Author: Nayar

Published on by Nayar

Clementine: The Best Music Player for Linux

Almost all music players in Linux are either bloated or ugly and sometimes both. Clementine Music Player is a super hero to me. It’s fast, clean and very powerful. It is based on Amarok (which i didn’t like though).

A pretty OSD appears after each song starts playging anywhere you want on the screen. I’ve set mine at the top-right corner. You can also set the OSD colour to Orange. Both look simply awesome.

On the left panel, you will find 2 tabs tab which are called “Song Info” and “Artist Info”. When you click on Song Info, the lyrics and background information on the song playing is fetched from the Internet such as sites as metrolyrics.com and wikia.com. It’s a really great feature. On the Artist info tabs, some pictures and biography of the artist is displayed.

Another cool feature is the icon in the system tray. When a song starts playing, the icon is fully coloured. As when the song progresses, its gets decolorised according to the position of the song.

However, there are some things i don’t like about the player (it is the case for almost all Linux players i came across). The shuffling is as if static. Take for example Clementine played the following songs in this order when shuffling was on:

C >> B >> D >> A

If i want to re-listen to song B after song A, i have to press the Back Button twice on my keyboard. But when song B finishes, song D and A would play again before a new song (e.g. F) is played. Sometimes i get really addicted to a song which i want to listen again and again. But there is currently no way to enable some sort of ‘Shuffling on the Fly’ method.

If you want to try this music player, click here and enjoy. 🙂

Windows guys/gals can also download this player. 😉

Published on by Nayar

LG T310i

NOTE: This was in my draft since 2011. Decided to just publish as is in 2017

This low-end mobile phone is among the rarest mobile phones to have built-in WiFi module in its category. It stands with pride among the other low-end phones. You get the feeling that it is the best mobile for money. I think this is not the case though.

Screen:-

It is a resistive touchscreen of the size 2.8″ with a resolution of 240×320. The screen is quite responsive to the touch and you get used to it quite easily. The image quality is good. The screen is usable under direct sunlight without much difficulty (testing need)

Music:-

The MP3 functionality is great. It has shuffle and repeat options as all mobile have. The player doesn’t take much time to load as i guess it indexes the memory card which is a good thing. You can control the player from a widget on the home screen. It’s nice. The phone has dedicated volume buttons. Most importantly, it has a 3.5mm earphone jack which can be used to connect most of the earphones on the market.

Camera:-

It has a 2MP camera. The picture quality is quite good.

Video Camera:-

It takes videos of resolution of 320p. Anyways, low-end phones are not meant for video capturing.

Contacts management:-

It is rather easy to manage contacts. You can save lots of personal details about an individual such as his emails, address, birthday, etc. You can backup all your contacts on your memory card in case of data loss. You can also export your whole contact list to your PC through bluetooth (confirm).

WiFi:-

Well, all the above features mentioned have become quite the norm nowadays. The feature which make the LG T310i stand out of the crowd is it WiFi capabilities.

 

 

Published on by Nayar

A Tiny Comparison between Google+ and Facebook

I managed to get into the new social networking site Google+. Some people say it is THE Facebook-Killer. Is it really so? I made a tiny comparison of both sites:

Privacy:-

Google+ definitely has a better privacy options than Facebook. You can post materials which only people of selected groups or circles can see. Therefore your boss or relatives won’t be able to spy on you as they did before. If you are concerned a lot for your privacy, i would recommend you to switch to Google+ now. But still, you should always be careful on any social site and don’t do stupid things which you might regret later.

Friends and Contacts:-

Google+ doesn’t have a thing knows as “Friend Request”. You can add anyone in your circle and the other person would just be notified about it. He or she wouldn’t be obliged to add you to his or her circle. It’s a bit like twitter. I really miss the Facebook friends system. It seemed more natural and exciting.

Universality:-

Facebook seems to be a more universal platform. You can join Facebook with any email account e.g. gmail, yahoo, hotmail or even your own personalised mail. However, Google+ is for gmail users only (atleast for now).

Stupid Apps and Peoples:-

Google+ fans say that Google+ doesn’t have the Farmville, daily love percentage guys and apps. Therefore it’s cooler. But when Facebook was newly created, it was like this too. Instead of me moving to another social networking site, why not send the farmville guys to Google+ and i enjoy my current location? 😛 j/k

Chat and Video:-

Facebook has recently introduced Video Chat. It has also enabled adding more people to a current chat. Google+ and GMail had these feature long time ago. But most of my friends are on Facebook the majority of time. Therefore, Facebook chat and video FTW!!!

Webmasters:-

Google+ has re-invented the wheel once again. The same coolness at the start which might get bloated later. Webmasters would have to add the Google +1 button and work on Google Friend Connect services just like Facebook Like button and Facebook Connect. The Facebook APIs change very often. It is difficult for webmasters to keep up with the changes. But now, we will have to follow the Google APIs too. Just PITA! 🙁

Conclusion:-

Google+ has lots of potential but i prefer my gud ole Facebook. It is just eye candy except it’s improved privacy. It is also helping Facebook to improve itself as competition increases innovation 😀

Published on by Nayar

Facebook Introduces Video Call

Facebook recently introduced Video Call Feature. It install very quickly and is very easy to use. All you have to do is to click on the video button and follow the instructions.

Testing the Video Call:

My friend’s webcam was not too gud (VGA) and there was lots of noise in the sound. Lots of lag. Anyways, we managed to have a little conversation despite all these.

This feature is currently NOT available on linux. I had to switch to windows 7 to try it. Hope they make a linux version soon.

Enjoy!