14th April, 2014

 One of those date blogs again. More importantly, another post for this year. The amount I blog is directly proportional to the amount of happiness in my life. I have blogged a lot in past few months... :)

 So today was 14th April, 2014, Monday. A day which everyone hates, first day of the week to go to office. For me it's a week off. There are lot of perks in production support. You get one week off on Monday, it helps for a movie buff like me, you get cheap tickets and shows are never full!

 Today was the plan to watch Rio 2. Also that I had watched Rio before, I was looking forward to this one. It was up to the expectation, liked it. After that, had my favorite Mexican cuisine food for lunch, and off to another movie: Bhoothnath Returns. I had not seen Bhoothnath, and did not have any expectations from this one, I went because my friend recommended it as a good movie. Well he was damn right.

 It is a laugh out riot movie. Amazing performance by all, especially the child artist. Really fun to watch movie, and it also has a message in it. The importance of voting, and what happens when you consider Voting day as a holiday and go out on a picnic or just relax. This is a very bad mentality among us Indians, first we don't vote and then we keep blaming the government.

 Well for starters, this movie did inspire me to go to Mumbai, just to vote, I won't have a holiday, as voting date in Pune and Mumbai are different, I will still try my best to go to Mumbai and cast my vote. I want to make a difference. We all should make a difference, and work towards betterment of our society, rather than just complaining and criticizing the government for not doing anything.

 The difference between us and the developed countries is that, in developed countries, everyone not only cares for upliftment and betterment of their surroundings and country as a whole, but they also come forward and take action. This is the thing we should practice too, I know it is easy to say and no one really cares. But to start with, lets just make sure we all make our vote count, let our vote make a difference...

Nexus 5 Fully Loaded - Tips & Tricks!

 So it's been over a month now. I am really happy and proud to own a Nexus 5. Why not? When you are using phone of the year 2013! Ne ways getting back to the subject, in this post I would like to provide tips and recommendations for any Nexus 5/Android user.

 To start with, the one feature Nexus phone users are proud to show off, is the Google hindi input. This feature is available by default only in Nexus devices, for other Android phones, you need to install 3rd party apps. When you enable the Google hindi input, you can input in Hindi in all the applications on the phone. To enable this feature go to Settings-->Language & input-->Check the box which says 'Google Hindi Input'. Also this feature may soon be available for other Android devices too, with the next Android update.

 Lets come to apps and games. So, I got a 16 Gigs phone, with 12 Gigs user available. A 4.95 inch display, 2 Gigs of RAM, a Snapdragon 800 chip set (fastest at that time) and a 2.3 Ghz of CPU. Well it was like having a million dollars, and deciding how to spend it lavishly!!! I was a bit apprehensive and cautious to install heavy games, but then I did it all.

 As far as games is concerned, I started with the humble Subway Surfer and Hill Climb racing. Played those for a week, then I got Asphalt 8! It is ultimate racing game to play on a cell phone for a gamer. I have played a lot of NFS's on my PS2, and the feeling you get of playing a game of same level of graphics and performance on a handheld device is simply amazing! Really enjoying this one, already reached Season 2 of it in a week. Only concern is, phone becomes a bit hot if you play for long times, so don't do that, especially for Nexus 5, as it is a fully sealed device.

 I also got the Stick Cricket Premier League. You can play 5 seasons of IPL or Aus equivalent. I started the IPL with Mumbai Indians team. You get some funds at start of the season too, to buy players/coaches. Apparently I have finished all 5 seasons, won the IPL trophy 3 times, came 2nd once and 4th once. Another wonderful and new game on the play store, which I installed is Tennis 3D. It took me some time to ace this one, around 30mins, but once I learnt some tricks it is fun. It is competitive, and I still need to learn more tricks to start winning Slams.

 So that was for games, lets come to apps. WhatsApp and Facebook were the first and basic installs.  After that I also got the Facebook Messenger, as the latest one lets you make unlimited free calls! Also installed Skype, as I use it for Video calls with family. I had not loaded music in my phone for a while, as my awesome collection was in Mumbai. I went home last weekend and got 4 Gigs worth of my favorite music synced to my Nexus 5. This phone does not come with a music player, you can play music from My Music app, but that is not that good. Got 'Rocket Player' for music, working pretty well, Good Easy UI, and some useful features too.

  I am happy and lucky to have lot of good friends who are experienced Android/Nexus 5 users. They also recommended me apps like 'Clean Master' and 'Digitally Imported Radio'. I tried a few stations, and 'Chillout' is the one I liked the most. There are several other crazy hard core Trance stations too, I got headache after listening them for 5 mins...lol.

 I am a movie buff, so I had also got the bookmyshow app in the first week. I follow cricket too, I tried the CricInfo app, din't like it much. Have installed CricBuzz now, which is also higher in rankings on the PlayStore. After installing all of the above, I still have 3.62 GB memory left. Not to mention, I have a 1.5 GB worth of a single game in the form of Asphalt 8, and 4 GB of music!

 Only concern I found was about the battery, and I guess not only for Nexus 5, this is applicable to all Android phones. It is more applicable to this sucker as it packs a very big punch, compared to most other lesser specs devices, but overall I am really really happy with my Nexus 5!!