The State Home Department in Maharashtra is gearing up for a significant overhaul of its top police leadership, including the position of Director General of Police (DGP) and Police Commissioners of Nagpur and Thane. The impending retirement of the current DGP, Rajnish Seth, on December 31 has prompted the department to commence the process of selecting his successor.A top rank official said that several prominent names have emerged as contenders for the esteemed position of State DGP. The frontrunner is Senior IPS Officer Rashmi Shukla, who currently serves as the Director General (DG) of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB). Mumbai Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar is also a strong candidate for the role. Other notable contenders include Thane CP Jaijeet Singh, DG ATS Sadanand Date, DG Police Housing Sandeep Bishnoi, DG Railway Pradnya Sarvade, Additional Director of NIA Atulchandra Kulkarni, and DG State Security Corporation Bipin Kumar Singh, he said. He further stated that the State Home
This list isn’t about the apps that everyman and his dog has – the Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Spotify and WhatsApp-type apps of the world. No, this one’s focused on the apps that might have slipped under your radar, the lesser known but equally useful applications available inside Google Play, that make your Droid all the more useful in everyday scenarios.
There are currently around 750,000+ applications inside Google Play. Deciding which app to download is often a case of opening Play and checking the Top 10 charts, and that’s great for the most part – but you do miss a lot of good stuff. And that’s why we decided to put this list together. Oh, and we’ll be adding new apps to this list every week. Yes, it’s a grower.
Snapdragon™ BatteryGuru
Everyone knows the feeling: you're late to meet a friend in an unfamiliar part of town and you're using google maps to make your way there. Suddenly, you realise you've got a low battery. If you're lucky, you'll make it there in time and find your friend. If not, you've got a world of pain waiting for you on your answerphone and big apology to make once you finally find a phone charger. But it doesn't have to be this way. The Snapdragon Battery Guru app learns your behaviour a couple of days after download and then works in the background to adjust yoursmartphone setting and help your battery last longer. Simples. Plus, it works on the majority of Snapdragon powered devices.
Google Goggles
Imagine you’re on holiday in the middle of Paris. There’s a recognisable tower right in front of you, but its name escapes you. You can’t be bothered to go through the hassle of asking a French person as you flopped your GCSE French exam and came out with little more than how to say hello and the days of the week.
Here’s where Google Goggles can help. The idea is that you use the camera to take photos of objects and Google searches its databases to find out everything you need to know, a Google search without the words. As well as acting as a barcode and QR scanner it can now also recognise famous landmarks and can you give you detailed information on what you’re pointing it at.
The idea is great and the app now supports multiple languages including English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish and can translate all into other languages. This means you can take a photo of some foreign language text and Google Goggles will do its best to try and translate it for you. It can also recognise paintings, books, DVD’s, CD’s and will do its best to solve Sudoku puzzles for you.
Free Song of the Day
We all love music and we all love free stuff. The marriage of the two is why torrenting is so popular and artists are struggling to make ends meet. Will someone please help out Gaga, she won't be able to afford her meat dress.
The love of free and music made Google come up with the idea of Free Song of the Day which is available through the Google Play Store. The service offers popular songs for free, not the smaller artists which iTunes offers through its free single of the week deal. Past artists on Google’s service include Ellie Goulding, Disclosure, Lady Antebellum and Swedish House Mafia, stuff which dominates the charts.
This app gives you a reminder every day to go and check out what song is available. Once using the app you can find a link to download it whilst it supplies you with artist and album information so if its someone new you can learn more about the artist.
Some songs are free for more than the day and the app comes with a handy list of all the previous titles so you can check to see if they’re still available. Although free to download, you can also upgrade to a premium service which avoids those nasty adverts trying to make their way into your eyes. Premium users will soon be offered additional free songs which the free users won’t be able to access.
Pushbullet
We all get a little forgetful from time to time, so why not schedule push notifications for yourself? Any calendar app can send notifications to your phone but Pushbullet allows you to send push notifications to both yourself and your friends at exactly the same time. You can also send links, pictures, files lists, notes and more to either your phone, to your computer, to a friend or all three at the same time.
By having the notifications on your phone and computer desktop you know you’ll never miss a notification again or receive it too late to do anything about it. There’s also a really useful feature which looks up addresses automatically on Google Maps. This way it’ll tell you when to go somewhere and when, you’ll never need to think for yourself again!
Hangouts
Are you still texting like it’s the dark ages? Move on, it’s the 21st century, the best way to do that is get your hands on the Google Hangouts app. It’s the replacement for Google Talk and allows instant messages in groups or to a single person. The best feature is video chatting for free, and even better it allows video conference calls with up to 12 people involved at a time. Are you lucky enough to have Android 4.4? Well if so you can also use the app to manage your SMS messages so you can swap between the two with ease.
bitmado
Having the same phone background can get tiresome but it is usually a huge pain to find, download and upload new ones to your device. Bitmado aims to stop all that and makes it a lot easier to download images to set as your wallpaper. This way you can change your phone's design every week, day or hour. The app has a great user base meaning endless amounts of wallpapers are constantly being uploaded.
There’s also a system of community-powered categories which mean you only get the best wallpapers and hopefully ones that are relevant to you. Once you find a wallpaper you like through the app you can then “stick it” and keep it for as long as you desire. There’s also a way to shuffle wallpapers so your phone's design can change even faster with minimal effort.
Mr Number-Block calls, texts
Keep getting bugged by marketing calls? Need a few hours off without the constant barrage of contact from work? Ex boyfriend or girlfriend who doesn’t know when to stop? Here’s where Mr Number-Block steps in to save the day. He allows you to block specific numbers from calling and texting, a specific area code or everybody you know. There are also features that allow you to report spam calls and SMS messages to help warn the wider community.
With an average rating of 4.3, this is one of the best call blocker apps on the market. There’s also a feature which allows you to reverse look up numbers before you answer them. It’s pretty useful if you’re bored of telemarketers wasting your time.
Untappd
We at Know Your Mobile are huge fans of beer, much like the rest of the world. Here is a really useful app for any beer lover which allows you to keep a list of what you’ve tried and keep up to date with what you need to try. Once you search for the drink you’re enjoying you can then rate it out of five, upload a photo, make notes for other users and even share where you’re enjoying your beverage.
The highlight of Untappd is the community at your finger tips. Everyone using Untappd has the same interest and love for a tipple. If Foursquare, TripAdvisor and Barney from The Simpsons had a lovechild, it’d be Untappd. Please drink responsibly (i.e. without dropping your Android).
Talk To Me
There’s nothing worse whilst on holiday than being stuck for that one word you just can’t explain to a foreigner. Automatically we revert to British tourism speak (i.e. shout as loud and slowly as possible) but this app allows you to avoid that embarrassing situation. It really is impressive how far voice recognition has been developed in the past few years, and this app allows you to speak into the microphone and translate your phrase into over 15 languages. It’ll even then speak the translation right back at you allowing you to learn any phrase when you need to. And Best of all, it’s only ruddy free as well!
QuickPic
No matter how much you love Android, you have to admit the photo gallery applications are pretty weak. That's where QuickPic comes. There are a bunch of editing tools such as rotate and shrink. The app also allows you to play animated GIFs and videos. It’s a shame but you can’t sync Instagram or Facebook apps into QuickPic but you can hide photos whilst protecting them with a password. The app has received almost 150,000 five star ratings. They can’t be wrong, give it a try.
Netflix
Netflix in the UK has quickly become a huge deal since launching in January 2012. The streaming service has quickly built up a repertoire of some of the biggest shows and movies around and has even started making their own content like American Horror Story and House of Cards. This app is a solid fixture for your phone, free to download but obviously signing up to the Netflix service is charged £5.99 per a month.
Unlike their closest UK competitor LoveFilm, the app allows you to watch any Netflix content whilst on the move. Everything can be accessed from the app and the streaming service works just as well as the desktop computer version. Just keep an eye on your mobile data as Netflix can easily eat into it.
Zombies, Run!
Here's one for the New Year rush. Feeling bloated and unfit after all that turkey, alcohol and pigs in blankets? It's likely you've had a solid seven day blowout and the fitness regime has gone right out the window. Well download this app to get yourself back up and literally running.
The aim of this fitness app is in the title, you're being chased by the undead, so run. Swarms of zombies are chasing after your flesh so it's time to find out if you'd survive the undead apocalypse, or more likely how long you'll survive.
This is a fun way to keep up your motivation during that embrassing period where you try to get back into exercise in the new year. It'd be approriate for any Walking Dead or Romero fan or just someone who needs that extra push when you've hit the wall out for a jog. The app will cost you £2.99 but that's during its half price Autumn sale so you need to get buying quick.
Nook
With the Nook application it gives you access to 2.5 million books alongside top magazines, newspapers comics and loads more. It also includes one million free books and a 14 day trial. There's a feature which shows new releases and best sellers as well as eBooks tailored for your interests.
Nook can work with all your compatible devices so if you have a Nook ereader but forgot it at home you can carry on reading your book, magazine or comic on your phone. Once you return home it syncs up with the Nook meaning you can start off just where you left off. Everything from font sizes to line spacing is adjustable too which means those with bad eyesight can still use the app.
Microsoft Remote Desktop
So, you’re running late to work one morning and realize that you’ve forgotten some very important files on your desktop back home. Have no fear, Microsoft Remote Desktop is here to help.
Microsoft Remote Desktop offers Windows users a secure connection between their Android devices and desktop computers. The app will allow you to access files, data and applications on your desktop from your mobile device and it will even let you stream high quality video and sound. MRD supports multi-touch gestures and allows for bandwidth usage.
This app is free of charge from Google Play, but the setup is a bit more than just a simple download. The connection has to be setup through your desktop, then linked to your mobile, but don’t worry there are plenty of step-by-step online tutorials for you to sift through.
Dessin
A wannabe posh looking word that is pronounced ‘design,’ but a useful app nonetheless; this app “is an innovative combination of mind map and phone automator,” provided by Google Play for £2.99.
Dessin is an app that allows users to make notes, mind circuits/maps and have them connect within your phone. These connections then have the ability to control your phone. Want to silence your phone during a movie? Dessin can do that. Need to make a grocery list while simultaneously look for a place to buy the things on that list? Dessin can do that too.
It's a bit like Google Now on steroids. Here's a list of just some of the things it can do, according to the Google Play page:
- make shopping list that your phone will show to you near grocery
- write notes during lectures (and connect them with other notes)
- automatically silence phone during lectures
- automatically silence phone when in the cinema
- enable Wi-Fi only at home
- schedule alarm at 8am from monday to friday
- keep the screen bright when reading books
Sleep as Android
Are you tired of being late because you’ve hit the snooze button one too many times? Ever wondered if you snores are as loud as your partner says they are? Or maybe you just want to know how to get the most out of your eight hours, then this is the app for you.
This is no ordinary alarm clock, and it does not just simply track your sleep cycles. Sleep as Android is an alarm clock and a sleep cycle tracker, that provides you with a variety of options to ensure you’re getting a good night’s sleep.
Praised for its gentle alarm feature and CAPTCHA alarms, Sleep as Android is the perfect app for those of us who enjoy tracking our sleep patterns or who just need a more efficient way to get out of bed on time. The gentle alarm feature will pull you gently from your slumber, which will help your mood and productivity. The CAPTCHA alarm feature helps your brain get moving by providing a simple mind game, or math equation before shutting off the sound of your alarm. All features allow you to choose your own sound to wake up to, or lullabies for when its time to fall asleep, and it even has features that will record your sleep talk or snoring. All you have to do is download the app and lay your phone next to you while you’re sleeping, which if you’re glued to your phone like most people, is not a problem.
Citymapper
For some people it's an annoyingly all too familiar scenario: you're in a strange part of town, it's late and you have no idea how to get home.
Citymapper is an app designed to “make cities easier to use,” by providing help navigating the transit and transport around the big burgs. The app provides users with a step-by-step way to get from point A to B and real-time updates of all types of transportation, so if there is a delay on the Victoria line, you’ll know before walking all the way to the platform. Unfortunately, the app only provides information on the cities of London and New York but there are plans for expansion.
As with any good app, users have the option to personalize their Citymapper account. Set favourite locations, a “home” destination, and it will even give you location based weather reports. Rave reviews pour in from places like the NY Times and other big name publication, solidifying this app as a must-have for city goers and travellers alike.
Your Wealth
Your Wealth is an app for anyone who wants to better understand his or her finances (or perhaps lack thereof). This app helps users understand, manage and plan their finances by tracking their salary, savings and spending.
The app tracks not only your financial data, but also trends and news in the financial world itself. Within the app users can set goals for themselves, and even calculate their net worth through the safe and secure Money Hub tool. By entering your information Your Wealth can track the changing value of your assets and liabilities, and give you a possible outcome for the future.
Just Eat
It’s 9.30 on a Saturday night, it’s pouring with rain and your fridge is empty. Yeah, you could order from that same old boring Chinese place from around the corner, but they take forever to deliver and their dumplings taste like feet. Or, you could browse through the menus of over 17,000 takeaway restaurants from around the UK.
Just Eat is a free app that allows users to scroll through menus of nearby takeaway restaurants to find just the right food they’re craving. The app provides you with thousands of places to choose from, all with reviews from other users covering both the food itself and the service. Once you’ve made your decision, place your order and either pick it up or have it delivered straight to your door.
This app eliminates the need to keep all of those takeaway menus or post notes of telephone numbers in your kitchen junk drawer because it gives you names, numbers and locations of all the places to eat. Just Eat also allows users to filter their searches by cuisine, reviews or specific restaurant names. As long as you have your hunger, a postcode and some type of payment you’re good to go.
MixBit
MixBit is a video-editing app that allows you to take several short clips (up to 16 seconds in length) and knit them together to make one long video. As well as making your own unique content you can collaborate with other users and ‘remix’ their clips or pick and choose pieces of their content to use in your own movies.
Fixie GIF Camera
This cool little app allows you to shoot short GIFs straight from your device’s camera and even lets you add annotations and borders to them to make them more attractive. It also lets you share your cute and funny clips straight to Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and Tumblr from within the app and you can even take a look at other people’s Fixies for a little inspiration.
Persist + (Volume Control)
Persist + gives you a higher level of control over your device, allowing you to adjust the volume for every app you use, as well as allowing you to create timed presets which will automatically adjust your volumes when you need it to, meaning you’ll never have to worry about a loud alert going off just at the wrong time.
This is an oldie but a goody. With Pocket, you can save pages and articles to read later, without having to mess around emailing URLs. Simply tap the icon and you’re good to go, they’ll even sync themselves to your PC for reading at a later date. Described as a ‘DVR for the web’, you can even view pages offline, and all for the princely sum of zero pounds.
Feedly
Google Reader is dead. But who cares, right? Now we have Feedly, and it’s so much better with its frequent updates, easy to use UX, and added bonus features which become available should you decide to go Pro. Feedly is the application Google Reader could have been. Simply put: this is a must have for anyone interested in current events, news and the like.
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