Another cliche post on a very common topic! Yes, this is clickbait, but if you really are looking for some productive apps to make 2024 more productive, you landed on the right page.

As the new year is around the corner, you might be looking to give your new year a productive start, I would say this post will be very useful. In today's fast-paced digital world, staying productive is a constant challenge. The good news is that technology offers a plethora of tools to help us manage our tasks and time more efficiently. Here are the 5 must-have productivity apps that can supercharge your workflow and make your day more organized and productive.

Todoist

Todoist is a powerful task management app that helps you organize your to-do list and stay on top of your priorities. With its intuitive interface, you can create projects, set due dates, and categorize tasks. The app's collaborative features make it easy to share tasks with team members or family, ensuring everyone stays on the same page. Todoist also syncs across all your devices, so you can manage your tasks from your computer, smartphone, or tablet seamlessly.

Evernote

Evernote is a versatile note-taking app that goes beyond simple text notes. It allows you to capture ideas, images, web articles, and even handwritten notes. With its robust organizational features, you can create notebooks, tag notes, and search for information quickly. Evernote's powerful search functionality makes it easy to find the notes you need, making it an invaluable tool for keeping your thoughts and information organized.

Toggl

Time management is a crucial aspect of productivity, and Toggl is a fantastic app for tracking your time effectively. Whether you're a freelancer, or consultant, or simply want to understand where your time goes, Toggl lets you track your work hours with ease. You can create projects, log time entries, and generate detailed reports. Toggl's simple interface and seamless integration with other apps make it a go-to tool for individuals and teams looking to optimize their time usage.

Forest

In an age where digital distractions abound, staying focused can be challenging. Forest is a unique productivity app that helps you overcome the temptation of checking your phone every few minutes. The app encourages you to stay focused by planting a virtual tree for a set amount of time. If you resist the urge to use your phone during that time, the tree grows. However, if you give in to distractions, the tree withers away. It's a fun and effective way to build discipline and enhance your concentration.

Slack

Communication is key in any productive environment, and Slack is a leading messaging app designed for teams. With its channels, direct messages, and file-sharing capabilities, Slack streamlines communication and collaboration. It reduces the clutter of email threads and keeps all your team's communication in one place. Integration with other productivity apps, such as Google Drive and Trello, makes Slack a central hub for all your work-related discussions and updates.

Incorporating these five must-have productivity apps into your daily routine can make a significant difference in how you manage your time and tasks. From organizing your to-do list to tracking your work hours and staying focused, these apps offer a range of features to suit different productivity needs. Try incorporating them into your workflow and watch as your efficiency and overall productivity soar to new heights.

 

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Baghchal, also known as Bagha Chal, is a traditional board game that has been played in Nepal for centuries. The game is popular among both adults and children, and is enjoyed throughout the country. Mobile version of Baghchal is also available on Android and iOS.

Baghchal is a two-player game that is played on a 5×5 board. One player takes on the role of the tiger, while the other player takes on the role of the goats. The objective of the game is for the tiger to capture all of the goats, while the goats must try to surround the tiger so that it cannot move. The game is divided into two phases. In the first phase, the goats are placed on the board, while the tiger waits to make its move. The goats are placed on the board in turns, with the goat player placing one goat at a time. The tiger player must wait until all of the goats are placed before making its first move.

In the second phase of the game, the tiger takes its turn to move. The tiger can move one space at a time, either horizontally or vertically, and can capture a goat by jumping over it. The goats, on the other hand, can only move one space at a time, and cannot capture the tiger.

The game ends when either the tiger captures all of the goats, or the goats surround the tiger so that it cannot move. If the goats manage to surround the tiger, they win the game. If the tiger captures all of the goats, the tiger wins.

Baghchal is a game that requires strategic thinking and planning. The goat player must try to position their goats in a way that will make it difficult for the tiger to capture them, while the tiger player must try to outmaneuver the goats and capture as many as possible.

The game is not only a fun pastime, but also has cultural significance in Nepal. Baghchal is believed to have originated in ancient India, and was brought to Nepal by the Malla dynasty in the 14th century. It is often played during festivals and other cultural events in Nepal, and is a source of national pride.

In conclusion, Baghchal is a simple but challenging board game that is enjoyed by people of all ages in Nepal. Its cultural significance and strategic gameplay have made it a beloved pastime for generations. If you’re looking for a new and exciting board game to try, give Baghchal a chance and see if you can outsmart your opponent and emerge victorious!

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Android is one of the top mobile operating systems. With over 1.5 million android apps, android devices are so popular that we have apps for almost everything. 

Don’t you think it would be a great to have android apps running on your computer? 

Yes, you are right. We can run android apps on computers. There are various ways of running android apps on computer but Android Runtime for Chrome allows you to run android apps on computers on Chrome .

Android Runtime for Chrome, also called ARC, allows you to run Android apps inside chrome. ARC has been a major development in the process of bringing android apps to Chrome OS. You can use Arc with Chrome on Windows, OS X  or Linux.

Installing ARC Welder

You can download ARC Welder app for Google Chrome from Chrome WebStore. 

After you download ARC Welder app it will appear on your Chrome App Launcher.

Click on it and add APK file. I used Loadshedding+ apk file. We can not download apk files directly to computer form play store but we can get apk files from various sources. For example, you can use websites like downloader-apk.com for downloading apk files. 

Once you have downloaded added the file you can select Orientation and form factor. Then click Test.

The App opens and you can enjoy your favorite android apps on Chrome. Then the app is also pinned on Chrome app launcher so that you can launch the app clicking the app icon later.

Now download your favorite app and run on Chrome browser. 

At WWDC today, Apple announced new update to Siri, described as Proactive Assistant. It will be launched with iOS9. The proactive assistant is a personalized assistant app that will enhance the mobile experience through voice commands.

Proactive will be able to infer the commands based on your personal information on your device such as emails, calendar events, or your Passbook information. Proactive assistant seems to serve the same purpose as Google Now does but with focus on privacy. It will be anonymous, and the search will not be associated with Apple ID, hence maintaining the privacy.

Apple’s iWatch may not be the most overestimated gadget of all time but it is one of the most awaited product of the year. This product will be available in market in the early 2015.  Apple Watch comes in two sizes i.e. 38mm and 42 mm. The watch will be available with six interchangeable bands and comes in stainless steel, aluminum or 18 K gold. The estimated price of Apple watch is $349. All the watches have flexible, Retina quality touch screen displays, a digital crown, infrared LED’s and photo diodes which takes your pulse. Apple calls it a comprehensive health and fitness device. The watch runs on brand new S1 processor which is equipped with gyro-accelerometer. Users can navigate by tapping and swiping the face as well as through the crown which is on the right side of the watch that will bring the apps.  Apple Watch can also be used as a digital key to open smart lock on the front door of home. The Apps of the watch also allows users to access many other home- automation features such as thermostats  by using wireless connection. The watch will work with iPhone 5, 5c, 5s and iPhone 6. Like iPhone 6, Apple Watch also has NFC.

After a long wait and customer demands, Apple has finally given the people what they want. In fact, users can now have a choice to select from 4.7 inches iPhone 6 and 5.5 inches iPhone 6 plus. Iphone 6 features an aluminum body and glass front that curves around the sides. The base model is iPhone 6 that comes with 4.7 inches screen. The screen has over 1 million pixels while another model iPhone 6 plus has 2 million pixels. The new smartphones will be available from September 19th, and preorders start from September 12th.  With two year contracts the iPhone 6 will cost $199 for 16 GB of internal memory, $299 for 64 GB phone and $399 for 128 GB model. While the price of iPhone 6 plus is $299 for 16 GB, $399 for 64 GB and $499 for 128 GB with two years of contract. In the press conference, Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple introduced company’s new mobile payment tool known as Apple Pay.  This new tool aims to let users make purchases from their iPhone and Apple Watch.  Apple Pay uses short distance wireless technology known as field communication. This technology will enable users to make purchases. In the press conference, the CEO of company also introduced Apple Watch. According to the CEO, this is a next chapter in company’s history. 

A researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute of Germany has created detection application which is world’s first real time emotion app for Google Glass. The application can correctly detect age and gender. All of the analysis is carried on board without being the use of cloud. The raw data also does not leave the device.  This real time emotion detection can be of great use for the persons with disorders such as autism who often find difficulty in interpreting facial expressions. This could also be helpful for other people who struggle a lot to determine their partner’s true emotions when they said that ‘they are fine’. This Google Glass application is being based on SHORE i.e. Sophisticated High Speed Object Recognition Engine system. SHORE started off as an object detection computer vision system but from last many years it has developed into face detection and fine analysis system. The application can pick out person’s face with 91.5 % success rate and let you know the gender of the person 94.3% time.  It can also provide the age of the person.  Earlier SHORE was essentially a highly optimized C++ library that has been developed on various computer systems from PC’s to tablets. But now IIS has used all facial analysis goodness onto Google’s Glass rather than the hardware. This application is a taste of the future of wearable’s computers.

According to the reports, Apple could unveil their own payment system and an NFC equipped iPhone 6 at the launch event on 9th September. There are always speculations from past few years that Apple might launch their own form of mobile payments that allows the users to pay for the services and goods with the help of iPhone. The company first takes some steps in 2012 when they launched Passbook app. But after that company does not expand it further into true mobile payments systems.  Paying for services from your smartphone technology exists where users can tap their NFC enabled Samsung Galaxy S5 at point of sales terminals which is being found in many Walgreen drug stores. Apple’s entry will just provide a boost which is required in the market. Hall in an investor’s note on Friday said that there are high chances that the Company might announce a mobile payment capability along with the release of much awaited smart phone iPhone 6. He sees many possibilities but this one is the most likely that they expect Apple to start from small things by enabling iOS device users to carry virtual representation of selected credit cards on their devices like in Passbook. In return they expect Apple to charge a small transaction fee every time a virtual card is used. But Apple Company has declined the comment on Hall’s note.

Samsung has its own version of app store known as Galaxy Apps which is being designed to service its large line up of products. Prior to July, Galaxy Apps was known as Samsung Apps, this change was made as an acknowledgement that the store was not known to many users.
John Pleasants, head of the Samsung Media Solution Center America or usually known as MSCA the unit which is responsible for the app store wants to make a change. He further added that the app store needs to be  more world class and company needs to work more at how to attract new developers.  One of the main focuses of John is to improve Galaxy Apps. He is not comparing Samsung App store with the Google Play, which is having 1 million apps and is widely accepted. Instead, he said that Galaxy Apps will be more selective and focused on apps that will take advantage of Samsung’s unique products such as S Pen Stylus on Galaxy Note. John also acknowledged that the Galaxy Apps has not been successful till now. The app store is not an easy thing to work there are lot of improvements which are needed in different software development kits, various programming interfaces and other general development support. Some of the Samsung devices like Samsung S3 come preloaded with Samsung Apps. 

Blackberry has sent invitations to media for launch event on 24th September where the company will be launching their new smartphone Passport. Apple on the other hand is also going for a same type of event where the company will be launching their new Apple iPhone 6. But blackberry has also lined up an event not only in one city but in three cities simultaneously. The company titled the invitation as “See the big picture” teases the smartphone Passport’s oddly large design. This new smartphone has 4.5 inch LCD display with 1440x1440 pixel resolution and gorilla glass 3 protection. The phone will run on 2.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad core processor with 3GB of RAM. The smartphone also have 32 GB of internal storage which can be further extended. The device features 13 megapixel rear camera and 2 megapixel front camera.
The company is also expecting to launch a new software Blackberry blend, that looks to narrow the gap between Blackberry phones and other devices on the same event. The feature of the new software will allow the users to access the files and contents on their blackberry smartphone that supports BBM, calendar, SMS, files and more. The new smartphone Passport is likely to come with this software.

Facebook announced that, they are launching a new competition across whole Europe in order to find most promising new developers in mobile apps. The name of the competition will be known as “The Big App”. This competition will be run in collaboration with crowdsourcing platform Seeders and business consultancy Worth Capital. The competition will take place in London in next 11 weeks, concluding with a dragon style pitch for last 10 finalists on 17th of November at Facebook’s Headquarters in London.

The main role of Facebook is to judge the new developers on basis of their expertise in mobile technology to identify next generation of groundbreaking apps. Mark Zuckerberg’s the chairman of Facebook further confirmed  that the company will be soon introducing an online advertising campaign in Europe  to make people aware  and encourage applications from large number of  app developers. The competition is open for all type of programmers from every area including ecommerce to fintech and gaming.  The winner and the first two runner- ups will receive amount £350,000 in exchange for portion of their business. Facebook Spokesperson did not comment on the question whether, Facebook will give a job opportunity to winners or the runner-ups. Facebook will choose the winners and runner ups according to success and creativity of the app which they will create.

Asus the Taiwanese company might launch their first smart watch known as Zen Watch for just $199. If rumors are to believed then Zen Watch can give a great competition to the LG G Watch and other more expensive wearable.  Apart from the price of the watch, the company also declared that the watch will be available by October of this year.  But that time the watch might be released only in US and few other markets. 

The Zen Watch might include few more voice controls on the top that comes preprogrammed into Android Wear. According to the reports, the watch can also functions in some capacity even without pairing with a smartphone.  Till now the details of the watch are still unclear, even the Asus Company has now released a video giving viewers a detailed look at the watch.  The video reveals that the watch has a rectangular face with the round edges and a pretty flashy clasp. As we know ASUS brand, the watch will be an affordable android wear smart option with much power that it can deliver users a solid experience.  According to the rumors only few days are left, the company will release the Zen Watch ahead of IFA activities 2014 by this Wednesday.

Google play which currently has 1.5 million apps has came up with a new update. The news was confirmed in Google's latest blog. The new update will led to the introduction of indexing of apps, wearable services, dynamic security provider and much more. The update will enhance your gaming, movie, video experience. The update will give user new wearable’s sets and also increases persistent data storage. It will also update the security features in the apps and also helps an individual to customize certain things in app like game level change. 

The latest update is developer series API which will increase customer experience in every aspect. It will also help user in syncing data more efficiently and also data storage has been increased from previous versions. It came with a concept of "Quest" API which will give user the opportunity to set their own challenges in various places. The app also includes streamline of operations which will lead to uninterrupted services. The new update will be 5.0 which was unveiled recently in Google IO held in San Francisco. Google play has increased its customer base by many folds and latest addition and update to this will add many more in the coming years to come with more satisfactory results.

With the increase usage of apps all over the world, many software and networking giants wants to cash in this opportunity. With Apple having its products like iPhone and iPad, where apps play a major role in its failure or success, it Is very important to keep updated with market as well as revolutionary products as Apple is famous for. 

With this kind of pressure from the market, Apple has decided to partner with software giant IBM to keep things way beyond, as they are known for. Apple will have a partnership in making future apps for their products with software giant. IBM will also assist Apple in providing securities to their devices. Tim Cook told in a press conference that they need to know the requirements for corporate and also for other valuable customers, so they came up with a partnership with big software companies, who are providing these kind of services to other companies and also well known in the market for the same. So both the companies will come together to serve their business and customers better and also we can hope for something really revolutionary coming our way in the near future. Technology is brining rivals together for good cause.

Google has named the next android version as Nestle's chocolate brand KitKat. While the codename was predicted as Key Lime Pie with version name 5.5, this announcement came as a surprise to most of us.

Google, so far, has released all the versions after the names of desserts;  Cupcake(1.5), Doughnut (2.0), Eclair(2.1), Froyo(2.2), Gingerbread(2.3), Honeycomb(3.0), Ice Cream Sandwich(4.0), Jelly Bean(4.1-4.3).
This is the first time that the most popular mobile OS has been named after a brand.

A couple of devices with Nexus and LG logo was seen on the video of KitKat 4.4 unveiling event,  which suggests this Android release might come the next  nexus device. But the quick removal of that video from Youtube also ads some more sensation to the KitKat excitement.
Finger Crossed !!