My Fav Music Sites/Apps

Posted on by Kaveh

Music websites now play more than just music. They play news, podcasts, speeches and radio shows. Music websites stream more than 5 billion hours of music every year. While many prefer specialized, premium music websites for peaceful listening, the rest of the world still listens to music from free sources. Here are the best music websites in the world.

Pandora

Pandora plays millions of pieces of music every year, entertaining people from all over the world. It analyses a person’s preference from thumps ups and thumbs down. The evaluation gained a lot of music listeners to visit the website often. It is known to have 8 billion likes for all the existing songs in Pandora right now. Every second, millions are listening through the website from different countries.

Spotify

Spotify is a Swedish based company that got famous after its release in the US. Its popularity made people from all around the world use it in spite of its presence only in few countries. Hence, Spotify expanded its range to many developing countries. Everything from audiobooks to local music is available. The suggested music from Spotify is analyzed by the history of the user.

Google Play

Google Play is installed for Android users. Released in 2008, google play is used both online and offline. However, the in-app purchases made most of the users to use the offline app. The app is scanned daily for viruses due to consistent music downloads. Android is used all around the world in 190 countries, so is google play usage.

Yahoo Music

Yahoo music supposedly has millions of users play music every day on its website. Personalizing playlists and surfing new music is user-friendly in yahoo music. There are millions of people showing customer loyalty, interest in yahoo websites, where it is simpler and faster to browser comparatively.

SoundCloud

The Germany based company, SoundCloud is a platform which makes every user feel like a community. It allows people to upload and share music. This encourages thousands of unknown talented artists to showcase their songs. It also has paid services, increasing the chances for people who are willing to highlight their music. It is amazing, how listeners and music creators come together on one platform. There is no doubt in SoundCloud being the best music website. Sometimes I throw it one when I am getting some Tinder swipes in.

Honorable Mentions

Other music websites have purchases or monthly subscriptions. Websites like Radio.com, Last.FM, Tunein and Jango are few other websites often visited by users. Some best music apps have paid music, which is not something everyone is willing to use. There are a lot of illegal music downloads due to a lack of knowledge on free websites available. Being a music lover doesn’t have to ruin the artist’s work. Pandora is currently available only in the U.S and it is natural for people to use it with a VPN. As Pandora is an officially free website it can be used by anyone. Day Trotter, Hype Machine and NPR music are popular among music fanatics who are willing to explore music in different ways.

Now you have an idea of some music apps that I like to mess with. They are some of the apps you will find me using most often. I also use a lot of dating apps and have some opinions on the best hookup apps vs. the best ones for regular dating. You may see a post about my favorite dating apps coming soon so stay tuned. … Read the rest

Best Maps/Gps Apps

Posted on by Kaveh

There is a wide array of maps that is being offered by Google in that you won’t need to look any further. In addition to the turn-by-turn directions it offers multiple view options with detailed route information as well as live traffic updates and everything else you would expect in a navigation App. Google maps does really offer almost everything that you need.

Incase you want to use the google map offline then you will need to download the area map that you greatly desire in advance. Incase you do that then you will not get those traffic updates in advance as they require more connection. Google maps have the ability to download multiple areas to your phone and in order to use Google maps one needs to use google maps in Wi – Fi mode only incase you have a spotty connection.

Many apps utilize the google maps API for their GPS and location needs as well. So technically you may be using google maps all the time indirectly without realizing it. Delivery apps use google maps API. Fuck book apps, dating and hookup apps all rely on this to connect people based on location.

Using google maps offline

Google maps also allow one to save your map on your external SD card. It comes in handy whenever you are not driving as it offers walking, cycling and public transport to your destinations. Data served explorers have more options to use Google maps than before due to the release of Google Maps Go which is basically a lighter version of the original map that allows one to conserve resources on your device. Even if it is offered for your smartphone one can still get it.

Waze

Waze is another popular application that features offline support. The popularity of Waze grew so rapidly that Google had to buy it. However, the two maps have been kept separately by big dogs at mountain view with some of the features starting to be passed on between the two services. Waze does offer built-in map downloading the same way google map does and you will still be able to get the job done without having internet connection.

All you need to do is open your Waze app and then press the search button that is located at the far bottom left corner of your screen. Tap settings that is located on the top right-hand corner and then display and map. Scroll down a little until you reach the data transfer and make sure that you download the traffic information. Whenever you are searching for a destination always make sure that destination or route data are stored so that you can use it when offline.

Sygic GPS Navigation and Maps

Sygic is one of the most popular offline navigation apps on Android and for a good reason. The app that is powered by Tom-Tom offers high-definition maps for most countries around the world and it is regularly updated to keep people up-to-date with the latest version of Android. It is very free to download and has a seven-day trial however if you desire to keep using it then you will need to either pay for premium features and traffic updates or simply pay for the features. Some of the features that you will find to be very useful include an offline navigation map, voice-activated GPS with route guidance, dynamic lane assistance, 3D mapping and imagery as well as the option to project your GPS navigation onto the windshield of your car.

CoPilot GPS

CoPilot GPS is an application that is meant just for drivers. It has all the features that you need as a driver. However, they are not for free. The fortunate thing is they have a 7-day trial period after which you will be required to pay for the premium services.

You also have the option of using offline mapping where you get turn-by-turn navigation for free but you will only get to view the 2D version of the map. Premium users get to access 3D mapping where in the full version of the app, you get to access sheer variety of customizable route as well as very impressive alert options.

The very thing that most people find appealing with the map is the breadth of full street-level maps. If you are traveling across countries then you will need to have a stand-alone map for each country. It can be expensive however it is cheaper compared to buying a stand-alone sat-nav unit.… Read the rest

Best Photo Editing Apps for Instagram

Posted on by Kaveh

Instagram is undoubtedly one of the most popular social media sites on the planet right now. By using this platform, you can easily share your favorite moments in life with the people who follow you. Moreover, it also allows you to reach out to your audience effortlessly. If you’re someone who posts a lot of stuff on Instagram, you’re probably going to love this list of the best photo editing apps for Instagram.

VSCO

When talking about photo editing apps for social media platforms like Instagram, VSCO is easily one of the best options. Over the years, it has become so popular that there are over 200 million posts on Instagram that feature the VSCO hashtag. This number has only been increasing since.

What makes this app special is the fact that you can choose from 10 free filters that can make your pictures look filmy and classy. You can also take advantage of the amazing photo editing tools that come with the app. These tools improve the way your photos look by allowing you to adjust the contrast, saturation, add textures through grains, and even crop your pictures. It basically has everything that you need.

Once you upgrade to the premium version, you can have access to over 200 different filters and editing tools. Hence if you’re looking for a special photo editing app for Instagram, this all-in-one app can be a great option.

Avatan Photo Editor

The next app on this list is the Avatan Photo Editor, which is another popular photo editing app for Instagram. It has all the basic features that you will need in a photo editing app, like special filters and effects. But what makes this app special is that you can save your own special effects and use them to enhance your photos whenever you want them. Additionally, you can also retouch your photos for any blemishes or imperfections that you want to remove.

Avatan Photo Editor offers most of the features in the basic version, which you can download for free from the app store. However, there are some additional features and advanced tools which you can use by making some in-app purchases.

Adobe Lightroom Photo Editor

Adobe is known for providing some of the most powerful tools that you can get for your devices. And the Lightroom Photo Editor just proves to show how good they are. The Adobe Lightroom Photo Editor is the app you want to go for if you are looking to professionally edit your photos. It comes with a ton of features where you can edit your pictures, including raw files using their amazing tools.

The amount of tools that you get in the app is enough to give your photos a professional touch. You can easily adjust the exposure, hue, shadows, saturation, and much more through this single app. You can also try out the preset filters available with the app. If you want to take your photo editing apps up a notch, you can also try the interactive tutorials, which will show you just how to edit your amazing photos.

Snapseed

Snapseed is an amazing photo editing app that has been around for a long time. This app is a go-to option for a lot of professional photographers, thanks to its abundant editing tools. What makes it so great is the fact that you can easily edit your JPG and RAW files for Instagram. Not only for IG, this editing app is commonly used on dating sites and free sex apps.

Besides the excellent filters, you will also find about 29 tools, which allow you to do some serious editing with your pictures. With these tools, you can even remove some of the elements from your photos, such as people. You can also use the curve option to adjust the brightness and enhance your pictures with great precision. All in all, if you’re looking for an app to edit pictures for Instagram, Snapseed is an excellent app that you should seriously consider.

A Color Story

Last but not least, we have A Color Story, which is one of the top photo editing apps for Instagram. This app is perfect for people who love colors and also want to add some colors to their photos. Using this app, you can add a pop to your colors, which is perfect for your Instagram feed. You will get several filters along with 20 free tools to edit your photos. If you want, you can upgrade your app for more advanced photo editing.

Conclusion

Hence these are the best photo editing apps for Instagram that you should definitely try out. While the apps are free, some of them require you to pay for premium tools. If you think they’re worth it, you should definitely give them a try.… Read the rest

My Favorite Photo Apps

Posted on by Kaveh

These days, the final photo or video is only as good as the editing app or software used to produce the final image. Following is a review to select My Favorite photo editing software-apps.

Android Photo Apps

Some Photo Editing Apps currently popular in 2020 for Android are:

  • Prisma: The strangest thing is, Prisma was not originally designed for photo editing. But it can help develop stunning customized images. It can access a wide range of stylish filters, graphic artworks and bright algorithms that can execute each editing job surprisingly well. It has more than 800 modern art filters, unbelievable photo effects and can turn photos into art. It can develop artistic images. But it is not a true editing platform and the finer tools of editing are missing. It is free or prepaid.
  • Pixlr: This app has over two million combinations of free effects, overlays and filters. It can stylize images to give looks that resemble an ink sketch, a poster and even a pencil drawing. It can not only stylize external images, but can make selfies beautiful. It comes with both free and paid versions. But it is difficult to learn and use for beginners, who will need training to use it.
  • Facetune: This app is particularly suited for Portrait and Selfie editing. It can be used for iPhone as well as Android, and is very popular over Instagram, Flickr and many more. It can replace Photoshop for Selfies, and do whatever Photoshop does on Portraits and Selfies. These include adding natural makeup, removing blemishes, re-shaping faces, blurring backgrounds, and adding textures. It can even brighten teeth. This is an advanced editing tool, but the subscription is quite expensive. It is not suitable for business applications. The basic package is free.
  • Aviary: Here is a very user-friendly photo editing app. Manual adjustments, such as, color temperatures, brightness, contrasts and saturation, are available on Touch Control (‘One Tap Auto Enhance’). It contains a lot of add-on cosmetic tools, stickers and advanced filters, for editing. Both free and paid versions are available, but the free version restricts customization.
  • Photomate R3: This is solely Android-compatible software that is coveted by Professional Photographers, but is very costly. JPEG images can be easily processed, along with raw data. Raw files like cr2, net, arw, rw2 can be decoded and edited. Clarity, Vibrancy, Lens-based adjustments are easily controlled, along with the standard Contrast, Exposure, Lights and Shadows.

iOS Photo Apps

The following Photo Editing Apps are especially suitable for iOS:

  • Photoshop Express: This is a wonderful app from the world famous Adobe Group, known for its classic interfaces and advanced editing tools. It can upload photos from Google Photos, Adobe CC, Dropbox, Facebook or suitable device. Color correction, Image Resize, Blemish removal, contrast, exposure and white balance can all be done by One Touch adjustments. Photos or collages created by this app are of studio caliber.
  • Adobe Lightroom: Photo Editing with this app is a pleasure, and it is equally comfortable on iOS and Android Platforms. Even more, it is available for free. It is an advanced Mobile Editing Tool that offers powerful advanced adjustments and corrections. It supports Photo sharing to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Instagram. It can save photos on Adobe Creative Cloud. But it is quite complicated for beginners.
  • PicsArt Photo Studio: This has awesome fonts, stickers and text, and can even edit videos. It can give professional eye-catching results, and can create ‘Animated GIFs’ to impress friends on social media. With a lot of pre-set filters, drawing tools, photo and video editors, it also has a collage maker that is almost professional in standard. It is free.
  • Enlight: This app gives control on geometric adjustments and localized image editing. It can blend effects seamlessly, and can create photo montages instantly.
  • VSCO: This is the best app for professional photographers, but is extremely costly and needs specialized training to use. Quick editing tools can create professional photos instantly.
  • FilterStorm Neue: Advanced settings are possible here for all editing tasks. Sharpening, watermarking, noise reduction and clarity effects come with this tool.

My #1 Favorite Photo App

Google Snapseed: This extraordinary software can be used equally on Android and iOS. Its versatility is legendary. It is powerful, yet easy to use. Its features include accurate control of Color, Exposure, Light, Focus, Depth of Field, and so on. Editing tools like Cropping, Rotating, and Straightening are just a touch away. Healing and Brushing are easy to achieve, as are Structure, Perspective and HDR. Media file formats are processed extremely fast. Though some beginners may find the interface a little awkward to start with, it is totally logical, and once mastered, almost intuitive to use. Finally, this software/app comes as completely FREE of any charge or cost. This MUST be My Favorite photo editing software-apps.… Read the rest

MOBILE CAMERAS COMPARED — Iphone Vs Samsung

Posted on by Kaveh

The Megapixel war has died down a little now, it has been raging ever-since the Camera became one of the biggest selling points on Smart Phones. Even now some big names Smart Phone Brands brag about their megapixel counts being upwards of 40. But how much do megapixels actually contribute towards making a good photograph or video? The current war between the Smart Phone giants Iphone and Samsung have thrown up some astonishing facts and figures about phone cameras. The comparison, Iphone 11 Camera vs Samsung S20 camera is the subject of this review.

Comparison

Mobile Phone cameras have reached peak value, none more so than the two Behemoths of Smart Phones. iPhone and Samsung. Following is a brief comparison of Iphone 11 Camera vs Samsung S20 camera:

  • Physical Hardware Features: Samsung’s Galaxy S20 Ultra has Rear Camera with multiple-lens setups. The main camera has a Wide-Angle with 108 Megapixels. Then there is a Telephoto Camera with 48 Megapixels. But Samsung also has a Depth-Vision portrait shot Camera. In comparison, the Apple’s Iphone 11 Pro Max has a 12 Megapixel Wide-Angle, Telephoto and an Ultra Wide-Angle Camera.
  • Standardize Tests for Camera: The 3 different lens of each camera was subjected to standard photo tests. Iphone came out better for their color balance and dynamic ranges. But actually, with top-of-the-range phone cameras like these, individual preference is the ruler. In dynamic lighting conditions the S20 Ultra is closer to the over-exposing of the highlights in atmospheric images, resulting in over-contrasting. But in less dynamic or contrast lighting the S20 Ultra was equal to or better than the 11 Pro Max. In the Ultra Wide-Angle camera particularly, the S20 Ultra produced a much sharper, crisper pictures, and the 11 Pro Max produced soft contrast images. That is probably because the 11 Pro Max’s sensor on the Ultra Wide-Angle lens is not better than the sensor it has on its simple Camera lens with a Wide-Angle.
  • Portrait Mode: The Depth Sensor on the S20 Ultra makes all the difference between the Portrait Mode images of the two competitors. It is much sharper, though the qualities of images in the dynamic range are about equal. S20 is far ahead in this category.
  • Space Zoom: The S20 Ultra has a fantastic 100X ‘Space Zoom’ feature, whereas 11 Pro Max offers only a Digital Zoom 10X. This is an area in which S20 wins hands-down. Its pictures, even at 30X Zoom are crisper and brighter than the 11 Pro Max at 10X Zoom.
  • 108 Megapixel Camera: This is an extraordinary feature of the S20 Ultra that has become one of the focal points of this marvelous camera. It has wonderful Depth of Field and creates terrific background bokeh. Pin-sharp resolution and extreme detail is offered here, though it is sometimes difficult to get it to work. This is a feature that 11 Pro Max does not have. One additional feature is that the alternative 12 Megapixel shots are also offered by the S20.
  • Single Take: S20 can produce very interesting Boomerang-style videos, Filtered Pictures, Music Backed videos, and so on, from a ‘Single Take’ feature that takes photos and videos from different angles and creates composite options. 11 Pro Max does not have this feature.
  • Video Comparison: Here too S20 appears to have won. It offers a major new 8K video feature, which is far advanced to the 4K video offered by 11 Pro Max. This looks great when it runs properly, but is often spoiled by poor image stabilization. With both pitted at 4K video, the two cameras are equally good at image stabilization.
  • Night Mode: Both are equally good, though with the S20, this mode has to be turned and is not turned on by default.
  • Front Facing Camera: The Iphone has a standard 12 Megapixel with an Aperture f/2.2. But the Samsung sports a 40 Megapixel Selfie Camera with the same Aperture f/2.2. The S20 also has a ‘Beauty Mode’, which the 11 Pro does not have, a valuable feature for those Tinder and OKCupid profile pictures.

In conclusion, as with high-end devices the final choice belongs to the User’s preference. So, what are you waiting for? Get your favorite one today.… Read the rest

History of Google Maps

Posted on by Kaveh

What is google maps and the features associated with it:

So let’s start with what is google maps and most of you know the answer to this that is, Google maps is a service of web mapping which is developed by Google. It’s been a while since everyone is using google maps but most of them know that you can just reach your destination but there’s more to it. The extent of features it provides is mostly unknown to many people out there. So first let’s see what are the different kind of features that is offered by Google maps and few of them are:

  • Helps in getting transportation directions that is Google maps provide us with the direction in which transportation method is available to any place as well as provides us with the details that come along with the methods. It can also give you information if you have to board a bus or any other transport.
  • Create your map, that means if you belong to some area which is obscure and is not well defined in the map, then don’t worry as you can create your own place showing your location or marking the location.
  • It provides the distance as well as the estimated time, that is after putting your location, you can see the google map provides you with the distance that is remaining for your destination to be reached and the estimated time period which also varies with the distance. So, this feature helps a lot in estimating the time period and also will help in planning your travels and helps to schedule the time accordingly.
  • It helps in mixing the information of maps: So to make this feature, function you need to have a little knowledge of the various types of technical know-how. You can add the information like celebrity sightings, or any special events or occasions, but for that, you need to add details to the maps and you need proper knowledge for that.
  • It helps in finding out your locations: While you are travelling and you are new to that place and have no idea what place it is, then hop into google maps that will show your location along with the nearby locations. This helps in knowing about the location as well as the destination.
  • It helps in setting routes, that is you can customize the routes that you prefer more and accordingly set it, thus it helps you in showing the exact same route to your destination.
  • It gives information about the traffic: Well, almost everyone loves to go for a free ride without the tension of traffics. Here Google maps help you to a great extent by showing you the traffic level in different places of the route. Thus, you can accordingly plan your trips with the required routes.
  • The Google maps provide you with verbal instructions: It provides voice instructions like where we have to turn left or right or the distance before you take turns and other actions. Thus, these voice instructions help a lot while travelling.

History of Google maps:

In February 2005 google map was launched. But before that let’s take a look at what happened before that. Where 2 technologies is a Sydney based company. It is the place where the starting of google maps technology took place by the setups of C++ desktop programs done by 2 Danish brothers Jens Eilstrup Rasmussen and Lars. The Where 2 mapping began with its name as ‘EXPEDITION’ as an application which needed to be downloaded and then installed just like different software. In the year 2004, October the ‘GOOGLE’ acquired the company, which was then converted into a web application. Then additional features were added such as visualization of geo-spatial data as well as the real time analysis of traffic. It was initially downloaded by the users separately, but later on the idea of the purely web-based application was dropped by the company and the objective was to change the method of distribution.
The Google map web application was launched in the year 2005 which got mentioned in a blog. This application or service utilizes XML, Ajax and JAVA script. Google map is an API that is an application programming interface that offers locator for many organizations and many businesses also in many of the countries around the world.

Then in 2007, the version of google map was released for the mobiles version 2.0. The 1st version had a beta feature that was ‘ My location’, which used the GPS or the assisted GPS location of the mobile device.

And now over the years after numerous improvements, google maps have become one of the most reliable navigation tools of literally everyone having the access to the internet.

Now that you are enlightened about one of the most brilliant tool mankind has ever had, just open that amazing app and explore your nearest places.… Read the rest