Windows 10: Long term review.

Nearly 7 months on and Windows 10 has received awesome positive reviews. The last huge release for Microsoft from Windows, Windows 10 now runs in about 100 million PCs all over the world! It is still free for users of Windows 7 and 8. Microsoft has made it very simple for updating to Windows 10. The 'Get Windows 10' app will get you through the finish line if you give up some approximately 3 Gigs of your plan.
This post also includes on how to get Windows 10 if you didn't get the official app. This is officially from Microsoft, so breathe easy.

Windows 10: A reflection of Mobile OSs?

Apps. Notification center. Cortana. Windows 10 totally reflects how a mobile OS works without compromising on your desktop capabilities. Basically, Windows 10= Mobile + Desktop in terms of UI.

The UI Change.

The most noticeable improvement is the User Interface. Amazing. Smooth. Fast. Quality. Pure Microsoft. You'll love the new desktop and the start screen. It's your old computer totally revamped. Problems in Windows 8 are fixed here. Using it is hassle free. Task view is easy. Resizable start screen. Tiles are back. Task bar is cool. On the whole, the best desktop UI till date.

Whether you are coming from Windows 7 or 8, you will love this. Talking about Edge, Microsoft's new browser, personally I prefer Google Chrome. Better than Internet explorer though.

Animation effects are also visible. Total fun.

For games, you have Xbox. Cortana and search will improve your productivity.

App Store.

Applications and programs are gone. Forever. At lease sort of. Apps have made an entry into desktop. Just like your Phone, you have an App store and you have games and apps form the store, from Microsoft. All these add to the fun. The store too looks great. The quality of apps over number of apps. Good thing is that all your previous programs work as fine as they were. Indeed, they have become faster.

According to my task manager, my CPU works better with Windows 10. Memory (RAM) works great.

Speed improvements and BUG fixes.

During the time of the pre release, Microsoft said it has nearly 7000 bug fixes. All clear now. Visible problems in the OS have been rectified.
Computer boots faster than ever. Apps open and run faster.

On the whole, an awesome OS. Everyone will love it. Improves performance. Flaws are nearly extinct. All this for free is awesome. If you are still waiting, don't wait. Just get it.

HOW TO GET WINDOWS 10 if you didn't get the app. (Clean install)

Basically this step is how you can get an ISO of Windows 10. During the release, my Get Windows 10 app disappeared. In the Microsoft forum, I learnt that I could use the 'clean installation' method too. With this you can burn the OS to a CD or a Pen dr
ive. You can use it to upgrade to Windows 10. Please note that you need to check system requirements before you do this. This if from Microsoft officially. 

Just follow the link :

https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/software-download/windows10

It gives the Media creation tool which you need to get before Windows 10 which will download Windows 10 for you. Please read all the information in this link. It will help you. Don't download this before you read fully. Anything isn't sure and that's a disclaimer.

Thanks for reading! Happy Windows 10, and oh yeah, new year too!

Dream Android Phone: 2015 Version!

This Dream Phone concept is basically an imaginary version of how I'd want my smartphone to be, the things it must include and all those. Obviously I want it to run Android.
Note that all these are purely imaginary. This has nothing to with anyone externally.
So yeah! Just imagine that you are making your own smart phone. Forget the price. 2015 has bought us many things and we are incorporating everything into one awesome Phone.

THE BUILD
The build of your phone will determine how your phone feels in your hands and how easily you get access to buttons and every other aspect of the outer hardware part. I would like it to have a metal back case with a premium build quality. Thin bezels and an equally thin body would be perfect. Adding Gorilla Glass to the screen would be even perfect. That's all for the build.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
The Most interesting parts is the specs. I will divide this into two aspects.

The Software part.
As I mentioned earlier, Android 6.0 Marshmallow will power the device. Pure Android is my favorite. But a light, user friendly and most importantly RAM friendly Android skin. Quicker updates will be a boon!

The Hardware Part.

150 g Body.
5.5" Screen. Edge Display on both sides of the screen. Retina Display with IPS technology. Or AMOLED isn't a problem. Supports 4K playback.
Finger Print sensor included in Home button.
Dual side firing speakers.
23 MP Front camera with ability to shoot 4K. 8 MP Front camera with awesome selfie features. Geo tagging feature included.
4 GB RAM + 128 GB Internal memory with expandable memory.
Single Nano Sim.
Lithium Polymer 2500 mAh Battery.
3.5 mm thin without including edge display.
Adreno 430 Graphics.
2 Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon Octa-Core processor.
Support A-GPS, Bluetooth 4.0.

That's all for now. Obviously there will be improvements. Suggest yours. Thanks for reading.

iOS 9.2 full In-Depth Review!

New updates are always awesome and iOS 9.2 doesn't fail to satisfy expectations. It's smooth, fast as ever and less laggy. I have been testing the iOS 9.2 for about two days now. And before we go any further please note that I am coming from 8.4 so iOS 9 itself is quite new to me. So if I talk about things that were already there treat this as a basic iOS 9 Review.

A screen shot of the search page. Notice the clipboard on the left.

 The first noticeable difference is the new search page that is added to your home page. The last time I personally saw this was in iOS 6. It was missing in iOS 8. Basically its a search bar for everything on your device and on the web. It also includes a bunch of apps under the title 'Siri Suggestions'. I don't find much use there unless you are bored. The pull down search from your app page isn't gone though. 

Multitasking is easier than ever!

Coming to the biggest change since iOS 8 is multi tasking. Basically you can have two apps in the same page. Pulling the right side of your screen would give you a lost of apps which support multitasking and you can easily view another app on the side. This feature is quite convenient when you actually don't want to leave. Also videos can be played anywhere on the screen in a small space when you are doing something else. That's a plus. 

The next one is the keyboard. There is a considerable change in the font and it feels different and nice to use. There's a clipboard on the left side, undo options and some editing options. On the whole it's a more stable and feature added keyboard which is pretty nice to type when you are working on a document or your normal stuff. 

The notification bar is also different. The way it looks in landscape mode feels more organized. Widgets also look better.

The Notification center!

Photos also now better organization. There are new folders for screenshots, selfies etc. 

Two new apps, Find iPhone and Find Friends were also automatically installed. 

Something I find extremely better is that there's a lot of noticeable bug fixes. Really good ones. When I was using Facebook on Safari, and tapped on comments some how the keyboard comes up weirdly. I don't know exactly if it's a bug but it was troublesome. But it's perfect now. And when using settings, sometimes I got only half the screen. The other half was hidden. Now it's perfect. 

I felt something Apple messed up is the Original wallpapers they had. They were pretty good but now they removed all of them and most are black ones. That's pretty bad. Probably I will search for good ones. 

So yes, if you are using an older iOS version, there isn't any problem in iOS 9.2 and in fact it's awesome. Go ahead. Sometimes you will be in the Que for the update. Wait patiently. It's worth it. 

According to Apple, they have added 3D Touch to iBooks, improved Apple Music and improved the Email services. Thanks for reading! 

Is buying an iPad worth it? 2015 Version.

Some might argue that this topic is slightly out dated and all that. It's been discussed all over the internet. Yes that's OK! The iPad Pro is all new now but here I am not talking about that. I am talking about iPads in general. 

Whether the iPad is worth it basically depends on what type of person you are. Which means what you are going to use your iPad for! The iPad obviously wont make you comfortable with everything you want to do.

THE AMAZING BUILD QUALITY

There is a specific aspect of the iPad which will make you feel too comfortable. It's awesome, mind blowing, premium, build quality. The well known premium Aluminium case which the iPad rests on with the glossy Apple logo and the 'iPad' embossment makes it really impossible to describe it in words. The way it feels in your hand, it's quality of build, strong but smooth case defines the iPad.

iOS and File Transfer

The area where you can find a lot of flaws is the OS. iOS, I feel is incomplete. I mean to say that iOS has only those two or three odd home pages with a bunch of apps. That's what it has totally. I am not going to start an Android vs iOS thingy here but iOS lacks UI features. Like if Apple added more stuff like widgets, more interactive things from the OS, it would have been better. 
If you are getting an iPad you need to bear up with iOS. First, file transfer is extremely hectic. It would seem almost impossible with the amount of restrictions and hurdles you have to come across to transfer a simple 1 MB file. iTunes makes it even harder.

The Last straw

Added to all this you don't have expandable storage as well. So Apple pushes you to buy the 128 GB Model which will set you back by a fortune. You can get a SD card in about one fifth of it's price or much lesser only if there was the option. 
Bluetooth is another story. Don't depend on it if you don't have another Apple Device. It's useless otherwise. 

Browsing and apps: The brighter side

All these restrictions will make you feel that the iPad is meant only for browsing and enjoying it's quality apps in isolation from other devices. This is some what true. 
But browsing on the iPad is like browsing on heaven. Inbuilt Safari is smooth and Apple's amazing chips will make your browsing experience as smooth as ever.Also there are ton of apps on the App store. Quality and Quantity guaranteed. 

So if you have decided you are going to gift yourself a new tablet read up these before you make your choice. 

Don't think before getting an iPad if:

You want an amazing experience using your tablet. A neat clean OS. High quality UI. Less customization. Great browsing experience. High Quality Apps. If you like flaunting too, get this. If you are an Avid reader and don't care about having to bear up with iTunes get this. If you aren't going to have much of file transfers and you are going to game a lot and watch videos the iPad is just perfect for you! Also if your other devices are from Apple, there won't be much problems.

Think twice before you get an iPad if:

You are a geek and want a better user friendly UI. More customization options. More memory. Also if you want more organisation of your files and do a lot of file transfer across your devices, the iPad might not suit you. If you own Windows, Android devices file transfer won't be a piece of cake. The Nexus 9 Might suit you.

Finally Thanks for reading. Hope you liked it. 

Tech in 2015: Quick Overview!

We are nearly winding up with a very eventful year, 2015 in the tech sphere. Here will have a quick overview on all Tech that has come up this year concentrating on mobiles as we have done earlier.
Towards the end of this post, we will also have a look at the Operating systems out this year.

 

I want to start with One Plus. I have been seriously impressed with their devices especially the OnePlus X. Bringing such quality to the mid segment is the need of the hour and that's exactly what OnePlus has done this year. From being just another company to not being just another company, OnePlus has done a commendable job.

Coming to Samsung, after the experimental Note Edge's success, the Galaxy S6 Edge will hold a strong place in history for it's uniqueness. Ofcourse the double edged display on either sides of it's screen have been a sure eye catcher. Also Samsung enjoyed success in bringing the A series of phones. Not to forget the J line up and Samsung's own Tizen OS. Personally a Samsung user, one main concern was the keep up of speed. Samsung seems to have improved it this year. The much notable Galaxy A7 was an instant success.

To combat the mighty S6, Apple's iPhone 6S Plus with its blown up screen sizes with a relatively blown up price tag was unveiled. 3D touch which was earlier explained in this blog was a cool new feature that Apple added. Having said that, Apple has lived upto our expectations in bringing new features unlike a wide range of phones in the monotony of having the same technical specifications all over again.
Motorola had a pretty eventful year Moto X Play and Style. Lenevo's K3 Note caught eyes as well.

OPERATING SYSTEMS

Having a look at the Operating systems out this year we surely can't miss Windows 10. Though it is out only for Desktops for now 100 Million PCs now run Windows 10. The last major release from Microsoft has proved worthy because customers have enjoyed it. We were expecting the mobile version towards the end of they year. We can note that the Denim version which prepares your phone for Windows 10, was rolled out to Phones this year.
Android 6.0 Marshmallow which we discussed in detail earlier in a few posts was notable.
iOS 9 came this fall.
That's all. Thanks for reading.

Phones that are getting Android Marshmallow: Will your phone taste marshmallow?

Android Marshmallow will feature features like Doze( A new power management scheme), New App permissions and native Finger print scanner support.

To know more about Android M's features, visit Android M Features!

Everyone's so excited about Android Marshmallow. According to Android's official website, the latest OS will start rolling out by next week which means your phone might well go on to get it. Simultaneously there are a lot of speculations on which devices will get the update.

From Android.

Just because it is releasing, you wont get to have it the very next minute or even days. (Or even not)
To solve this mystery, here's a small list of phones that MAY get the update. Please note that some are just rumors and the truth is only when it actually comes to your Phone.

Nexus Devices
It's obvious that that the nexus devices will top the list. Google collaborates with a company like Huawei or Motorola or any other to make nexus devices. The recently unveiled Nexus 6P and the Nexus 5X are among the first to get the OS. Other Nexus are also most likely to receive this update. If you've got a Nexus in your pocket, sit back and enjoy because Marshmallow will find it's way in. The developer previews were launched for certain Nexus Devices.

Android One Devices
Google's budget line up of phones also called Android One will also be among those to receive Android 6.0. Phones like the Micromax Canvas A1, Karbonn sparkle V, Spice Dream UNO are among the Android One devices.

HTC
HTC was the first(and is the only, till now) company to confirm the line up of devices that will get the update. Thanks to it's Twitter handle. Here's the list. 

SAMSUNG
Samsung was earlier quite quick in bringing the Lollipop update to it's newer devices. Samsung has released a bunch of new sparkling devices in the meanwhile. Phones like the Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge plus, the Note 5, Galaxy A8 will certainly get 6.0. It is still unclear if older devices like Alpha and Galaxy S5 may be favored. 

Sony and LG will bring in Android 6.0 for it's later devices like Z4, Z3+, Z3 and G4, G3 respectively.

Since no company(other than HTC) has officially released a list, all we can do is only speculate. Newer devices and devices with a higher capability are the top ones. So, if you'd bought a newly launched phone you might be on top of the list to taste Marshmallow. Your availability will depend on your company and location. Sit tight and let Google do the rest. Tell us about your Marshmallow experience once you've got it. Thanks for reading. Keep reading because readers are winners!

Everything you need to know about the upcoming Android Marshmallow 6.0

Android 6.0 had three developer previews with the last on being on August!

Android M developer preview was first announced the Google I/O on May 28 2015. After 3 previews, the final version is expected to release in Q3, 2015. The predecessor was Android 5.0 Lollipop. 

A Screenshot of the home page from Android M

FINGERPRINT

A major improvement in this version is the native support for fingerprint scanning. Just like it's previous versions, it concentrates on improving over user experience. Finger print capability will enhance Android App payments and Android Pay experience. 

APP PERMISSIONS

Android Marshmallow introduces a redesigned application permission model: there are now only eight permission categories, and applications are no longer automatically granted all of their specified permissions at installation time. An opt-in system is now used, in which users are prompted to grant or deny individual permissions (such as the ability to access the camera or microphone) to an application when they are needed for the first time. 

DOZE: NEW POWER MANAGEMENT

When the device's motion sensors detect that there is no activity from the user, a new power management scheme called DOZE will automatically reduce the background application activity. According to Google, this might well go on to double your battery life, which if was reality, would result in a pretty impressive battery life for your device. 

Thanks for reading and keep reading because readers are winners!