Is Your Valentine Actually Royalty? 4 Apps That Reveal Your Partner's Secret Title (Warning: You Might Be Dating Your 10th Cousin!)

Is your Valentine’s Day date a simple meeting of hearts, or a merger of two ancient dynasties? While we treat the 14th of February as a modern holiday, the secrets of your romantic future may actually be hidden in your ancestral past. In an era where data meets destiny, a new wave of genealogical technology is allowing couples to look beyond the surface and uncover hidden royal lineages, warrior clan connections, and even accidental 'genetic overlaps.' From tracing 1.6 billion historical records to analyzing cosmic compatibility through digital Kundlis, this is how you can use the power of lineage tech to find out if your Valentine's date is truly your 'chosen one' or a 'secret heir'.

iMeUsWe: A dual-purpose platform for tracing lineage and analyzing relationship compatibility. Users can explore over 1.6 billion historical records to build family trees and uncover ancestral connections. Beyond genealogy, the app’s astrology module provides Kundli and Marriage Reports, offering insights into partner traits, financial alignment, and marital compatibility. Users can also access a free compatibility test for a modern, data-driven look at their romantic connections.

Kulvriksh: This is one of the most popular India-specific apps for deep lineage research. It allows users to build family trees that specifically track traditional markers like Gotra, Kuldevi, and native villages. It features a "Community Tree" that helps you discover long-lost relatives by matching your family data against its growing database of Indian families.

AstroSage: For those focused on the "compatibility" side of your project, AstroSage is a leading choice. It offers comprehensive Kundli Matching (Guna Milan) and AI-driven horoscopes. Its "AstroSage Cloud" feature allows you to store birth charts for your entire family lineage, making it a digital repository for ancestral astrological data.

Kintree: Positioned as a "social media for families, Kintree is available in 12 Indian languages. It focuses on private family collaboration, allowing multi-generational members to contribute photos and stories to a shared tree. It is particularly useful for modern Indian families who are spread across different cities or countries but want to maintain a single "family room".

Dukaan - an app to save Indian businesses in COVID-19 lockdown

Helps create online store in 30 seconds for free, has helped over 1,50,000 stores across 40 different categories

Satara-based engineer Suumit Shah, found a solution for all those small businesses that were affected by lockdown and could not conduct any sales. In the month of July, in the middle of the lockdown, he launched an android app called Dukaan to help businesses across India sell online, without using heavy technology.

Today, Dukaan now has over 1,50,000 stores created online, over 5,00,000 products have been added across 40 different categories of businesses. Over 400 cities covered by the app and they have received more than 75,000 orders. In short, the app is helping create a large impact across the country and making 'Digital India' truly come to life.

The USP of Dukaan is its simplicity. "We have a 16-year-old kid who helped his Dad set up online Rakhi store in Gorakhpur, and also a 59-year-old wholesaler from Surat who sells beauty products to barbers online with help of Dukaan," says Suumit Shah, founder. "There is no platform which is as easy as using Google Pay for creating online stores - that's exactly what Dukaan wants to become. We offer Desi Bharosa with World-Class technology, we believe that through platforms like Dukaan, we can truly create a digital India," Suumit added.

Dukaan was conceptualized when Suumit got a text from international brand Jockey's Bengaluru outlet that said: "We now start accepting orders on WhatsApp". At first, he was appalled to see that a brand like Jockey could sell on WhatsApp. But then he realized that there was an opportunity to build an easy-to-use platform for small and medium businesses and help them go online. Within the next 48 hours, Suumit, along with his team Subhash Choudhary, Kaustub Pandey and Anuraag Meena, built Dukaan - an android app which lets anyone create their online store within 30 seconds

Founder Suumit Shah used to errands for a small store run by his uncle before getting an engineering degree. While pursuing the degree, he learned web design and web development from his room-mate in college. As a quick learner, Shah completed several digital marketing online courses online and started his own business by the name of Risemetric in 2014, with his existing CTO Subhash Choudhary - a college dropout turned into hardcore techie in 2014. He is one of the most successful digital entrepreneurs in the country helping brands like Sony, McDonald's, Oyo, Cred, etc. Their modest mannerism doesn't truly reflect his quick ascent into business and digital fame.

About Dukaan:

Dukaan is an app that allows offline stores to sell their products and services online through WhatsApp. It allows you to make catalogues of your products on your phone and allows it to share them with your customer. Dukaan caters to businesses like grocery shops, Restaurants, Fruits and vegetable stores, Electronics shops, clothes, jewelry and furniture stores.

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MapmyIndia Move wins prestigious Digital India Aatmanirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge

MapmyIndia, India’s pioneer and leader in digital mapping and advanced location-based and IoT technologies today announced that its flagship app, MapmyIndia Move, has been selected as #1 in the prestigious Digital India AatmaNirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge in its category, which has been organised by Government of India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in partnership with Atal Innovation Mission – to identify the best Indian Apps that are already being used by citizens and have the potential to scale and become world class Apps in their respective categories.

MapmyIndia Move is India's super app for maps, mobility, safety, hyper local social discovery & more that comes built in with India's most detailed, accurate, comprehensive, continuously updated and feature-rich maps from MapmyIndia. MapmyIndia has been building the most intelligent and versatile digital maps of India including detailed doorstep/house address level and fully 3D real-time hyperlocal maps and advanced location-based technologies since 25 years, far before any international provider started offering solutions for India.

Rakesh Verma, Chairman and Managing Director, MapmyIndia said "25 years ago, our vision that someday 80% of all data would have a location component, and our desire to build something that could benefit all of India, led us to build the best digital map product for the country and world-class advanced location-based technologies. We have always believed in Aatmanirbhar and as a company, have since the beginning focused on building indigenous technologies and remained profitable. MapmyIndia knows India better, which is reflected in the better detail and localisation of our intelligent maps and app, and we do not use user's data for advertising, unlike global search giants, making MapmyIndia Move a better, safer and more intelligent alternative for Indians. We need the support of all of you - users and the government - to use and encourage the use of MapmyIndia, be vocal for local and help us go local se global. We thank the Government of India for recognising us as a winner in the Aatmanirbhar Bharat App Challenge".

Maps are used extensively by crores of individuals and lakhs of small and large organisations depend on maps for various use cases. Now, Indians know that India has its own fully indigenous app in the form of MapmyIndia Move, which is more secure and respects user privacy compared to the global search giants, does not exploit user data for advertising, and offers much more precise and comprehensive intelligent, hyper local maps, and delivers many more features and benefits.

MapmyIndia Move, in one app itself, offers

• India’s best 3D and house-level maps with voice-guided navigation
• Remote GPS tracking of vehicles through connected GPS IoT gadgets
• Corona-related hyper-local information such as nearby containment zones, testing centres, treatment hospitals and isolation wards to help users stay safe.
• Live safety alerts about upcoming potholes, speed breakers and accident prone zones during navigation
• Precise directions to the exact doorstep of buildings through house number maps and the revolutionary eLoc, a 6-character unique location ID for every place across the country which simplifies India's complex addressing system
• Community reporting of hyper local issues on the map to help authorities fix issues by citizens on-ground, and
• Hyper local social networking and discovery features through My World View to help people stay connected with people, places, things and information around them in real-time.
• A super app platform, which allows multiple apps to be integrated into the MapmyIndia Move app by leveraging MapmyIndia’s APIs, giving users continuously increasing features and functionality.

For this nation wide competition, 24 finalists across 9 categories were selected from amongst 6940 entries received from across India. In MapmyIndia’s category there were 1200 apps out of which MapmyIndia was given 1st prize! Some of the other winners included prestigious apps such as Zoho.

MapmyIndia Move app's presentation to the jury, which was very well received by all, is available to view at https://youtu.be/jC0UfUEhuAo.

The announcement of MapmyIndia as the winner in this video, is available to view at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz4DHBimzb4&feature=youtu.be (skip to 9:41).

MapmyIndia's cutting edge technologies and maps are used by 5000 enterprise customers across the public and private sector. 80% of all cars in India with navigation systems use MapmyIndia, and thousands of the large and small technology companies and app developers use MapmyIndia's APIs and solutions, leading to 20 crore Indians benefitting from MapmyIndia's maps and technologies.

Founded & headquartered in New Delhi in 1995 by IIT Roorkee Alumnus Rashmi Verma (currently Executive Director), and BITS Pilani graduate Rakesh Verma (currently Chairman & MD), MapmyIndia pioneered digital mapping in India 25 years ago, built India’s first interactive map portal (MapmyIndia.com) in 2004, built the first All India GPS Navigation system (MapmyIndia Navigator) in 2007. MapmyIndia continues to build many other India-first, world-first and world-class cutting-edge technological innovations

SBI To Launch All-in-One Comprehensive Mobile App Called YONO

State Bank of India (SBI) is all set to launch India’s first comprehensive digital service platform, YONO, which stands for ‘You Only Need One’.

An integrated omni-channel digital platform that offers just about everything related to financial services and lifestyle products, YONO will be launched by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in New Delhi on November 24.

Offering the millennials banking and financial services, YONO will allow its customers to meet their lifestyle needs across 14 categories including booking and renting cabs, entertainment, dining experience, travel and stay, medical needs and so on.

For the digital platform, SBI has partnered with over 60 e-commerce players to provide customized offers and discounts to its users.

Some of the key e-commerce partners include Amazon, Uber, Ola, Myntra, Jabong, Shoppers Stop, Cox & Kings, Thomas Cook, Yatra, Airbnb, Swiggy and Byjus, among others.

“Customers will be able to seamlessly access lifestyle offerings and financial services with a single user id and password. The portal has been designed to offer maximum customer convenience where each journey has been designed with minimum possible clicks with easy to understand descriptions,” said chairman SBI, Rajnish Kumar.

“We believe this app will help us increase engagement with our customers and enhance their banking,” added Kumar.
YONO is a path breaking comprehensive digital product from SBI developed using the world’s latest digital technologies such as AI, predictive analytics and machine learning.

With YONO, customers can open a bank account with SBI digitally in less than five minutes, transfer funds in just a few clicks, avail pre-approved personal loan sans any paperwork, get overdraft facility against fixed deposit, have one view of their banking and financial portfolio of SBI Group companies, benefit from intelligent spend analyser, and utilise conversational banking guide through ‘Chat bot’.

The service platform can be accessed through mobile phones, both android and iOS, and on the web through a browser. It allows a seamless omni-channel customer experience

Uber starts uberAUTO service in Bhubaneswar, Coimbatore

Uber Technologies , the online transportation network giant on Friday launched UberAuto in  Bhubaneswar and Coimbatore to provide cheap transportation to riders in the city.

Company's official statement said ,UberAUTO was introduced to provide a cheaper transportation option to riders in Coimbatore, especially when they have to make short trips like going to grocery store or getting back home from bus stops .

Mahesh Muraleedharan, General Manager of Uber South Expansion said  ,"UberAUTO will work exactly like the other option, uberGO, on the app and riders can request for an autorickshaw ride by tapping the uberAUTO icon and can pay for their rides via cash, e-wallet or Debit/Credit card" .

"For a city like Coimbatore, where the landscape is not too big, it's easier to get around in autos especially for errands like going to the Bank or the grocery store," he said.

The product will also give auto drivers an opportunity to work more efficiently using technology to get more ride requests and optimize productivity.

"We're also excited to give autorickshaw drivers an opportunity to earn more, with the backing of technology to get more rides," he added.

In December 2015, Uber had stopped its auto rickshaw-hailing service in Delhi just seven months into the ride.

What's your view on Uber's this expansion to cities like  Bhubaneswar, Coimbatore ,Please let us know in comment section below.

10 Best Mobile Apps For Women Safety In India

The safety of women has always been a critical issue in our country. And with the rise in the number of incidents that took place last year, this has become an, even more, serious issue which needs to be rectified as soon as possible. The situation has become so deplorable that India ranks amongst the top ten countries in the world that are considered unsafe or dangerous for women. You can find safety tips online for women who are looking to travel in India, a country where women are worshipped as Goddesses. We need to effectuate a change in the situation so that our own women do not feel unsafe. The situation has become so alarming that women today are always on the lookout, always on the defensive. We need to use all tools that are available at our disposal to make it a safe and secure environment for our women. These entrepreneurs feel the same way and have come up with apps that might help make a woman feel more at ease.

1. Go Suraksheit, Hughes Systique India Private Limited

   This is an application that gets you help in case of an emergency. It has 4 features that let your friends and family know that you are in danger. As soon as you press the help button, these four things will occur:
   • An SMS is sent to 10 contacts in your phone that you can program beforehand itself. The message contains you exact location on a map with a link to the same.
   • It updates your Facebook status with the same information.
   • It sends a call to a pre-provisioned emergency number.
   • A loud alarm starts playing on your phone to attract the attention of anyone in the vicinity.

2. Safetipin

   Safetipin is one of the good options when it comes to safety apps for women. The app is designed keeping in mind the concept of personal safety. It incorporates all the essential features such as GPS tracking, emergency contact numbers, directions to safe locations etc. The app also pins the safe areas along with their safety scores to go at the time of any problem. It also enables the users to pin unsafe areas and help others. Safetipin is available in Hindi, Bahasa and Spanish, besides English.

3. FightBack, Tech Mahindra

   This application was developed by CanvasM Technologies. It is a subsidiary of Tech Mahindra. Apart from the function of sending messages to contacts in a situation of imminent danger, it also warns the user about places on the Google map that might be unsafe, based on the past SOS alert data.

4. Ridesafe

   This one great app with a unique concept that can help women feel safer when they are travelling alone. It is very easy to use, just like the google maps. All you need to do it put in your destination and it also gives you the option of sharing your ride with any of your contacts so that they can track your position. Also, this app has a distinctive feature that detects route deviation. This is caught by their system and they inform your contacts and also contact the authorities and alert them of the situation. This is a must have app for all the women out there.

5. TellTail

   A creation of DIMTS (Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System Ltd.), the application allows the user to be tracked through the GPS on their phone or the vehicle. The user can send instant alerts to a chosen group of contacts as well. The app lets your location be known even if there is no GPS on your cell phone as location can be monitored using the vehicle’s GPS.

6. PanicGuard -

   This is one app that does the full emergency workup. It is active the entire duration of the emergency and sends out audio-visual alerts to the provided contacts and the police as well. You just need to turn on the app and shake your phone and the alerts will start going.

7. SafeTrac

   SafeTrac is a mobile app that sends a message and an email with the precise location of the user in danger to his/her pre-defined contacts. Moreover, it has another feature which provides alert or admonition to users if they are entering an unsafe area based on the reviews from other users.

8. One Touch SOS -

   It's function is similar to the other apps as it sends a message to the user's contacts if the user presses the button on his/her phone indicating they are in danger and need help. The difference here is that you can select only three contacts to which messages can be sent.

9. Nirbhaya: Be Fearless

   This app works on the same basic principle as the other apps with some additional features. It was developed by Pune-based SmartCloud Infotech. It sends messages with location updates to predefined SMS contact groups, Facebook wall and secured web portal. The user can either shake the phone or use a simple click to send alert messages to their predefined contacts.

10. SafeBridge -

    This is another personal safety app. It sends a message with the users' GPS location to a list of trusted contacts in case of an emergency. It also has an I am a safe button, that the users can use to tell their contacts if the danger has been averted. This app does not require the presence of internet to function at all.

App downloads in India to cross 9 billion by 2015: ASSOCHAM

The app market is booming like never before. Nowadays we have an app for almost everything. There's an app to count your calorie intake, to measure your water intake, to help you find a cab and even an app to give you a time to time update about the traffic crisis on your route. These apps have surely made our lives much easier and faster.

With innumerous useful apps being launched every day, it comes as no surprise that the number of app downloads in our country will cross the 9 billion mark by 2015. This figure was revealed in an Assocham-Deloitte joint study. The 9 billion figure would be a big increase as the number of app downloads in India stood at a mere 1.56 billion in the year 2012.

A mobile application is basically a computer program which is designed to run on tablet computers, smartphones and other such mobile devices.

The Assocham-Deloitte joint study was conducted among people aged 16-30 years. According to the study, creating appropriate applications and local language content for each market, awareness and user education could result in generating greater opportunities media & entertainment and telecom industry.

The study also revealed that the recent consumer shift towards mobility devices and applications from fixed products and services provides an opportunity to equipment manufacturers, marketers and content and technology providers to accelerate the pace of development of mobile solutions.

The recent move to cloud services and mobile devices has benefitted technology providers with more and new opportunities to create better and closer relations with their customers and increase customer loyalty.

According to the study, monetization plays a big role for both global and local mobile game developers trying to enter the Indian market as India is still a price sensitive society where a majority does not prefer paying for mobile games and downloading large sized games despite of low internet plans and cheap gaming rates.

Mobile gaming has gained a great momentum in the gaming world. While technology giant, Apple offers community based experience with applications such as Game Centre which can be easily accessed on the company’s iPhones and iPads, Windows Smartphones on the other hand have Xbox Live for its customers.

Top Image - Dianne Miller @Flickr

App downloads in India to cross 9 billion by 2015: ASSOCHAM

The app market is booming like never before. Nowadays we have an app for almost everything. There's an app to count your calorie intake, to measure your water intake, to help you find a cab and even an app to give you a time to time update about the traffic crisis on your route. These apps have surely made our lives much easier and faster.

With innumerous useful apps being launched every day, it comes as no surprise that the number of app downloads in our country will cross the 9 billion mark by 2015. This figure was revealed in an Assocham-Deloitte joint study. The 9 billion figure would be a big increase as the number of app downloads in India stood at a mere 1.56 billion in the year 2012.

A mobile application is basically a computer program which is designed to run on tablet computers, smartphones and other such mobile devices.

The Assocham-Deloitte joint study was conducted among people aged 16-30 years. According to the study, creating appropriate applications and local language content for each market, awareness and user education could result in generating greater opportunities media & entertainment and telecom industry.

The study also revealed that the recent consumer shift towards mobility devices and applications from fixed products and services provides an opportunity to equipment manufacturers, marketers and content and technology providers to accelerate the pace of development of mobile solutions.

The recent move to cloud services and mobile devices has benefitted technology providers with more and new opportunities to create better and closer relations with their customers and increase customer loyalty.

According to the study, monetization plays a big role for both global and local mobile game developers trying to enter the Indian market as India is still a price sensitive society where a majority does not prefer paying for mobile games and downloading large sized games despite of low internet plans and cheap gaming rates.

Mobile gaming has gained a great momentum in the gaming world. While technology giant, Apple offers community based experience with applications such as Game Centre which can be easily accessed on the company’s iPhones and iPads, Windows Smartphones on the other hand have Xbox Live for its customers.

Top Image - Dianne Miller @Flickr

Develop your own Mobile App using txtWeb!

txtWeb, which is a global text-based applications platform recently came up with ‘Build Your First App’ feature. If you have an idea, they have all the required skills and tools to make your idea come alive. According to txtWeb, the action is aimed at encouraging people whether working professionals or students from any academic background whatsoever to build their own unique Apps on the platform.

The USP of this ‘Build Your First App’ initiative is that, it even allows people with no prior knowledge or background of coding to turn their App ideas from an idea into a reality.  The mission of the initiative is to broaden the bank of developers available in the market currently and also to make the tedious task of creating an App easier.

The procedure involved is very simple. Any individual with a unique idea has to just simply log onto txtWeb, and then follow some easy instructions and just like that, within some minutes they will be able to create an App which can be consumed by cell phone users all over India. Plus there is a bonus too; people who are successfully able to publish their Apps on the platform by June 15, 2014 will be conferred with special recognition as txtWeb certified developers.

According to Aminish Sharma, Head of Technology, txtWeb, there are many creative and enthusiastic minds out there who are not able to fulfill their dreams due to lack of skills and ‘Build Your First App’ is designed to make their dreams come true.  He further adds that he is looking forward to seeing a variety of innovative apps making their way in the App market through their initiative.

txtWeb the brain behind this initiative is said to be the world’s largest and most popular app store for text-based apps that works across almost every messaging platform. It prides itself on being able to provide information to people with the most basic or simple mobile phones with no data plan or GPRS. The information provided could range from traffic to cricket updates or from local news to weather updates and much more. txtWeb has also won many awards like Aegis Graham Bell Award, Zinnov Award, NASSCOM Innovation Award and mBillionth award 2012 for its outstanding services.

Develop your own Mobile App using txtWeb!

txtWeb, which is a global text-based applications platform recently came up with ‘Build Your First App’ feature. If you have an idea, they have all the required skills and tools to make your idea come alive. According to txtWeb, the action is aimed at encouraging people whether working professionals or students from any academic background whatsoever to build their own unique Apps on the platform.

The USP of this ‘Build Your First App’ initiative is that, it even allows people with no prior knowledge or background of coding to turn their App ideas from an idea into a reality.  The mission of the initiative is to broaden the bank of developers available in the market currently and also to make the tedious task of creating an App easier.

The procedure involved is very simple. Any individual with a unique idea has to just simply log onto txtWeb, and then follow some easy instructions and just like that, within some minutes they will be able to create an App which can be consumed by cell phone users all over India. Plus there is a bonus too; people who are successfully able to publish their Apps on the platform by June 15, 2014 will be conferred with special recognition as txtWeb certified developers.

According to Aminish Sharma, Head of Technology, txtWeb, there are many creative and enthusiastic minds out there who are not able to fulfill their dreams due to lack of skills and ‘Build Your First App’ is designed to make their dreams come true.  He further adds that he is looking forward to seeing a variety of innovative apps making their way in the App market through their initiative.

txtWeb the brain behind this initiative is said to be the world’s largest and most popular app store for text-based apps that works across almost every messaging platform. It prides itself on being able to provide information to people with the most basic or simple mobile phones with no data plan or GPRS. The information provided could range from traffic to cricket updates or from local news to weather updates and much more. txtWeb has also won many awards like Aegis Graham Bell Award, Zinnov Award, NASSCOM Innovation Award and mBillionth award 2012 for its outstanding services.

Useful Mobile App from Delhi Traffic Police Launched for Public

Delhi's traffic police has launched a new DTP mobile application for public use, to facilitate dissemination of vital traffic information to public persons and obtained complaints/suggestions from them through electronic/web connectivity.

The mobile app is useful in a way that its users can not only get information about traffic alerts and advisories. Users can also see fare and distance calculator while using auto-rickshaw, taxi and radio cab, can lodge complaints against autos, taxi in case of harassment, overcharging and misbehave.

The app helps its users in locating nearest pit for vehicles towed away by Traffic police when parked illegally. Also users can make direct calls to emergency numbers in case of exigency and can also see FAQ about Delhi Traffic Police and the provided services.

Currently the app is available for download from Google Play Store for Android mobile phone users and very soon shall also be available on Windows and Apple Store.

Additionally, Delhi Traffic Police has also upgraded the existing Website to include detailed information about various aspects of traffic management which include prosecution statistics, congestion points, areas prone to water logging, location/coding and phasing diagrams of traffic signals, accident prone areas, road safety activities, traffic engineering related issues, jurisdictional information, status of e-challans, vital traffic corridors, information about traffic offices and officers etc.


This is another attempt from Delhi police in providing e-services to citizens of Delhi after successful Facebook ad twitter interface.

The Next Generation ICQ launched for iOS

Mail.Ru Group's Instant Messaging Department launched next generation ICQ for iOS. The new ICQ has a new light and fresh design. Every single one of the app’s features has changed visually. The latest version supports video calls, group chats, and access via a telephone number.

The new ICQ is already available in the App Store and Google play store for Android devices.

The ability to make free video calls is one of the major technical updates. During a call, a user can switch from audio to video mode simply by turning on the camera. In addition, at any moment during a call you can switch from the front camera to the rear camera by touching the image on the screen.

The new version of ICQ lets you chat with a group of friends by either selecting all of the participants right from the start or by adding any number of new participants to an existing chat. You can change a group chat’s title at any moment or invite new participants to join the chat.

To sign in or sign up for ICQ, confirm your phone number and start communicating. Developers have preserved the UIN and mailbox address access options for ICQ users.

Users’ contact list shows who has already installed ICQ. Additionally, the new version enables sending a message to any of the contacts in the list – regardless of whether they use ICQ. The message will be sent as a free SMS. Response will appear in the conversation window.



Besides the usual photo and video options, the new version supports sending any file type, such as DOC or PDF. Moreover, photos and videos can be created within the ICQ app. The developers have also added a lot of free colorful stickers to the standard emoticons.

The app’s new design includes new wallpaper for chats, which can be installed for each conversation individually or for all of them. Users can install any of their own pictures as a background, or choose from a pre-installed gallery of images.

ICQ is already available to Windows and Mac users, as well as mobile devices based on all the popular platforms (iOS, Android, Samsung Bada, Symbian, Java, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone).

ICQ’s total monthly audience in Russia is 6.7 million users (11 million worldwide).  18.8 million people worldwide use Mail.Ru Agent every month.

 

6 Mobile Web Usability Tips

Mobile internet browsing is expected to turn into the next major internet platform. It is now easy to browse the internet from any location through the mobile devices because of the amazing mobile technology.

At times, a mobile website might fall short in usability and implementation; because of this browsing the mobile websites might become a difficult task for the people. A mobile website design needs to be simple in comparison to the standard website and more task based in order to get the job done as the mobile users generally look for something that is more specific and urgent.

The mobile website design should be done in a way that constitutes the bare minimum of the available space. The prominent content should be given priority and the overall mobile website should be interesting for the users. Make sure that you are avoiding large images and flash animation as it will result in slowing down of your website.

Keep in mind that the functionality of the mobile website is more important than the style of the mobile website. If your mobile website is not coded and designed perfectly, it might look good on one phone; however, it might look worst on any other mobile handset. Before making the mobile website live, make sure to test, validate and check in order to see if it works properly on different mobile handsets. It is essential to create a website that is accessible on desktop, laptops, tablets and mobile devices as well.

Here are some important factors to be considered for a mobile website design.

Decide On The Screen Resolution

The mobile world consists of various web design considerations including different screen sizes, resolutions and a wide range of shapes. It is important to strike a balance between appropriate screen width and the volume of audience. Figure out the specs of the current mobile devices and use your best judgment. The most challenging factor for mobile developers is to decide on a way through which the website will be displayed appropriately across multiple screen sizes without recreating any web pages for different platforms.

Break Up The Web Pages Into Small Parts

Reading the lengthy sections of text can be a difficult task; therefore, placing them on multiple pages restricts the scrolling to one direction. Do not post any low priority content. Maintain a single column of text that gets wrapped as well so that there is no scope for horizontal scrolling. This will also help the website to load faster.

Simplify The Design

In the case of a mobile website, simplicity is related to the better usability of the website. People should move around within your website with ease. Avoid incorporating frames, tables and other complex formatting. In case you are using padding, remember to restrict it to bare minimum that is far less than you would use for a normal web page. In comparison to desktop computers, the more you click the links on a mobile website, the more you have to wait for them to load. In light of this fact, it is important to simplify your mobile website design and create a balance between content and navigation.

Option To Check The Full Website

Provide a link for your mobile visitors to switch back to the full website so that they can view the other content and features that are only available on the desktop version of the website. Your visitors will be engaging in a lot of multiple scrolling, so make things easier for them by offering a ‘back to top’ option so that they can jump to the start of the page whenever required. For example, if you own an eCommerce website, then with a reseller hosting platform your full website will function efficiently displaying all the options and there will be no slow down in the website; however, this is not the cased with the mobile website. Therefore, you must provide a link to view the full website.

Website Navigation

Study your audience behavior and understand what they are looking for. Find out how they want to navigate your website. Place the navigation menu bellow the content if your targeted mobile users would like to see changing content quickly. The headline and content has to be visible first so that it does not get into the way of viewing the page content. For the users who wish to navigate on a particular category, position the navigation bar at the top of the page.

Use Of Text Links

Your main website might consist of fly-out menus and other fancy animations; however, a mobile browser will not be able to take that. Remember that the dynamic page elements and the graphical links consume a lot of resources therefore, it is better to opt for properly labeled text links.

When it comes to designing a mobile website, it is important to be creative. Focus on making your content compelling and usable as well. Understand your users and give them what they want. Users are not interested in digging deeper into the website for finding out things. In sort, your mobile website has to be simple as well as impressive.

This is a Guest Post by Kavita Menon:

Author Bio: prefer writing articles on topics related to technology, search engine optimization, social media and web hosting platforms like Windows hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting, reseller hosting and CMS hosting. My aim is to create informative articles that provide with value to the people.

Snap2life mobile app connects printed world to the web

Snap2Life is an augmented realty based mobile app that in short combines the printed world to the Web. The snap2life app detects preset images and links the user in seconds with defined websites, images and product videos or sweepstakes.

If you search something on Google it will show you results of probably million pages online and only from web world however all that is missing the print media and billboards, Snap2Life fill this gap and include print world too when you shot an image via this mobile app.

The Snap2Life App for iPhone and Android Devices link, the user through the photographing an image in seconds to image films, Product videos, websites or sweepstakes. The subject here is the key.

The snap (shot image) can be anything like the metro sign , the bus stop , the fast-food chain , the drugstore chain, petrol station brand, the parking sign , the logo of the road card provider , a snap of the cinema chain or a newspaper logos. Snap2Life app will than you the results page with result from not just online content but it could be from print world too like - calendar,newspapers, magazines, catalogs and posters which will vary depending upon the shot images.

The company claims that Snap2Life is better than a QR Code since they just need the motive and no special code. The company explains that magazines, catalogs or posters are read on daily by millions of people however related content and offers can not be made ​​available to them when they read them, Snap2Life does this by creates a direct link between a subject (image captured by mobile via Snap2Life app) and its associated online content.

The app is developed by Prisma Global Limited based out of Mumbai and Berlin and the company has also won The Mobby 2013 award acknowledged as a distinctive mobile application in the Augmented Realty sector and was accepted as the most innovative and state-of-the-art technology. The company was recognized for the 'Best use of mobile media in advertisement' in the category of Marketing and Advertising.

Kochi based Sentinel bags U.N. award for intelligent app

An app developed by Kochi, India based student startup company Mindhelix Technosol bagged prestigious UN-sponsored award for its mobile app invention called - Sentinel. Sentinel is personal security app by MindHelix Technosol.

The app is runner-up of World Youth Award Summit 2013 in Power2Women category and only startup representing India. ‘Sentinel’ is among the 18 startups selected from among 400 entries for the awards which will be presented in Sri Lankan capital Colombo later this month.

Actually, the app Sentinel is an essential app for women especially in India, which in case of emergency send alerts to friends and family of sender. With just one click from the application and user send SMS, emails and Interactive Voice Response calls to all your emergency contacts making sure that you are safe.

The app also provide live tracking from the application that puts user in emergency situation over a map that is available only to emergency contacts with location, travel history, direction of travel and helps the first respondents to reach you as fast as possible.

The application triggers an alerts even if the user in not connected to internet by sending SMS with location to server. The interactive map gives information about the current location as well as location history. The application help achieves the six millennium goals of the UN that include women’s safety.

The app is available for Android as well for iPhone mobile users free of cost for limited time. The company behind the app is part of startup incubator center - The Startup Village, Kochi.

The student startup which developed this app is founded by Kallidil Kalidasan and Christin George. The company has also developed Sentinel Mobile Application for Corporates : Sentinel for Corporates is a mobile phone based personal security application to be used by the Corporate employees,  available on Android, iPhone and Windows Phone  8, the App constantly keeps track of each employee using GPS  and dynamic cell tower location services.

New Indian Passport Application App for Smartphones soon

Soon you can quickly fill passport application and apply for it via your smartphones and the updated application will be launching within time frame of 1-2 months. There won't be a new app but an additional features will be added to already available MEAIndia app.

The already available app by Ministry of External Affairs, Govt. of India called - MEAIndia available for Apple iOS and Android devices and at present, the app lets users look up general information, track their nearest passport center and police station, compute the required amount to be paid and track the status of the application.

We have reported in July that MEAIndia app will allow people in India to apply for passport through this app and that's too absolutely free. Today Ministry of External affairs and TCS confirmed it in making, developed by TCS which is ace software consultancy firm of India, the app will launch within one and half month as reported.

However as per procedure users still have to go to nearest Passport Seva Kendra along with the hard copies of the required documents after the ARN number is generated and an appointment is fixed.

Once the app is launched efficiency of app is still to be checked as most of the time the Gov. of India released an app the features used to be brilliant however there always been technical issues with them.

Block unwanted SMS/Call with SMS Blocker Mobile App

smsBlocker is an efficient Android & Symbian mobile application that blocks spam SMS automatically, it is designed to identify & distinguish between a spam and an important alert message and automatically block only spam SMS. The app also includes Call blocker & MMS blocker.

The app is available for free on Android whereas for Symbian mobile devices such as on Nokia Store it cost nominal Rs.15. Moreover available as free app for Android devices, the app claim itself to be Ads-free.

SMSBlocker blocks and filters SMS in the phone and not at mobile operator level thus the sender of the SMS will receive the SMS delivery report as usual. There is also an option to set tone for suspicious SMS pop-ups.The app block SMS based on number/phrase, content word or even by series though if you want you can see blocked SMS in 'Logs' with option to move to primary/main Inbox.

Via SMSBlocker you can block the SMS based on sender and/ or content & also create your own block lists and allow lists and have features like - daily block counter on home screen, Single-Click-Block, graphical UI, app auto-start, selective content filtering etc.

The app is developed by Pune based startup Optinno and has been awarded as winner of MIT Technology Review India. National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) has listed SMSBlocker app as one of the top-three mobile applications in India.

The app has got great response till date and made over a million downloads in Google play store and 30 per cent of the downloads are from outside India.

Official IRCTC app on Windows devices Launched to Book train tickets

Now you can plan your travel, book train tickets and do much more on-the-go, using your Windows Phone, Windows 8 tablet or PC. IRCTC has embarked on an application (app) journey, with the launch of the official IRCTC app. The app has been made available exclusively for Windows devices. It will be available throughout the day excepting 0800-1200 hrs and 2330-0030 hrs. You can download the IRCTC app at Windows Store and Windows Phone store.

IRCTC already have an app on Android platform, now the app has been launched on Windows platform as well, the app perform all the tasks already available on the IRCTC web site. Moreover you can also get other features including visual maps of train routes, Windows Phone live tiles lighting up as train tickets and access to saved traveler profiles from multiple devices among many others.

Announcing the availability of the app, Mr. Rakesh Tandon, CMD, IRCTC said, "We feel the app is ideal for the modern consumer who is always on the move. Windows is the most trusted and widely used platform and offers the requisite security required while handling vast amounts of personal and financial user data."

With IRCTC Windows app you can:

• Make train enquiries


• Plan your travel


• Make railway reservations


• Check PNR status


• Check booking/cancellation history


• Check ticket availability

The app lights up inbuilt features of your Windows 8 and Windows Phone devices to bring you a delightful experience. Destination names show up quickly, planning your journey, making train choices and booking tickets is more seamless and immersive.

Truecaller Database Cyber-attacked, Stole Some Data

Truecaller, apparently world's largest collaborative phone directory available as an app for iPhone, Android, Blackberry has been lately attacked by cyber-criminals that resulted in an unauthorized access to some data as per official statement given by truecaller, the access has been shut-down the moment it has been discovered by Truecaller.

Truecaller has presently managed have 18 million users and store more than 950 million phone numbers worldwide, the attackers if got succeeded then pretty good information might have got snatched from Truecaller, although Truecaller does not store passwords, credit card information, or any other sensitive information about our users.

Rumours have been there that attackers were able to access Truecaller user’s Facebook, Twitter and other social media passwords, however Truecaller denied the same, that attackers were able get some data but not any sort of sensitive information. Hackers represents Syrian Electronic Army, the attackers via their  twitter handle claimed to have recovered 459 GiBs of database, primarily due to an older version of Wordpress installation on the servers. The TrueCaller official however denied all this.

On the other hand attacker via their Twitter managed to reveal database, username and password of db through which they were able sneak into database of TrueCaller, ironically the password revealed by attackers is - google123, which is ultra simple to hack and shows  how Truecaller officials have taken technicalities for granted.

Trueacaller apart from being  an international phone directory of sorts that covers both fixed-line and mobile phones it also instantly allows to see who the caller is, blocks unwanted calls and more. After the attack the app company should now get more responsible considering the amount of users and phone number it has managed to gather till now.

Robosoft Got USD$372K Investment from Kalaari Capital (IndoUS Venture)

Udupi based mobile apps and games developments company Robosoft Technologies has raised Rs 22 Crore i.e. apprx. USD$ 372K  in a first round of funding from Kalaari Capital formerly IndoUS Ventures.

Robosoft focuses on creating mobile applications, or apps as they are popularly known as, for clients. It also creates its own apps through 99Games and Global Delight.

View press release below:

Press Release

UDUPI, India, July 1, 2013

Robosoft, a leading developer of mobile apps and games, today announced that the company has received funding from Kalaari Capital (formerly IndoUS Venture Partners) to accelerate growth and fund expansion. The new investment validates Robosoft's rise as one of the premier mobile application developers. It also boosts the company’s vision to be the Partner of Choice to implement and enhance mobile experiences to leading brands and enterprises the world over.

Robosoft builds delightful mobile experiences and engaging applications for the iOS, Android, and Windows platforms. The business had traditionally focused on the US market but is now gaining traction in Europe, Middle East, and India too.

"Robosoft has established some great partnerships in the last few years in the mobile space. We've achieved this with our focus on customer delight, engineering excellence, and investment in our people," said Rohith Bhat, Founder and CEO, Robosoft. "The new investment from Kalaari will help us turbocharge our growth in new markets and industry segments, add new sales, design, engineering talent to our team, and help us move toward a full-service model.

Traditionally known for it’s engineering capabilities, Robosoft started specializing on mobile a few years ago, and has since then helped numerous clients successfully develop and refine their mobile experiences. In this process, Robosoft has developed 1000+ applications, with a cumulative download of 100M+ apps. Over a hundred of these applications have been predominantly featured on the US app store under the 'New & Noteworthy' section. Several of these have won international acclaim including BAFTA, MacWorld Best of Show, DEMO, App Store Best of 2012 and Apple Design Award.

Commenting on the investment, Kumar Shiralagi, MD at Kaalari Capital said, "Robosoft's wealth of engineering talent, their successful track record of building consumer facing products for some of the best brands in the world and their leadership position in the mobile services segment got us interested. Equally enticing were their initiatives in building global IP like ‘WordsWorth’, ‘Camera Plus Pro’, ‘Game your Video’, ‘Boom’, and the amount of traction they already had there. Their clear vision for the future got us interested and we are confident about their ability to execute on that potential."

When Apple announced App Store in 2007, Robosoft was one of the first off the blocks to build apps that went live on Day 1. The success and traction that Robosoft saw in this space convinced it to launch its own fully-owned App subsidiary called Global Delight and also launch its fully-owned gaming subsidiary called 99Games Online. While initially financed by Robosoft's services business, these subsidiaries have gained significant traction over the years. Part of the current funding would go into marketing some path-breaking apps and games from these subsidiaries over the next 12 months.

About Robosoft:

Robosoft is a multiple awards winning developer of mobile apps and games, committed to crafting innovative products around emotions that compare with the best from across the world. With over 400 people, 100 Million+ App Downloads, 1000+ Apps produced and a portfolio spanning 16 Years of Work in the digital and technology domain, Robosoft has the depth of experience to build the next great product and the scale to simultaneously handle multiple assignments. www.robosoftin.com

About Kalaari Capital:

Kalaari Capital Advisors, formerly known as Indo US Venture Partners, is an India focused venture capital fund that recently raised $150M. The Kalaari team brings decades of experience as entrepreneurs, investors and executives to add value to emerging companies. Team members at Kalaari Capital have advised investments in more than 35 companies since 2006. www.kalaari.com

Source: Robosoft Technologies Pvt. Ltd