7 tips to shoot best photos

Use DSLR camera or a phone, but follow these 7 tips to shoot best photos

Want to shoot like a pro and capture images that have something extra in them? Well, use these 7 tricks that professional photographers use while clicking images. 

Less is more

Try to simplify your compositions. Normally capturing too many subjects in single frame messes up the image and hence area of main interest is lost. The best way to compose is to keep looking through the viewfinder. First observe all four corners and then look at the main subject area.  Beginners often ignore the whole frame and concentrate just on the centre of the composition.

Come out of Fools Mode

For me, Green Mode (or auto mode) is Fools Mode where a user loses control over his camera and shoots inconsistent pictures. Accuracy in this mode is unpredictable. One should master manual mode where you set 3 major parameters such as shutter speed, aperture and ISO yourself according to the change in light or situation. To start with, photo enthusiast can try using program, shutter priority and aperture priority where they can freeze partial settings and the rest is taken care by the camera.

Just wear your camera

Photography is all about capturing moments which can only be possible when you are ready with your camera. Beginners carry cameras and lenses packed in various covers inside their fancy camera bags. They miss magic moments while struggling with their cameras. I wear my camera like denims and wrist watch when I leave home.

Chase the light

Understanding light is very important. After all photography is all about writing with light, word photo is light and graphy is writing. Three important things to look for are direction of light, nature of light & colour temperature of light. Best time to capture image are 2 hours after sunrise and 2 hours before sunset. 

Candid is the call

While shooting street and travel pictures one should look for natural and spontaneous moments where subjects in the frame are unaware of your camera. Be quick to compose, grab and leave from the scene. Posing on streets looks too boring and artificial unless you are shooting portraits where eye contact is important or required.

Focus right

Even in digital era where cameras are sophisticated, people are shooting out-of-focus pictures with their autofocus cameras. Come out of default camera's wide focus area where camera itself selects where to focus and photographer loses control. Always select AF points where main subject is in the frame. For capturing people just select focus point on the eye, which is closer to the lens. Critical focus on the main subject or elements is very vital.

Be original

Be inspired but never try to copy somebody's work. Look for unique vantage points, you can't shoot all the pictures from your eye view point. Such as for shooting kids one needs to go down to their head level to capture their true emotions and expressions. Don't hesitate to try options in terms of different focal lengths. Also, experiment with diverse light.

COURTSY : Dheeraj Paul and INDIA TODAY

Facebook Trusted Contacts: What is it, how it helps and how to use it

Numbers, alphabets, special characters and likewise: there is so much mathematics you do while creating a new password. And talk about the number of passwords we have these days! A single person on an average has almost six to seven passwords like one for Facebook, one for Twitter, salary banking password, personal banking password and more. With so many passwords to remember, even people with the best memory can lose one or two when they don't use a password for a few weeks.

Solution? Different web services and apps offer different ways to help you in case you forget your password. Facebook, apart from offering a few regular ways (reset your password etc) also offers one more way: Trusted Contacts.

How to add Trusted contacts?

Log in to your Facebook account and go to Settings. Now select Security and login and you will see a recommendation from Facebook to choose your Trusted contacts.

"Your trusted contacts are friends who you chose who can securely help if you ever have trouble accessing your account," the description reads.

You can nominate 3 to 5 friends by clicking on Edit option. Facebook says that these contacts will now help you login in case you are locked out of the account. The list can be changed anytime you want.

There are few important things you need to keep in mind while selecting your trusted contacts. When the need arises, Facebook will send codes to these contacts which you will need to log in to your account so choose contacts who you can call upon anytime. He/she you choose needs to log in to the account to get the code so make sure that person is in town most of the time.

How it works when you are locked out of Facebook?

At the time of need, go to 'Forgotten your password?' link that appears on the main login page. Facebook will show you ways like email your password, text a code to reset password but you need to select  'No longer have access to these' option in case you wish to use your Trusted contacts. You will now need to provide another email address or contact number that Facebook can use to send you the recovery details. Also, you need to enter the full name of contact to reveal your Trusted Contacts List. Now call up your trusted contacts and ask them to visit https://www.facebook.com/recover where they will receive a PIN.

Your contacts will see a message asking them to help you login into your account. Your friends will be asked to make sure that they know you and you have exchanged words over the same. Once done, they will receive a code that needs to be communicated to you. When you receive codes from all you trusted contacts, enter them in the boxes you see below and click continue. If all the codes given by you are correct, Facebook will give you a chance to reset your new password and access your account.

Why it's tricky to use Facebook's Trusted Contacts?

Though Facebook's Trusted Contacts sounds interesting it makes no sense. It's like complicating a simple thing. I would prefer the email or phone text over Trusted Contacts. Reason? First I do not want to bother my friends, family or relative (contacts) for my bad memory.

Secondly what if one of my contacts is not in town. I obviously can't ask him/her to stay in town always since I've chosen him/her as my Trusted contact.

Life is uncertain. What if one of my Trusted Contact dies? Though Facebook says that you will need to report the issue to the site and select a new contact but the whole process looks a little cumbersome to me.

Download Math Tricks Education App

Math Tricks

This program is designed for those who want to learn interesting mathematical tricks to speed up the calculating. These tricks will help solve part of the mathematical problems and tasks much faster than classical. Will also be helpful to those who want to hone basics such as the multiplication table. 

When you learn these mathematical tricks, you'll be able to show off your skills to friends and prove to them that you have a talent for mathematics. New skills you can use in the store, at school, at college, at work - wherever thanks to quick calculation skills can save a lot of precious time.

Fun Math Tricks:

1. Addition
2. Subtraction
3. Multiplication table
4. Division
5. Multiply two digit number by 11
6. Square numbers ending in 5
7. Multiply by 5
8. Multiply by 9
9. Multiply by 4
10. Dividing by 5
11. Subtracting from 1000 
12. Tough multiplication 
13. Power of two
14. Adding numbers close to hundreds
15. Subtracting numbers close to hundreds
16. Multiply numbers between 11 and 19
17. Square numbers between 11 and 99
18. Multiply two digit numbers having same tens digit and ones digits add up to ten
19. Square numbers between 50 and 59
20. Square numbers between 40 and 49
21. Multiply two digit numbers editing in 1
22. Percent
23. Square numbers between 100 and 109
...
84. n^9

Training mode: 

- 15 levels for every trick
- timer 15 seconds
Rating stars:
- score > 000 - ★☆☆
- score > 350 - ★★☆ 
- score > 650 - ★★★

This free version of Math Tricks contains third party advertisements.

The app uses the following APIs and libraries:
* MPAndroidChart - created by Philipp Jahoda
* ColorPIcker - created by Piotr Adamus

Download Hotstar Mobile New

Hotstar Mobile

LIVE sports & stream LIVE Republic TV News Channel on your Android device for free. Hotstar is a live streaming app that lets you watch your favorite shows, movies, sports & live republic TV news on-the-go. Watch full episodes of your favorite shows; Hindi, English, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Telugu and Bengali movies in addition to live cricket, republic tv, other sports. Hotstar gives live scores and the latest updates, free streaming of videos and video highlights.
Hotstar. From Live cricket to EPL live streaming, Badminton, Hockey, Kabaddi, F1 Live stream, Premier league live

Download Free Fast Trash Cleaner

Fast Trash Cleaner

Fast Trash Cleaner Highlights Features:

◆ memory RAM upgrade
Fast Trash Cleaner This free Android memory RAM booster will clean up unnecessary background apps to clear up more available memory and make your phone run faster. Accelerate shortcuts, generate cleanup shortcuts directly on the desktop, and quickly speed up your phone
◆ mobile phone acceleration
Smart to clean up the strategy to maximize the release of memory. Improve the speed of mobile phones, effectively extend the battery life
◆ junk files and cache cleanup
Caching and junk file cleaners are smart and accurate to analyze thousands of applications and junk files. Never help you clean up a variety of stubborn garbage on the phone, the rapid release of storage space for mobile phones, to ensure the rapid operation of mobile phones.
◆ mobile phone cooling
Detect and clean up apps that cause the phone to overheat. Promote and clean up your temperature by using your phone to quickly reduce your phone's temperature
◆ Application management
Easy-to-use batch removal useless applications, free up more storage space, support no root deactivation Preset software
◆ Repeat photo eraser
Scan all the similar images to find the best one to automatically delete duplicate photos to free up more storage

Too many WhatsApp images, videos making your phone slow and full? Here is a fix

Too many WhatsApp images, videos making your phone slow and full? Here is a fix

WhatsApp has over 1 billion daily active users today. The increasing popularity of the chat app has made it synonymous to the messaging. SMS sounds old and obsolete now. These days SMS box is opened only to view OTPs, telecom's promotional messages and your bank transaction det
ails. WhatsApp has become an indispensible part of our lives. The app has made it fast and easier to stay connected with our friends.

However, it can be little annoying at times when the chat app automatically download all those stupid memes, audio files, videos and photos. This not just makes the phone's gallery look like a complete mess, it also eats up you mobile data. Here is a fix to this to this problem.

For Android phones:

If you are an Android user, open your WhatsApp, go to Settings>Data and storage usage>Media auto download. Now uncheck all the three boxes under the Media auto download- when using mobile data, when connected on Wifi and when roaming.

For iPhones:

iPhone users can also de-clutter their phone from annoying audio file, videos and photos.  Open WhatsApp>Settings>Data and storage usage.

Now check the Never box for photos, videos, audio and documents.

Low data usage for WhatsApp calls

WhatsApp also has an option to lower the amount of data it uses during WhatsApp voice calls. Open WhatsApp>Settings>Data and storage usage> Low data usage.

Few quick points to  save mobile data and phone storage when using the WhatsApp:

-- Stop auto-download of heavy files. Videos are entertaining but hog a lot of space on your phone. You can always set the auto-download for such videos when on WiFi.

-- Allow chat back up but only on WiFi. WhatsApp stores all your text chats and images. While this is an important feature as it allows you to retrieve your photos later from Cloud, backing up on mobile data can eat up your mobile data. So try doing it only on WiFi.

-- WhatsApp has an option where you can view your contacts and how much space each is taking. Go to WhatsApp> Storage and data usage>Storage usage.

Now you will see all your recent chats along with the space each is consuming on your phone. Select the chat>Manage messages>Clear messages.

Aanavandi (Travell App in Kerala)

"AANAVANDI" (nickname for Kerala State RTC buses) is an APP that allows users to search for details of Kerala State RTC buses. This is purely an unofficial amateur free App meant for the convenience of public/users who want to travel in Kerala State RTC Buses
Users can search for the following details of Kerala RTC Bus Services 
• Service Available 
• Type/Class of Services
• Boarding & Dropping points
• Fare
• Helpline Numbers


Note:-
• Users may kindly confirm & reserve their journey at the Kerala State RTC Portal. 
• Data displayed on the App is Courtesy of Kerala State RTC. 
• This App is exclusively informational purposes only. 

By : Vaisakh ML for Team Aanavandi

How to delete your WhatsApp account permanently

WhatsApp today is like a lifeline to its users. With over 1 billion users, the chat app has become the first choice for almost everyone for exchanging texts, videos or audio clips.

WhatsApp makes you feel connected all the time and with the voice calling feature in it, now it has become easier to reach out to anyone at anytime. However, everything comes at a cost. The easy access to the chat app, and its wide prevalence, has made it a little annoying too. Along with the free and uninvited calls, the continuous incoming messages and those annoying family groups can get on your nerves sometimes. And not to forget: WhatsApp is one of the best ways used by your family members to keep an eye on you.

Deleting WhatsApp could be a little extreme, but then may be the extreme is what the doctor orders. In case, for some reason, you decide to purge WhatsApp from your life, here is what you should do.

Uninstalling the app doesn't help. It only deletes the WhatsApp icon from your phone. All your messages will still come to WhatsApp servers and once you reinstall the app, they will be there. Also you'll still be a part of all those family groups and chats.

But there is a way to delete, completely delete, WhatsApp and here is how you should go about it.

1. Go to settings.

2. Tap on Account.

3. Next click on Delete my account.

4. You'll be asked to enter your phone number on which the WhatsApp is registered. Enter the number and tap on delete my account shown across the red background.

5. It'll ask you to enter your region and the reason for quitting. This is optional.  Tap on delete my account and done. Your WhatsApp account is deleted now.

Now to access again, you will have to create a new WhatsApp account.

How to link Aadhaar with PAN card using online site, SMS before June 30 deadline ends

How to link Aadhaar with PAN card using online site, 

SMS before June 30 deadline ends

The Government of India has made it mandatory to link the12 digit UID number with your PAN card. The Supreme Court passed a judgement on June 9, 2017 stating that all Aadhaar card must be linked to PAN before June 30, if you have an Aadhaar card. If you don't have one, you can rest easy. The PAN cards will become invalid if you don't link your Aadhaar card with it.

This means that there are only two days left for linking process. The government has made Aadhaar a must for filing income tax returns and by linking it with PAN, it aims to keep a check on tax evasion through use of multiple use of PAN cards. However, people who do not fall under the tax limit are also required to link their cards to ensure that they do not lose their PAN cards. Those card that are not liked to UID after June 30 will be made invalid. There are two ways to link your Aadhaar with PAN card. The linking can be done either by an SMS or through the Income Tax department's e-filing website www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in.

The only exception to this rule right now are people who do not have the Aadhaar number. The Supreme Court, which heard a challenge to the government rule, had earlier said that people who do not have Aadhaar card don't have to get one just to link it with PAN card. For such people, their Aadhaar will not be invalidated. However, for people who already have the Aadhaar card it is mandatory to link it with PAN. Or else, their PAN card will be deemed invalid and they will not be able to use. 

Update: Although the government had earlier claimed that not linking Aadhaar number with a PAN card will make the PAN card invalid, now there is a report that it is not so. Not linking Aadhaar will not lead to invalidation of the PAN card, say reports. However, do not that even if you don't link Aadhaar and PAN together, quoting Aadhaar number is mandatory for you to file tax returns from July 1. If you don't want to quote Aadhaar number, file your returns today that is June 30.  

So if you have a Aadhaar number and a PAN card, here is how you can link them together.  

SMS: To link your Aadhaar with PAN card through SMS, type UIDPAN<SPACE><12 digit Aadhaar><Space><10 digit PAN> and send it to 567678 or 56161.

Income Tax website: Visit the link www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in and enter your PAN card number, Aadhaar Number, your name on Aadhaar followed by a captcha code. Click on the Link Aadhaar button at the below and your cards are linked.

Download KineMaster – Pro Video Editor

KineMaster – Pro Video Editor

KineMaster is the only full-featured professional video editor for Android, supporting multiple layers of video, images, and text, as well as precise cutting and trimming, multi-track audio, precise volume envelope control, color LUT filters, 3D transitions, and much more.

For professionals and amateurs alike, KineMaster offers an unprecedented level of control over the mobile editing process, and for artists and educators, handwriting layers allow you to draw directly on the video (also handy for storyboarding!). Our users include mobile journalists, YouTube creators, short film producers, educators and other professionals from various industries around the world.

Join the mobile editing revolution with KineMaster!.

Features

• Multiple layers of video, images, effects, overlays, stickers, text, and handwriting
• Download more effects, royalty free music, overlays, stickers and more from the KineMaster Asset Store.
• Precise frame-by-frame trimming
• Instant preview for all edits
• Hue, brightness and saturation controls
• Audio filters, including voice changer
• Blur, mosaic and other effects
• Lots of animation styles
• Speed control for video clips
• Volume envelope (Precise volume control from moment to moment within a clip)
• Transition effects (3D transitions, wipes, fades, and more)
• A variety of themes, animations and visual and audio effects
• Share on YouTube, Facebook, Google+, Dropbox and more
• Real-time video and audio recording

Permissions
KineMaster requires access to your phone’s camera and microphone if you want to record videos or sound directly in the app. KineMaster also requires access to your phone’s storage in order to save projects you are working on (projects are saved externally in a folder called “KineMaster” so don’t lose all your work if you reinstall the app or clear the app data).

Supported OS and Devices
• KineMaster can be used on most devices running Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean MR2) and above, but you will have the best editing experience using a device with powerful video decoding capabilities on the SoC. See here for more details: https://goo.gl/0jNXBy

Supported Formats
Video formats: 
• MP4 (H.264 Baseline/Main/High Profile + AAC LC / PCM)
• 3GP (H.264 Baseline/Main/High Profile + AAC LC / PCM)
• MOV (H.264 Baseline/Main/High Profile + AAC LC / PCM) 


Audio formats:
• MP3
• M4A
• AAC
• WAV

Image formats:
• JPEG
• PNG
• WebP
• BMP
• GIF(still image only)

Export Video Format: 
• MP4 with H.264 + AAC LC (The H.264 profile depends on the device)

How to improve battery life on iPhones running iOS 11

How to improve battery life on iPhones running iOS 11

SHOBHIT VARMA

LAST UPDATED: SEP 29, 2017

NEW DELHI

OS 11 is finally out and it brings with it a ton of new user-centric features , under the hood improvements, back-end changes and refinements. iOS 11 is much more than just a small iterative update - In our official 

Even though iOS 11 is the biggest update to Apple's mobile operating system in years, installing it bring with its own share of caveats - the biggest among them being reduced battery life. In the iPad, it does not matter that much as the tablet is powered by a massive battery. However some iPhone users are seeing quite a drastic reduction in their overall battery life after installing iOS 11.

Here are the top 10 tips to reclaim your iPhone's battery life: (Note: Most of these battery saving tips will also work for iPhones running on iOS 10 and before)

1. The first and most pertinent thing to do is to remove any rogue applications that might be wolfing down your iPhone's battery. Head over to Settings > Battery and you will see a neat list of apps that have used the most power in the last 24 hours and the last 2 days. See if there are any warning signs - if any app has been using way too much power than required. You can either limit the use of those power hungry applications or simply uninstall them and get rid of those pesky fellas.
2. Another extremely important thing to do which has a profound impact on an iPhone's battery life is preventing the amount of apps running in the background. Background App Refresh is a feature found in iOS that automatically updates apps that you use most often in the background. While this sounds just marvelous and wonderful, it's actually an incredible drain on your battery. Head on over to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and either disable the feature entirely (this is what I do when I use an iPhone) or disable it for the apps you use less frequently.
3. iOS has many, many animations all over the place that looks very cool but are quite a drain on the battery. It also has a parallax effect which causes the wallpaper to move as you tilt the iPhone (again - a battery hog). Do your battery and the overall speed of the UI a favour by heading over to Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion and turning on the feature.
4. This may sound simple but do not forget to turn Wi-Fi, Cellular, Bluetooth and Location off after you are done using them - especially Location as GPS can be a huge drain on the iPhone's battery. Also while you are at it, head over to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services and turn off Location for services such as Diagnostics and Usage. Location-Based iAds, Popular Near Me and Settings Time Zone which are not required by most iPhone users. Do not worry, Location for these services can be safely turned off. Also ensure Personal Hotspot is off when you do not need it - that is a big battery killer.
5. By default, your iPhone is configured to fetch mail via Push - which means you will receive a new mail as soon as it comes in. If you want to save battery life, you can configure your secondary or even your main e-mail account to fetch mail every hour or so. If you really want to go crazy in terms of battery conservation, you can even change the mail fetch settings to manual. Head on over to Settings > Mail > Accounts > Fetch New Data and then select your preference. I recommend selecting every 30 minutes as that strikes the perfect balance between convenience and battery saving.
6. The display sucks a lot of battery. Here are a few battery saving tips related to the same. Firstly, reduce the screen brightness - the brighter the screen, the more energy it consumes. Dim the screen by heading over to Display & Brightness and moving the brightness slider as needed. Turning on Auto Brightness is recommended as then your iPhone will automatically tune the brightness in relation to the surroundings.
7. Head on over to Mobile Data, scroll down to the bottom of the settings page and turn off a feature called Wi-Fi Assist. This basically switches over to Mobile Data whenever Wi-Fi connectivity is poor automatically. This not only hampers battery life but sometimes becomes very inconvenient as there are places in your home where Wi-Fi signal is poor but you want to remain connected to Wi-Fi.
8. If you already have an Apple Watch or a fitness tracker from the likes of Fitbit or Garmin or you do not really care about fitness tracking in the first place, you can turn off your iPhone's fitness/motion tracking feature and save yourself some battery life. In order to do so, head over to Settings > Privacy > Motion & Fitness and turn the feature off.
9. Clubbing a bunch of tips in one point. Firstly, use your iPhone's Low Power mode when your battery starts to run low or go crazy and keep it enabled all the time. To do so, head on to Settings > Battery and then move the Low Power Mode slider to the on position. Secondly, do not automatically upload photos to iCloud - only upload those photos to the cloud which you actually want to. To turn off auto upload, tap Settings > Photos & Camera > My Photo Stream and move the slider to the off position. Lastly, turn off auto app updates. Head over to Settings > iTunes & App Store and turn off automatic downloads for updates.
10. If you have an iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus or an iPhone 5s - basically older generation iPhones running on the Apple A8 and A7 chip - do not update to iOS 11, at least until the iOS 11.1 update comes out which fixes most of the bugs and battery drain issues. For iPhone 5s users my recommendation is not to install the iOS 11 update at all. If the battery problems does not hit you, your iPhone will definitely slow down quite a bit after the update.