Best windows phone apps for an Indian!

There are a lot of applications in the windows phone store now and some of these applications are just for india and are really useful in day to day life as i use these apps almost everyday! So let's find out which apps are these and what are their particular features that make them useful! Let's begin!


1.IRCTC

As we all know how much Indians travel through train and there wasn't any official irctc application on any mobile platform until windows surprises it's users by bringing a really use friendly and fast irctc app! Now when i say useful, i mean a lot useful! This app is way faster than the official site and much more user friendly!
This app consists functions like booking and cancelling tickets, checking pnr status, inserting passenger information so that you don't have to do it every time you book a ticket, this things can also synced with your windows 8 tablet or PC which is really handy and much more!
IRCTC  is available for windows phone 7 and 8 , windows 8 for free!
you can download the windows phone version here!

         


2.PAYTM

 Paytm is a recharging and bill paying app that features paying or recharging mobile bills, dth payment, data card payment, and even toll card payments!
The user interface is pretty nice and you also get points when you make a payment that you can use later for any different payment! Paytm also offers you coupons at a discounted rate which are really useful!
Paytm is a free app for windows phone 7 and 8 and you can download it from here!


        



3.TRADUS

Tradus is an online shopping website that comes with a lot of offers on different products everyday and you can buy them at a very cheap rate from any other website! There are a lot of products for you to buy including electronics, kitchen utensils and more!
Tradus is a free app for windows phone 8 and you can download it from here!


           



   4.JUSTDIAL

Justdial is a online searching services for finding phone numbers of different places like restaurants, hospitals and more! This app really comes in handy when you want a number of the nearest place you want to go like a hotel and book a room!You can also add and read reviews to get a better idea!
Justdial is a free app and you can download it from here!


         




5.HUNGAMA

Hungama is a free online music service from which you can play (cannot download) latest Hindi or English songs totally free! you can add favorites too if you listen any song everyday and you can play songs according to your mood too like party, sad and many more!
Hungama is a free app for windows phone 7 and 8 and you can download it from here!


          



6.NEWSHUNT

Newshunt is a widely popular newspaper reading app that provides you 85+ regional newspapers in 11 different languages including english, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi & Oriya! You also get live scores and horoscopes!
Newshunt is a free app for windows phone 8 and you can download it from here!






7.MPASSPORT SEVA

mPassport seva is a passport tracking app by Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Government of India, that aims at providing all the Passport-related services to the Indian Citizens in a speedy, convenient and transparent manner.
This app features like Passport application status tracking, locating the Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) and general information on various steps involved in obtaining a Passport! This app is really useful if your passport is pending and you want to keep track of its progress and even calculate the fees!
mPassport seva is a free app for windows phone 7 and 8 and you can download it from here!







So those were my favorite and one of the best applications for indians on windows phone, do mention yours in the comments or connect to me on twitter @phonesoldier or you can like my page on facebook at www.facebook.com/phonesoldier!

Hope you liked it and thank you for reading! 

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Why you should avoid the Samsung Galaxy S5 as of now!

So, Finally the new Samsung galaxy s5 was launched in India today and the questions begin with the most likely "should i wait for the Samsung galaxy s5?" and my answer always was a solid NO!
There are many reasons for which as of now you should avoid the Samsung galaxy s5 and i am going to point them out here! Let us begin!

1. WE ARE STILL ON PLASTIC!

There were a lot of expectations from Samsung lovers this time that there will be a better built quality this time in the new galaxy s5 with a better design! But Samsung disappoints his fans this time as the samsung galaxy s5 consists of same design and same plastic!With the phones like iPhone 5s, htc m8, i don't think Samsung will survive this time!



2.WE WANT SNAPDRAGON!

Samsung has been fooling Indian customers by its exynos processor again and again! And this time too with the international version consisting of a snapdragon 805 processor, we are getting the same processor that we got in the note 3 that is the Exynos processor running four high-performance cores at 1.9GHz while the low-power cores run at 1.3GHz! Why can't Samsung just bring its snapdragon version to India!




3.SAME OLD TOUCHWIZ 

WITH NEW ICONS!

We were really expecting a newer version of touchwiz this time but what samsung did is copied htc's blinkfeed and loaded new and much more disturbing icons! Touchwiz is really getting boring now with the same old lags and useless features!

4.NOT REALLY A      

                TRENDSETTER!

Samsung brought a lot of new features this time including a fingerprint and heartrate scanner and now it is waterproof too! Two of the features i mentioned are copied and one of them is useless for 80% of customers! What I am talking about is that fingerprint scanner is copied from the iphone 5s which is not that accurate too and the waterproof funtionality is copied from xperia phones! Not a lot of customers are really going to use the heart rate scanner! So there's not really anything new in this galaxy and you are not going to buy a trendsetter if you buy this device!

5.50K FOR THIS PHONE?

Yes! If you are unaware, samsung galaxy s5 has been priced from 
51k-53k which we will know after samsung reveals the price but it 
will be around 51k! So the points i mentioned above don't really 
make this phone of 50k and you should avoid this as far as you are not a samsung person! So by referring to the title, you should not be buying this phone as of now and wait for the price drop at least!

TO SUM UP...

So, as i mentioned, you should not be buying this phone right now 

and wait for the price drop! If you really want a samsung flagship, 

buy the note 3 or the last year's s4 which is now available at 29k!

Or wait for the latest HTC flagship which is much more capable!



SO I GUESS THAT'S IT FOR THIS TIME! HOPE YOU LIKED IT!
DO SHARE YOUR VIEWS TOO ON THE price of the galaxy s5 IN THE COMMENTS SECTION OR CONNECT TO ME ON TWITTER @phonesoldier and facebook atwww.facebook.com/phonesoldier!

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Is The New HTC one (m8) worth it?

A lot of you might be holding your decision of buying a new phone for the new htc one to launch and now it is here and you might comparing it with other phones and thinking whether it is worth the wait or not?
Well, let me help and tell you whether the new htc one is worth the wait or not!

                                       





The new htc one(m8) is finally here and includes some magnificent changes and updates including sense6, new version of zoe, slow mo which is better than any other out there, two rear cameras for better photography and much more! These features create the new htc one a stand out device and different from any other smartphone launched this year including the galaxy s5 which added just a fingerprint scanner or a heart rate sensor which aren't really necessary features! The features that came in the new htc one are interesting and worthy! But i realized while looking at the event that some these features were inspired by other phones, like slow mo from the iphone or the refocus from the lumia devices!

One of the most interesting part of the device is its case that shows your weather and time in that using dot pixels when you double tap the phone which doesn't use your battery that much! You can also hold your phone onto your ear when a call comes and the phone will automatically answer it!

        
















The good thing about the HTC m8 is that there is no fantasy land involved, what I meant is HTC didn't put any features that we don't need like the samsung's eye gestures or something! All the new features that HTC put in are useful in real life and don't even consume battery at a high level like any other flagship!

But still these features are perfected to make your experience much more fast and soothing! So let us see the features of the new HTC one and the upgrades that HTC made are worth or not!

HARDWARE.

Well I can't and maybe you can't remember the last time HTC made an unattractive device! Recent masterpieces of HTC includes devices like the One X, One S and Windows Phone 8X! 

   

However, its crowning achievement was last year's HTC One, also known as the M7. The phone's fantastic industrial design and anodized aluminum shell are just two reasons it remains one of my favorites to this day.

There's no mistaking the fact that the new One (aka the M8) inherited a lot of traits from its predecessor, including BoomSound speaker grilles, a curved back and horizontal stripes. After all, if it ain't broke, why fix it? And believe it or not, the phone is made from even more metal than last year's model: roughly 90 percent of the chassis is made from aluminum, compared to 70 percent for the M7. That means the phone no longer sports polycarbonate accents on the top, bottom and sides; instead, metal wraps all the way around until it reaches the display. Throw in some rounded corners and a brushed-metal finish on the back, and you've got yourself a beaut. Still, beauty is also in the eye of the beholder!

But questions my mind, is the device too fragile? I mean if I drop this phone, I don't think it can survive without a case or so! 

So on the hardware side, the phone looks gorgeous unless you use a case for protection else you may have to use the HTC advantage once in a month! 

HTC made some more changes too like the screen is now of 5 inch and the power button now sits on the top right!

Even better, it has a new neighbor: a memory card slot! Indeed, the microSD spot can take cards up to 128GB, which will come in handy since you can only get up to 32GB of internal storage on the new One. Turning to the bottom of the phone, you'll find the micro-USB QuickCharge 2.0 port and 3.5mm headphone jack, while the left side houses a slot for the nano-SIM card. Sadly, the charger that comes included in the box only supports QuickCharge 1.0, which means you'll need to pay for an optional accessory just to take advantage of the faster charge time.

As on last year's model, the panel looks sharp, bright and vibrant; viewing angles are wide and the display is easy to see in direct sunlight as long as you push the brightness up to 75 percent or higher.

The screen itself is protected by a slab of Gorilla Glass 3, which is, of course, designed to be scratch-resistant.

UNDER THE HOOD!

Under the hood, the M8 comes loaded with a 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 chipset (it's 2.5GHz in certain regions), 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a 2,600mAh battery, dual-band 802.11a/ac/b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX.

Finally, one of the more curious hardware additions are the low-powered, alwaysl listening "Smart Sensors." Accelerometers are nothing new, but HTC's can be used by apps all day long without significant drain on the the battery (as they don't fire up the processor etc). As HTC's opened up the API for these -- dubbed HTC's Smart Sensor Hub -- app developers will be able to hook into this information directly!

These features make these new HTC really fast and competitive with other flagships out there, so it's going to be a really tough competition!

SENSE 6 UI.

The new HTC one comes with the new sense 6 UI which the HTC likes to call sixth sense which is pretty humorous as it doesn't predict the future or  something, anyways the android version you get here is the latest android 4.4.2! These all upgrades will come to the existing one series users around summer!

                   

As with most KitKat launchers, the M8 home screen feels more expansive because the status bar on top and virtual navigation bar on bottom are both transparent. You now have three soft keys representing buttons for back, home and recent apps which will allow you to take advantage of the full screen feature of KitKat! 

Most Sense apps and features comply with specific shades depending on which color theme you choose (by default, BlinkFeed is green, for instance), but you can change to other themes if you like.

                

On Sense 6, HTC is following Google's lead by making several of its proprietary apps available on the Play Store. The gallery, Zoe app and Sense TV are the first ones that receive this treatment. This is a smart move on HTC's part: Now, the company can push out updates to individual Sense services anytime it wants, rather than having to bundle new features and bug fixes into a firmware update that can take weeks to roll out (even longer if you live in the US). If this strategy is a success, we'll likely see HTC do the same thing with even more apps in the future.

There's a new gesture feature called Motion Launch, with which we have something of a love/hate relationship. It takes Nokia's and LG's double-tap-to-unlock and expands upon the concept with swipe gestures. You can still double-tap to wake up the lock screen, but you can also swipe your finger in different directions to bypass the lock screen entirely and take you directly into specific functions (provided you don't have any security locks in place). Swipe up to go into the home screen; swipe right to access BlinkFeed; swipe left to launch the widget panel; and swipe down to activate voice dial for faster calling. If you want to take a picture, hold the volume rocker and lift the phone up in landscape mode. The do not disturb is not new but its nice to have one and the new htc one got it!

            

In theory, the only way you can trigger Motion Launch gestures is when the phone senses movement -- it can tell that you're picking up your phone and assumes that you're wanting to turn the phone on. In practice, however, the gestures were too sensitive; I could wake up the phone when the One was sitting on my desk, resting in my pocket and when my thumb was firmly planted motionless on the screen. I'd also really like to customize the gestures to take me directly into apps that I use frequently, like email. Let's give HTC credit where it's due, though: This new functionality is pretty clever, and it'll likely get even smarter with future software updates.

CAMERA.

The camera on the previous year HTC one was pretty good unless you don't wanna zoom in but let's see whether this time it is perfected even more or not!

First off, HTC is sticking to its UltraPixel philosophy. In a nutshell, the idea is to taake a physically large sensor and combine it with big pixels that are capable of gathering more light than standard-sized ones. Many smartphone cameras feature 1.1µm pixels, while the One proudly boasts a one-third-inch BSI sensor with 2µm pixels capable of absorbing 330 percent more photons. It also uses ImageChip 2 and a 28mm f/2.0 AF lens that helps grab even more light. HTC believes you don't need a high-resolution sensor to take great pictures, and as long as you don't need to zoom in on anything, the quality should remain near the top of its class.Here is a sample which uses the duo camera!

The sad part of the camera is that the OIS is gone, HTC replied on this that they needed more space for mechanical components! But it's not the end of the world,, the features that we are getting instead are faster auto focus, anti shake feature which are really helpful and you would probably fidget the OIS while using these features!

 The M8 also features a dual-LED flash, which is designed to get rid of glare and make nighttime photos look more natural. This has been done in quite a few smartphones already, such as the iPhone 5s, but HTC's option is actually much brighter and produces more natural skin tones.

Along with Sense 6 comes a new user interface on the camera app. This version is streamlined with fewer options on top: videos, selfies, 360-degree pano shots (like Photo Sphere), dual-camera captures and Zoes are now all confined to separate modes that can be accessed on the lower-right corner. Each corner of the viewfinder has an icon (flash, settings, modes and gallery shortcut), and the only other UI element is the shutter button halfway down the right side. When you choose settings, you're presented with a bar of options along the bottom of the viewfinder. This includes ISO (up to 1600 on the M8), exposure, white balance, filters, random settings and scenes; the latter option lets you choose between no fewer than 11 scenes, including HDR, Night mode, manual, macro, sweep panorama and anti-shake, among others.

Manual mode reminds us of Nokia's fantastic camera app -- it brings up a whole new set of options along the bottom, and each one reveals a slider that lets you adjust white balance (you can customize temperature in Kelvins), exposure, ISO, shutter speed and focus. You can see the results in real time, so you don't have to worry about what the image is going to look like after you take the shot!

You might be wondering what's with the dual camera on the back? The dual camera does fancy like 3D imaging that we all were expecting but what it does is increase the quality of the photo at a much higher level and let's you edit your photo after the shoot is taken in much professional way like you can refocus objects (like on Nokia lumia phones) that are far away, lets you crop the whole subject from one photo to another! Basically the camera works now in a more professional way than before!

The quality of the images are obviously going to be exceptional and even from the front camera which is bumped up to 5mp wide angle view lens and can record full HD videos!
Here are some more samples!


















When we compare the lumia 1020 with the new htc one, this was the result!

PERFORMANCE AND BATTERY LIFE!

The performance is obviously going to be really great with the specs I mentioned earlier that include a 2.3ghz snapdragon 801 processor (which is the latest until the 805 comes later this year!) , 2gb ram powered by adreno 330! The performance is going to be top notch with these specs as we expect from a 2014 flagship but its the battery life where the new HTC one really shines!

    

As much as I like power, I love battery life even more. The M8 comes with a 2,600mAh battery inside, which is 300mAh larger than last year's version. Before reviewing the phone, I predicted that we'd see roughly the same life on this model as we did the M7, primarily because of the larger display and more powerful processor with a higher clock speed but the case is different here!
The battery features of htc m8 are really and on moderate usage , the htc m8 can go all day with 30% left! This is really a breakthrough as in flagship, i never saw this battery life with this much size of battery!

TO SUM UP...

The new HTC one is remarkably one of the best phones of this year with the best specs and the best design and material used! However I wanted the metal to be not increased to 90% add this can create heading issues which I am not yet sure but there could be the issue of the phone slipping off your hands at times!

But still I would love this phone to shine in the market and you should definitely wait for this phone if you want the best experience with the best hardware!

SO I GUESS THAT'S IT FOR THIS TIME! HOPE YOU LIKED IT!
DO SHARE YOUR VIEWS TOO ON THE NEW HTC ONE IN THE COMMENTS SECTION OR CONNECT TO ME ON TWITTER @phonesoldier and facebook at www.facebook.com/phonesoldier!

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Best Alternatives for your Windows Phone!

The windows phone market share is rising everyday and popular applications are coming in everyday but some of them are not perfect and some features are missing from them! So I am going to tell great alternatives for popular applications for your windows phone 8 and even windows phone 7! 
So let us begin!

1.INSTAGRAM.

The official instagram available on the windows phone store lacks some features like uploading videos and has some bugs too but there are other alternatives that can fulfill your needs in a much better way!

6tag

The 6tag application is actually really popular and some of you might even know about it but those who don't, this is for them! 

This application consists many features that work really fine like instagram direct and uploading videos to your account! The stability of this app is much better than the official instagram app and you get basically everything in it like pinning searches on your home screen, lock screen support and much more!

6tag is a free app and you can download it from here!

                  


 











  

Pictastic


This app is actually i am recommending for those who are on wp7! Pictastic is a great instagram client, sure it lacks the feature of video uploading but everything else works just fine from instagram direct to live tiles!

Pictastic has both free and paid versions with free version including ads obviously!

You can download the free version here and the paid version here!

       









2.YOUTUBE.

It's been a lot of years since windows phone launched but still there is no youtube application, yeah we got one but that was pulled out from the store and things went as they were before, unresolved!
But other than that, we have some great youtube clients and one of them is metrotube!

Metrotube

Metrotube is great application for watching youtube videos and handling your youtube account and the recent update made it even more gorgeous by adding river navigation! 
You can download videos for viewing later too!

Metrotube is a free app but there is a paid app too if you wanna donate the developers!

Metrotube is available for both wp7 and wp8 and you can download it here!

        

3.SNAPCHAT.

Snapchat is a great social application and there a lot users using it but those who came on windows phone would be disappointed because there is no official app for it but there are alternatives that work perfectly and i going to mention them!

6snap

6snap is a great snapchat client for windows phone 8 and it works perfectly with the previous update that included taking screenshots which was not allowed before!
If you love snapchat and want to experience it on windows phone, you should definetly download this app!
6snap is free and you can download it here!

      


















Snap

This is app for windows phone 7 and a wonderful snapchat client!

Unfortunately this app has bugs and crashes some times but it allows to use snapchat on your phone and that is actually pretty cool as there is no other app available right now!

Snap is a paid app and you can get it for 0.99$ here!

       

4.DROPBOX

A lot of people use dropbox as of now and there is no official app available for it but as i said there aalternatives! Let's take a look!

CloudSix

This app is a great dropbox client with simple design and absolutely no lags at all!

A recent update also added better support for phablets that is pretty good!
You can download cloudsix from here for free!

       





Metrobox

Metrobox is a really fast and cool app for dropbox for windows phone 7 users!

You can pin folders and also share it with your friends!

This application is free and you download from here!

        

5.TELEGRAM

Telegram is messaging service like whatsapp that is getting really popularity lately because of its security features! 
There is unfortunately no official app for it but according to the developers, it is coming soon but untill there is an alternative you can try!

Migram beta

Migram beta is a free telegram client for both windows phone 7 and 8!

This application consists of every feature including private chats, background images and live tiles!

You can download migram beta from here!

          













6.REDDIT

A lot of users of windows phone are daily readers of Reddit and there was not a great official app or even a decent alternative until readit came!

Readit

Readit is beautiful Reddit client available for both window phone 7 and 8!

Readit has very elegant and metro looking UI and you can perform basically everything in this app from posting, commenting and much more!

Readit has two versions with free version that has some limitations! The paid app is for 1.99$ ad you can download it here!

        
















7.TWITTER

There is a official application for twitter available but it has some bugs and sometimes crashes while using, so I generally prefer using a client which i am going to mention here!

glƏƏk!
Gleek! is an amazing and fast twitter that is available for both windows phone 7 and windows phone 8!
Features of this app include faster loading, live tiles, adjusting fonts, sneek peeks, colour coding, muting, and much more! This is actually the ONLY app that will bring you random tweets (pƏƏks) from users around the world that is pretty

cool when you start using it everyday!

Gleek has two versions, one is free and other is paid which is only if you want to donate!

You can download gleek here!



















So those were my favorite and one of the best alternatives for windows phone, do mention yours in the comments or connect to me on twitter @phonesoldier or you can like my page on facebook at www.facebook.com/phonesoldier!

Hope you liked it and thank you for reading!

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