Making Your Computer Experience Better

Google’s 10 Android App You Should Be Using

May 19, 2013 By ishayat 5 Comments

If you are a new Android user who is looking for some free but not malicious apps for downloading, Google might have some great free apps for you covering almost everything from music to document organizing and other stuff. Here, we have gathered 10 best android apps from Google just for you.

Google Now

, an app which is often compared to Apple’s Siri, is a complete search application with some cool tricks up its sleeves. It can monitor your Google calendar and then show you the current traffic condition and a navigation option to the appointment’s location which is a really unique feature. It can also prepare cards according to your needs. It’s the best search app available at the moment that can give you a fast and easy way to find what you need on the web.

Google Drive

is a free file storage and sharing app with ~~5GB of storage~~ 15 GB in total together with Gmail and Google Plus where you can store all your files and share them with others easily. You can upload your images, videos, documents and other files directly from your Android device and share them with your contacts. Google Docs, another popular app from Google is now a part of Google Drive.

Google Maps

is a complete map application for Android with navigation feature. This app also features detailed maps with 3D buildings, GPS navigation with turn-by-turn instructions, live traffic information and other useful stuff. If you want to quickly find a good place to eat or retail stores near you, Google Maps is what you are looking for.

Google Translate

If you use every now and then from your PC, you can do the same now from your Android phone. You can use your voice, handwriting or camera for translating and save your favorite translations if you want. However, the offline translation feature and camera input works for Android 2.3 and above devices only. The app currently supports translating text and speech between more than 70 languages.

Chrome Browser

is known as one of the fastest web browsers out there and now it’s available for your Android device. It looks quite similar to the desktop version and also allows you to open an unlimited number of browser taps. This app also features accelerated page loading, browsing in incognito mode, scrolling, and history syncing from your other Chrome browsers to let you pick up browsing right where you left off.

My Tracks

is a GPS tracking application that can monitor and record your path, distance, speed and elevation while you are hiking, biking, running or doing other activities. It can also announce your progress while recording and show you your data live. Once you are done recording, you can share your data with friends or export it to external storage.

Google Play Music

is a great app for music lovers that make it easy to play, share and discover music they love. There are two ways to get access, All Access service (US) and Standard. Using the new All Access service, you can access to millions of songs on Google Play, create custom radio using your favorite songs and get smart recommendations. However, the unlimited streaming of millions of songs is only available in the USA for now.

Google Current

is a Flipboard like app where you get all the latest news from popular publishers in a beautiful magazine-like way. You can save stories, add your favorite blogs and feeds, get breaking stories and scan unread stories quickly using the fast scan feature. It’s a great app to get fresh news right on your Android device. This app is also known as one of the best apps from Google.

Google Goggles

is an image recognition application that can search by taking a picture. You just have to point your mobile’s camera at a painting or what you want to search and Goggles will try to look for it in its database. It can also read text in different languages and translate it for you. Users can also use it as a QR/barcode scanner, Sudoku solver and text scanner using Optical Character Recognition.

Google Keep

is a notepad like app where you can store whatever comes on your mind. Create a checklist, create notes with photos, voice or text and get access to them from both desktop and your Android mobile. All your voice notes can be transcribed automatically and you can keep it as a widget in your homescreen to get quick access.

I hope you liked this list of best Google apps in Android. Which one you like the most?

5 Reasons Why Apple Maps Sucks Big Time

September 29, 2012 By ishayat Leave a Comment

Apple announced its plan to remove Google Maps and YouTube in its latest iOS 6 back in June. Google has already managed to replace the native YouTube app with its own YouTube app but Apple decided to replace Google Maps with its own Maps app. So far, Apple Maps has proved to be a disaster and the company is now desperately trying to make things right by luring away Google Maps employees. Let’s take a closer look at Apple’s new Maps app to see what makes this app a complete failure.

Inaccurate Search Results

The first thing we noticed when using this new Apple Maps is inaccurate search results. If you search for Manchester United Football Club’s location, you will be redirected to Sale United Football Club. Zach Epstein of FoxNews.com also wrote in a post recently how a search performed in Apple Maps for a restaurant he was standing no more than 100 feet away showed results in Kansas. People are getting faulty address search results and incorrect business listings when using Apple Maps.

Misplaced Towns

The second thing we noticed when using this new Maps app is misplaced towns and missing local places. Another funny thing is, we found a museum located in a river. CNET also published where all the major Maps errors are highlighted – wrong directions and misnamed venues. Walt Disney Family Museum is actually located seven miles away from its original location and the map is missing Statue of Liberty, need we say more?

Redirects to Google Maps on Desktop, Android and non-iOS 6 phones

Apple’s plan was to replace Google Maps with its own Maps app but looks like the company is actually sending users to Google Maps. When we share a location using Apple Maps, users get redirected to Google Maps when clicking from a desktop, Android or other non-iOS 6 phones. This is not really a big problem if you compare it with the other two problems mentioned above. However, if Apple is trying to grab the attention of Google Maps users, this is surely not the way to do so.

Cloudy Satellite Images

If you are from Scotland, the new Apple Maps app is surely not for you as most of the Satellite images of Scotland in the map are obscured by cloud. As you can see in the image, a part of Scotland is covered with clouds and is of no use to users. Blurry and low-quality satellite images are also noticed in some places. The Hoover Dam looks like a ski-slope of death in 3D images.

Not good with abbreviations

Apple Maps is not good with abbreviations and is not ready to handle abbreviated search yet. Recently, a user reported that when he was looking for Rua General Urquiza in Rio de Janeiro, he got wrong search results as the word “General” is commonly abbreviated “Gal” in Brazil. We really don’t expect this type of mistake from Apple.

These are the issues we have faced so far when using Apple’s new Maps app. Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company is “extremely sorry” and is now suggesting to “try alternatives like Bing, MapQuest and Waze” after receiving tons of complaints from users. However, if you are willing to go back to Google Maps, you don’t have to wait for long as Google Maps will be coming to Safari’s iOS browser soon.