlipKart

Motorola has now released Moto G, and it created a lot of buzz. I din’t want to be involved in creating the hype, but once I had the device and tested it, I was convinced that this is ‘the best’ midrange android phone we could get. Look at the specs:

KEY FEATURES OF MOTO G
5 MP Primary Camera and 1.3 MP Secondary Camera – with LED flash, HDR(auto), Slow motion video recording.
Digital Zoom – 4x
Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Android v4.3 (Jelly Bean) OS – Moto G can be updated to android KitKat
1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 Quad Core Processor and 1 GB RAM
Dual SIM (GSM + GSM)
HD Recording
4.5-inch HD Display: 720p HD resolution and 329 ppi – every pixel is sharp, vivid and crystal clear.
Wi-Fi Enabled
Quad Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 Processor is clocked at 1.2 GHz.
1 GB RAM to support multitasking and the Adreno Graphics 305 to let you play graphic-heavy games.
16 GB and 8 GB Internal Memory devices available.
2070 mAh Li-Ion battery – Up to 24 hours backup

It’s an awesome phone. If you were still thinking and waiting till your friend or coworker takes it, you need not wait – it’s good device for the price. You can go ahead and buy it.

For 8 GB Moto G it costs : Rs. 12,499/-
For 16 GB Moto G it costs: Rs. 13,999/-

I would recommend to go with 16 GB device, as it has a small difference of cost compared to 8 GB device, but comes with double the storage space. So go for 16 GB Moto G. You can also get original Cover / Case for your Moto G as an introductory offer on online sites like FlipKart, for a small extra cost.

Check out:
Moto G on FlipKart
Moto G on Amazon
Moto G on Amazon India

Best Flip Cover / Case For Nexus 5

I was one of the early adopters of Nexus 5 – I mean, I bought one early on. Ordered it from United States. So was looking for Nexus 5 Cover / Case before the device was officially available in India. To my disappointment, there were no better option. And the official cover / case for sale on Google Play was too costly and was not yet available on Indian play store.

Early Flip Cover
Previously I had linked to Capdase Flip Cover for LG / Google Nexus 5, as it was the only Flip Case which was available. But this flip-cover was reported to ruin your Nexus 5 screen / screen guard with its suction cups. Doesn’t have wake / sleep functionality. And catches dust and greasiness easily.

Why Flip Cover:
Even though Nexus 5 comes with scratch proof Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3, I always wanted a Flip Cover, like the one we see with Samsung Note 3. My mom and girlfriend wear ear rings and I don’t like that metal piece scratching my Nexus 5 😐

Recommended / Best Flip Cover:
After about a month of official release of Nexus 5 in India, some online stores started displaying flip covers for Nexus 5. I started reading some reviews. Most of the flip covers had bad review and most of them purchased it only because there were no better option yet.

After looking and comparing the existing flipcovers and the materials used in it, I ordered Nillkin Flip For LG Nexus 5.

Nillkin Flip Cover is a Premium Quality Flip Cover for Nexus 5:
It has 46g Gross Weight.
Dimension: (177 x 100 x 18) mm
Material: Leather & Soft Fabric (Inside), Leather (Outside)
It has automatic wake / sleep functionality – need not install any 3rd party applications!
Magnetic Closure so that the cover doesn’t open when tilted downwards.

You can order Nillkin Flip Cover for Nexus 5
It’s also available in different colors: Black, Light Blue, Yellow, Red

Amazon: Nillkin Flip for LG Google Nexus 5

Amazon India: Nillkin Flip for LG Google Nexus 5

FlipKart: Nillkin Flip for LG Google Nexus 5

Over to you ..
Let us know what other accessories you’re using for your Nexus 5, and how does it work..

KitKat 4.4.1 Improves Camera Performance

As reported earlier, Nexus 5 is a great phone but lacks in camera performance. Well atleast, it’s not something great compared to Nexus 4

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Update: We got KitKat 4.4.2 update and here is what the update improves upon the existing KitKat flavor.
Well, it’s 54.0 MB of update.

This update improves the Nexus 5 camera with faster shooting(less shutter lag, less motion blur); faster, more accurate focusing; better white balancing for truer colors; and more accurate exposures. The update also includes other bug fixes and performance improvements.

————————————————————————————————
Nexus 5 KitKat 4.4.2 Update

Nexus 7 First Generation Tab: KitKat 4.4.2 Update

Google soon recognized it’s users feedback and has released a patch for it, which fixed most of the camera issues.

1. Improving contrast.
2. Improves exposure.
3. Improves autofocus. Now you can get clear pictures even on the move.
4. The camera app in itself opens faster.
5. The time gap between the click and the capture has been reduced (in layman’s language!)

It is impressive that Google has come-up with a patch to the camera issue within weeks of release of Nexus 5

If you still haven’t got the update on your phone, it’s coming. Google is rolling the update and you’ll get it soon.