CyanogenMod 10.1: Better than Vanilla Android?

Vanilla Android is awesome. It is one of those things which most of the Android users don't have any idea about, because they haven't tried a Nexus. But then you don't need a Nexus actually. You just need a rooted Android device which can run custom ROMs! CyanogenMod is one of the most popular ROMs available for Android and it has reached 10.1 lately. Now, the whole point of this post is not on how CyanogenMod 10.1 brings Vanilla Android experience to many devices, but rather on how it actually is better than Vanilla Android. Quick settings Quick settings was one of the nicest additions to Android 4.2, though Google really screwed up the implementation. This is where CyanogenMod enters the game and makes it lot more usable. Firstly, in CM 10.1, you can add custom toggles to Quick settings. What this means is that, you can add stuff like GPS, Auto-rotate, Sound, Sync etc. to the Quick settings panel. Next up, these are actual toggles. The ones in 4.2 weren't really toggles, the Wi-Fi switch for example, would take you to Wi-Fi settings screen and then you had to enable it. Another really cool thing in Quick settings on CM 10.1 is, you can set it to open if you pull down from right of status bar and you would get the notification center if you pull down from left. This is much better than Google's implementation, where you have to pull the status bar with two fingers. Lock screen CM 10.1 lets you add custom slider shortcuts. So for example, you could add the Phone app as a shortcut and have it quickly opened. This is how it looks like - If you use the Lockscreen widgets a lot, you can configure to make them open in expanded state by default. CM 10.1 also has a Clock widget baked into it. It's a different kind of clock widget – showing weather and calendar events along with time. Performance and Battery life Jellybean 4.2 was definitely a step back in performance for Android. There was a serious outrage among especially Galaxy Nexus users in Google Code forums. No one knew what happened to all that Project Butter goodness. Battery life on my Galaxy Nexus was pretty good, though. Now that I'm using CM since 3-4 days, I guess I can comment on both of these. In performance, CM is marginally better, you'll still see frame drops here and there, but definitely better than 4.2. On the other hand, battery life is more or less the same as 4.2. Customization and attention to detail Customization is something you'd definitely expect from a custom ROM and CM fulfils the need for me. You can do stuff like tweaking your display for better colours (I actually tweaked mine for better visibility in sunlight). If you're trying this on a Galaxy Nexus or Nexus 4 (both of them have on-screen buttons), you can even add extra buttons to the navigation bar. Another Nexus-specific feature is Expanded Desktop – it's like full screen mode for your phone. You can set Profiles, one of those features which you'll still find in feature phones but missing in smartphones. It also fixes many of Android's annoyances cleverly. For example, there's a small 'clear all' button in Recent Apps screen. You can set volumes for Phone, Music and Alarms without digging into settings. You can change brightness by sliding left/right on the status bar. You can have the battery indication in status bar to be a circle. I always get a thought that Google needs to implement stuff like this directly into Android. Conclusion So, is CyanogenMod 10.1 worth a try? It depends. If you're on a non-Nexus phone, definitely worth installing, you'll in all probability love it. If you're using a Nexus and are okay with 4.2, then CM is probably not that interesting for you. Though, it does bring a lot of enhancements to Android which power users will definitely like. It's still a nightly, but I haven't seen any bugs so far, and it is very stable. Hit the link below to check out if CM 10.1 is available for your device. If you're a beginner in rooting and related stuff, check out XDA Developers forum, find forums posts related to your device and follow them. Before you go ahead, remember that rooting will void your warranty and may even brick your phone (though the chances are less). Link: CyanogenMod 10.1 -- This Post CyanogenMod 10.1: Better than Vanilla Android? is Published on Devils Workshop . Related posts: HTC Unveils EVO 4G Tablet with Android 2.3 [Infographic] The History of Android Lenovo Launches a TV set that will run on Android 4.0 Is Firefox the best Android Browser? Yes!

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Opera Embraces WebKit and Chromium

Opera browser has a very small following but they are very dedicated. For years it has been setting standards for other browsers but it could never become a force to reckon with as far as numbers were concerned. Yesterday, Opera announced that it will be start a gradual transition towards WebKit and Chromium. This announcement is something Opera developers might not like. Adopting WebKit will also spell the end for its own Presto engine. Why Opera tilted towards WebKit? Opera's own web rendering engine Presto has lagged behind on performance in recent times. Opera anyways has a small share in the browser space but it could be get even worse as a lot of browsing habits move from the PC to the mobile and tablet. WebKit Engine is pretty much the dominant one on the mobile scene. It is also used by Chrome and Safari. Opera has resources that are nowhere close to companies like Microsoft, Google and Apple. So adopting WebKit might make sense as it will not tie down to many resources for Opera. Opera is also moving towards adopting Chromium. That is the open source browser/OS supported by Google. It is basically what Chrome is built on. Opera might be adopting Chromium to make it more accessible for 3rd part developers to make extensions or addons. Pitfalls of adopting Chromium! I am not entirely sure about Opera being very successful with a move toward Chromium. Most Chromium based browsers have not exactly been doing all that great. Remember RockMelt browser which was leveraging itself as a social media browser? It did not work out too well. RockMelt as a browser now does not exist anymore and survives only as an App on the iOS platform. What are your views on Opera and its decision to adopt WebKit? Do drop in your comments. Additional Info: Web Browser Engines is software component that takes mark up content like CSS, HTML, XML and image files and renders them into webpage we see on our browser. Popular web engines are WebKit (Chrome, Safari), Trident (IE), Gecko (Firefox) and Presto (current versions of Opera) -- This Post Opera Embraces WebKit and Chromium is Published on Devils Workshop .

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Facebook Experiments With “Buy Ticket” Option for Events

Facebook might soon be turning its 'events' feature into a revenue stream. According to AllFacebook, the social networking website is testing out a new feature that will allow users to buy tickets to events directly from the site. I could not find any events which had the option to buy tickets. But the option seems to be available for all brand page owners. I created an event for a page I am the admin of and saw the option to add a link to the "Buy Tickets" field. It looks like Facebook might not be hosting a ticket selling interface as yet, but I am pretty sure Facebook might be considering that soon. Facebook events are used in a big way to promote concerts, meetups so it makes a good additions for page owners. Events are Social, Ads are not Facebook is a social hub for me. It is personal and last when it shows me advertisements to buy stuff, I find its like someone irritating salesperson visiting my home. While advertisements work great on Google, because people are always looking to buy something on it. But Events on Facebook are social and I actually don't mind buying tickets through Facebook. Also I think its a lot better than testing features like charging $100 to send a message to Mark Zuckerburg. -- This Post Facebook Experiments With "Buy Ticket" Option for Events is Published on Devils Workshop . Related posts: Facebook Redesigns Events Page in response to Google+ Events Facebook experiments with new a search feature for improved results What's new in the new Facebook Events Add Facebook Events To Google Calender

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Flipkart Launches Marketplace to Entice Vendors

Flipkart has launched Marketplace. It is mainly a place for vendors to sign-up and sell directly to customers. The shipping will be handled by Flipkart's own logistics partner. That basically means with Marketplace, Flipkart will now allow third-part vendors to sell their merchandise online. With this step it joins eBay India, SnapDeal which also have similar e-commerce marketplaces. It also becomes a lot similar to how Amazon works in the US, where it allows vendors to sign-up and augment their own offers. How to signup to Flipkart Marketplace as a vendor? At the moment there is no automated place to sign-up and fill in your details. It requires vendors to send in an email to vendor@flipkart.com to get an invite.. The account username seems to either be an email address, display name or a phone number. I guess these three could be used to register as an vendor. There seems to little or no information about how this process works except that vendors will use Flipkarts own logistics setup. Flipkart Marketplace might threaten smaller e-Commerce Though Flipkart has bought some big e-commerce sites like LetsBuy and offered a MP3 store along with a digital bookstore to leverage itself against other e-commerce sites, it was still losing out to smaller websites offering unique and niche products. Getting vendors into the action will help it offer a wider variety of products to customers. Usually Flipkart was known for its quality of service – especially the last mile delivery mechanism. I was once joking with a friend that looking at their reliability of their in-house delivery service, they should also offer courier service. I guess in a way that is what Flipkart is doing. It is leveraging its infrastructure and increasing the variety of products it offers by getting vendors into its fold. Sites like e-Bay India which also have vendors selling stuff, often do it for a lot lesser price than say Flipkart. It will be interesting to see if Flipkart allows vendors to sell products at rates that are lower than what they themselves are offering. Have you registered as a vendor on Flipkart or know someone who has? We would love to hear more inputs you might have in your comments. Link: Flipkart Marketplace -- This Post Flipkart Launches Marketplace to Entice Vendors is Published on Devils Workshop . Related posts: Facebook Introduces Anti-Virus Marketplace Flipkart to Acquire LetsBuy.com Flipkart's MP3 Store Flyte is Availabe on Android Why Flipkart's Flyte will not stop music piracy in India?

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Blogathon March 2013: Two Day Blogging Workshop in Mumbai

Are you a blogger who has recently started out? Are you looking to get introduced to basics of WordPress, including buying your own domain and hosting your own blog? Then you might like to check out Blogathon 2013. It will take place in Mumbai on 2-3 March, 2013. What is Blogathon all about? Blogathon describes itself as a workshop for structured WordPress blogging and starting-up. I spoke with the organizer Niranjan, who explained to me about the concept behind Blogathon and what it is offering. The two-day workshop will have speaker sessions on the first day. It will cover basics like how to go about blogging, starting a blog, introduction to self-hosted WordPress basics and CSS and design basics. It will also showcase speakers who will explain concepts like SEO, content curation, publishing insights and more. On the second day will entail practical sessions where attendees will be building their websites. India needs more Blogging + WordPress workshops I strongly feel India needs more such workshops that are not just for developers or experts. Usually at conferences or talks I have attended, I found that newbies are often ignored and they are more or less lost. It is good to see an initiative like Blogathon which is going to have practical sessions for bloggers who are new and need a bit of hand-holding. Link: Register for Blogathon Related: My Experiences with WordCamps in India -- This Post Blogathon March 2013: Two Day Blogging Workshop in Mumbai is Published on Devils Workshop . Related posts: Weekly Roundup for Devils' Workshop- 15th March to 21st March Devils' Workshop weekly roundup – 22nd March to 28th March Weekly Roundup for Devils' Workshop- 8th March to 14th March Devils Workshop Monthly Traffic Report March 2010

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Google Announces MapsMapathon 2013 Contest to Improve Maps in India

Google has lately taken a big interest in improving their maps for India. Like three months ago, they introduced traffic updates for Indian cities and before that they had introduced displaying bus routes. But Google wants more hand-on data and they want volunteers to get more useful data for Google Maps. They have announced that initiative called Mapathon 2013. What Google Maps wants? You can register for Google's Mapathon 2013 contest at this landing page. Ideally sign in with your Gmail account. The contest will run from Feb 12 to March 25. So you still have 3 days to go ahead and register before it starts. What Google is trying to do here, is get a lot of Maps users to volunteer important information across India. Google is also offering prizes for the top 1000 contestants. Prizes Prizes on offer include 10 Samsung Galaxy Note 800 Android tablets. 40 Samsung Galaxy S II phones. 50 Flipkart gift coupons worth Rs. 5000. The top 1000 contestants will get an free t-shirt too. Chance to do good karma! Thought prizes notwithstanding, I think it is a good idea to contribute to Google Maps from time to time. Especially with new information about important places like hospitals, correct names of roads and more. Link: Google Mapathon 2013 -- This Post Google Announces MapsMapathon 2013 Contest to Improve Maps in India is Published on Devils Workshop . Related posts: Google Maps gets Live Traffic Updates for India Apple CEO Tim Cook Apologises for Maps: Recommends using Bing, Nokia and Google Maps Bing Maps is a clone of Google Maps [Contest] Retweet and Win Pass for ABC Cloud Computing – India World Forum

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Twitter Redesigns Search Results for Android / iPhone Apps

The present Twitter app is actually not my most preferred one and hence I end up using 3rd party apps. So Twitter's blog announced a change in design, I was slightly hopeful it would be radically different from its present form. Too bad it was not but it has made changes to how it shows search results and also its discover tab. But some changes are made and most importantly it is how they will be showing search results in a single stream. New Changes to Twitter Apps The big change is how apps will display search results. For example now all tweets, photos and accounts will be shown instream or rather in a single stream. More importantly Twitter has included a search button for iPhone apps which allows searching from anywhere within the app. Android and iPad users will be familiar with this search feature as they already have it. Single stream display for all tweets, activity and trends. This used to be shown in the Discover tabs with different sections. There are new previews on at the top of the Discover tab. You can adjust connect tab defaults to mentions "Mentions Only" or "Interactions". The default is "Interactions". There is slight change is how links open. It used to require two click to get to a website from a tweet. Now it requires only a single click or tap. I am not the most updated about various aspects of Twitter as I am not really a power user. But I think with showing profiles, photos and tweets in a single stream for search results and Discover tab, it is trying to further control the relevancy of media we consume on it. This control obviously will finally translate to better contextual tweets or promoted tweets. And that will finally mean more revenues for Twitter. Though, for me to use Twitter app, it still needs to radically change its design and layout. Maybe they could take a cue from the likes of Carbon for Twitter or other great apps. If you have updated your phone app for Twitter, do let us know about the new changes in your comments. Link: Twitter App on Google Play | App Store -- This Post Twitter Redesigns Search Results for Android / iPhone Apps is Published on Devils Workshop . Related posts: Best App for Twitter on iPhone, Android and BlackBerry [Survey] Top 10 Android Apps Hog 43% of Time Spent in Apps 5 Great iPhone Apps for Women List of Top 10 Free Photo apps for iPhone

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